If ComicBookMovie is correct, it appears that Jeremy Renner did not learn the lessons of Terrence Howard and Edward Norton and will now pay the price for it.

The website is quoting “Hollywood sources” in saying that the actor who played Clint Barton/Hawkeye in both Thor and The Avengers is being dropped by Marvel Studios, mainly due to negative comments he made about his role in the latter film.

Renner was candid in his feelings about the way his character was portrayed on screen in an interview with Total Film magazine:

“For 90 percent of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. It’s kind of a vacancy. [He's] not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses … I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No.”

To be fair to Renner, he does have a point. On the other hand, Hawkeye pretty much serves the same purpose as Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow character, and since Johansson joined the Marvel family first, she gets to play the hero and they had to find something else for Renner to do. That being said, even in the 10% of the film where he WAS the character he signed on to play, he really didn’t make that much of an impression. His quiver had more personality than his Hawkeye did.

But regardless, Marvel has made a point not keeping any actor who is unhappy or unable to work the Marvel way. Terrence Howard was rumored to be difficult to work with during Iron Man. so his role as James Rhodes was minimized in the sequel and he was asked to take a substantial pay cut. He balked and was allowed to walk and Don Cheadle (who was rumored to be Marvel’s first choice originally) took his place. Edward Norton was supposedly so hands-on during The Incredible Hulk that rumor has it he even did script rewrites on set. This didn’t sit well with Marvel or Joss Whedon, so in The Avengers he was replaced with Mark Ruffalo (who was rumored to also be Marvel’s first choice for the role). Hugo Weaving has also been very vocal about  not being excited about his role as the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger and has expressed not being interested in reprising his role in the future. Well, everyone from Toby Jones to Hayley Atwell to Dominic Cooper will be back for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but not Weaving.

All of this makes the rumor very plausible. And all things considered, this might be the best thing for Renner. He has a burgeoning franchise in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters(which made an inexplicable amount of money overseas), appears to be in line to take over the Mission Impossible franchise in the event Tom Cruise ever lets go of it, and while many view The Bourne Legacy as a disappointing entry into the franchise, it made enough money worldwide that he might be in the mix if they continue with it. While, at Marvel, his next appearance would have been in a similar, low-key capacity in The Avengers 2. Hawkeye wouldn’t be even considered for a solo film until 2016, and there are a lot of characters, concepts and ideas in development ahead of him.

The source also brings up the possibility of the character being recast and appearing on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. If the role is recast, it will probably be with whoever Marvel’s first choice for the role was.

Over the weekend, another rumor concerning Marvel Studios’ plans for their “Phase Three,” the cycle of films due after 2015′s The Avengers 2. Latino Review’s El Mayimbe tweeted out the following concerning a possible movie featuring superhero Black Panther -

I have in my possession a grid that shows THE BLACK PANTHER is shooting next year. Getting confirmation. Me thinks AVENGERS 2 cameo 1st. RT

— elmayimbe (@elmayimbe) May 10, 2013

We’ve been down this road before and we don’t believe this for a minute and not just because of who is saying it. (Though admittedly, that is a big part of it.) Logically, it doesn’t seem right for two reasons.

Firstly, it doesn’t seem to fit with what we know about Marvel’s production/release cycle. The studio has settled into a nice groove in terms of the production and release of their films. Films shot in one calendar year are released in the next. The Avengers was shot in 2011 and released in 2012. Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World were shot last year for release this year. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians Of The Galaxy are both set to film this year in order to hit theaters in 2014, while The Avengers 2 and the first Phase Three film Ant-Man will film in 2014 for their announced 2015 release dates. As long as Marvel keeps releasing just two films per year, the earliest a Black Panther film will come out is around April/May 2016, which would put it in production in early 2015. But I don’t think we’ll see a potential Black Panther film then.

And that brings me to my second point, when exactly will Marvel roll out a Black Panther film. Now we know that Marvel’s Kevin Feige has stated that Black Panther is one of the characters that they are looking at for a possible film in Phase Three. But so are Doctor Strange and more recently Blade and Ms. Marvel. But I am of the opinion that in Phase Three, Marvel will have to mix established franchise films in with the new ones they hope to launch. So while we will be getting Ant-Man and probably at least one other new hero in Phase Three, we will also be getting more installments featuring Iron Man (negotiations with Robert Downey Jr permitting), Captain America, Thor, the Hulk or the Guardians of the Galaxy.

But I would think that part of that mixing would entail some sort of alternating between new and established franchises. Would Marvel want to roll out of The Avengers 2 into two films debuting characters the general public might not be very familiar with, if at all, even if they do make appearances in the Avengers sequel? I think that first 2016 slot will be filled with an established franchise installment, pushing the earliest we will see Black Panther to the fall of 2016. And if that is indeed the case, I see no reason for Marvel to have the film in front of cameras during 2014.

So for me, this doesn’t add up. The only thing El Mayimbe has going in his favor is the possibility that Marvel will indeed one day greenlight a Black Panther film. But he won’t be right by virtue of some hidden source within Marvel but instead by the dint of inevitability.

As you would expect, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has been making the promotional rounds for Iron Man 3, and, as you would expect, he’s been asked about everything Marvel. Well, he’s answered a lot of questions, so we’ll tour the Internet and the newsstand to give you the choicest info tidbits and how we read them.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch:

Joss Whedon’s teasing that he was working on adding a brother and sister pair into the script for Avengers 2, fans immediately thought of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Entertainment Weekly asked Feige point blank about it, and his answer was noncommittally-committal:

I’m not confirming or denying. The draft could change six months from now.

Our Read:

Either they are in the script now but there’s a chance they might not make it to the final draft, or they are not in the script right now but might be sometime in the future. Maybe.

Doctor Strange:

The Sorcerer Supreme has been consider by many fans a mortal lock on a Phase III debut since Feige was asked about him by MTV in January. Back then, going by his phasing, I thought the only thing he confirmed was that a Dr. Strange film was in the works–which was common knowledge.

Well, Collider brought the Master of the Mystic Arts up during their time with Feige, and the got….another quasi-confirmation:

Dr. Strange is something that I talk about often and it’s sort of next up for us to dig into and explore.  Our executive producer of Iron Man 3, having done Captain America: The First Avenger and as that was finishing he started working on the bones that would become Iron Man 3, and now that he’s finished with Iron Man 3, he’s working on the bones that would become Doctor Strange.  Now that Iron Man 3 is finished, some of our quote-unquote spare time is going to be devoted to trying to crack Strange.

That was enough to have Collider has when the film was coming out. They got another non-committal answer they took as gospel-ish:

As we look past 2015, past Avengers 2 and Ant-Man, I think Dr. Strange should be one of the next movies in the years following that.

He also mentioned in the print version of Entertainment Weekly (which wasn’t reproduced online, I believe) that he “would love” Dr. Strange to be a part of Phase III.

Our Read:

Any film that someone is going to dedicate “some” of their “spare time” to developing is not a dead solid lock for being made. Again, I’d love to see a Dr. Strange film, and hope it does eventually get made, but I just don’t think that we are there yet.

Daredevil,The Punisher, Blade, and Ghost Rider:

When these characters reverted back to Marvel, their fans rejoiced. Now their favorite characters, whose films ranked from “Good” to “Oh my God no!” would be back in house and have a chance of finally being done right.

Um, no, not really. In the print version of Entertainment Weekly, Feige addressed these characters, and the prognosis doesn’t look good:

Whenever a character comes back to us, it’s usually because because the other studios don’t want to make the movies anymore–and that usually means the [previous] movies may not have been particularly well received. They all have potential, but we’re not going to say “We got it back–make it!”

Let’s face it, with only two films a year and a interconnected universe they really don’t fit well in, having these characters in films was a remote possibility to start with. Feige is just confirming something we really already knew.

But don’t give up all hope, fans! When Entertainment Weekly asked Feige about the possibility of Marvel superheroes appearing on the proposed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, he was open to the possibility:

If that works the way everyone expects it to work I think that would open up another avenue, another outlet for some of those characters. Maybe they guest star, I don’t know. I think they’re avoiding the cameo of the week on that show, which is very smart.

Our take:

If we ever see these characters on the big screen again, it won’t be for a long, long time. Unless they start making more than two films a year, Marvel Studios’ dance card is filled up until 2016 at the earliest, and there are many other Marvel properties that haven’t had a shot at the spotlight. However, DC/Warners has had a lot of success with television offerings from their characters, so there is an audience there. Daredevil and the Punisher are made for TV. Blade had his shot there, so he might be out of luck. And Ghost Rider is probably too costly to get made on a network budget. But I have to agree FBOL editor Rich Drees and say that Daredevil–and maybe the Punisher–could find a home on ABC, after an appearance or two on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Latino Review:

El Mayimbe over at Latino Review likes to play it up that Marvel Studios has it out for his website. How true is this? Let’s go to Peter Sciretta over at SlashFilm for the answer:

Peter Sciretta: You’re a very internet-savvy guy and it seems like you’re reading everything… There’s a lot of sites up there reporting leaks or rumors or sometimes even misinformation. I wanted to get your thoughts on “How does Marvel deal with this” in an age when sharing information on the internet is becoming unstoppable.

Kevin Feige: What are you talking about? Latino Review?

Nobody specifically. Really just interested in how Marvel Studios is evolving to handle the internet as a whole…

How would you “punish” them if you were us?

Its an interesting question. I think the only thing you could probably do is exclude them — don’t give them access. Don’t invite them to set visits, to junkets. But I don’t know, info is always going to get out there and someones always going to be posting it.Here’s what I will say, since X-men one frankly, where a photo was stolen off a wardrobe thing and it was the very first look of Hugh Jackman in costume as him under flourescents… it looked awful. (Laughs) It was just like “Oh, this is the world we are living in. This is the reality.” So we’ve always just accepted it. Spy pictures will leak and we used to try to run ahead and put out a cool picture first. Now if we have a cool picture we will put it out, but if we don’t, that’s okay.

Misinformation… You know, it gets a little annoying when somebody is like “This is what’s happening! This is what Kevin Feige is doing!” It’s annoying when they are right and it’s equally annoying when they are wrong, because everybody passes it. “Planet Hulk is the next thing” and everybody talks about it and you’re just like “Okay, but you’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting it.”

Shane Black: (smirking) It’s like Iron Man flying off to see The Guardians at the end of this one…

You read that everywhere.

Kevin Feige: Exactly, but then again, nobody knew about Redford until we announced it. Nobody knew about what you know now having seen Iron Man 3, so as long as there are secrets that big that are still being kept, I know it’s nobody in the inner circle. Does that make sense?

Our Take:

See how Feige automatically went to Latino Review as the culprit? And how the examples he and Shane Black are rumors that El Mayimbe reported on? I think this might be the one time where El Mayimbe is right. I also think it means that you have to take any Marvel rumor coming from El Mauimbe with an industrial-sized grain of salt. Because A) his sources are far removed from Marvel’s “inner circle” and B) Marvel could very well be feeding him false information to discredit him.

With just a few months to the release of Iron Man 3 and the start of “Phase Two” of their superhero franchise films plans, Marvel Studios is looking ahead towards the movies that will come after The Avengers 2 hits theaters in May 2015. We do know that Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man will be the first release of Phase Three in November 2015. We also know that despite previous reports, Marvel is not planning out Phase Three as an adaptation of the Planet Hulk/ World War Hulk storylines.

But what other films are the studio looking at? We know that in the past the studio had been developing movies based on the comic series Dr. Strange, The Inhumans and The Runaways, any of which may

And now there is another possible Marvel hero in the mix – Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner. The latest issue of the British genre magazine Empire (via ComicBook.com) dropped the character’s name in their latest issue in an article on the upcoming Iron Man 3. Speculating on the film lineup for Phase Three, Empire reported -

More Iron Man/Thor/Cap adventures probable, plus finally, a proper Hulk standalone (Planet Hulk?). Ant-Man is a confirmed intro (November 6, 2015); planned intros include Spock-esque fishy-bloke Namor The Sub-Mariner and magnificently ‘tached magic-man Doctor Strange. Will end with Avengers 3 in 2018ish, which could see a super-angry Hulk’s return (World War Hulk!).

While the Planet Hulk info in the quote is old, I’m willing to forgive them due to the lead time for print journalism.

So who exactly is Price Namor? He is the son of a human sea captain and a princess of the mythical Atlantis and is just as likely to help humanity as he is to attack them for perceived slights against his undersea kingdom.

And remember that map in one of the closing scenes of Iron Man 2 when Tony Stark was debriefed by SHIELD honcho Nick Fury? Notice one of the areas of interest? Fandom has long speculated that that spot out in the Atlantic Ocean is an indicator that Marvel is considering a Sub-Mariner film at some point. It remains to be seen if Empire is just going along with that fan assumption or are they privy to some inside information?

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn found out this week that things you post on the Internet last forever, and even if you try to kill them, your words can take on a life of their own.

A post Gunn made on his website back in February of 2011 has garnered him a fair bit of controversy with female members of comic book fan and professional community. When the controversy hit, Gunn removed the post from his site, but, the Internet being what it is, it still lives on in a cached form.

The post consists of the results of his second annual polling of his fans for the 50 superheroes, male and/or female, they’d most like to have sex with.

Personally, I have never been one to sexually fantasize about comic book characters. Yes, this might strike you as being hard to believe but I can’t get into that sort of thing because A) they aren’t real and B) they are usually drawn in such an exaggerated way that makes them seem even less realistic. But, hey, if other fans are into this sort of thing, more power to them.

So, if Gunn just stopped at running the list, it might have not received any attention. They’d even let slide the fact that he took pride in finding the most sexually charged images for the 35 female entries on the list.

But, unfortunately for Gunn, he had make comments on the entries to the list. And his comments start vulgar and get worse from there. Here is a sample, starting with the winner of the poll, Wonder Woman (WARNING: The language is crude and vulgar):

It gets worse from there. Men aren’t spared either. Here’s Gambit:

Zatanna (for the full effect, flip the words of the last sentence):

Invisible Woman:

Kitty Pryde:

Batwoman:

And, finally, Batgirl:

These are the most egregious entries on the list. Thankfully, Gunn appears to lose interest in including these pithy sayings after entry #25 or else there could have been a lot more.

As to why a blog entry that is almost two years old would get so much attention  comes down to two things. One, Gunn was just handed his highest profile assignment to date with Guardians of the Galaxy, a film many in the comic book fandom are eagerly anticipating and want to see done right. And, two, sexual politics are a hot-button topic in the comic book community after a tale of sexual harassment of a cosplayer at October’s NYCC  and two comic creators speaking out publicly about “fake geek girls,” attractive women who dress up as popular geek-centric characters just for attention and without any knowledge, affection or affinity for the characters or the worlds they live in. These examples are used to as an indicator of the misogyny of males in geek culture. Gunn’s post, though old, is simply another log to the still raging fire.

While Internet reaction might not have been immediate, it has been strong. Susana Polo of the The Mary Sue, a blog that looks at the world of comic from a female perspective, had this to say:

Lets be clear: there’s nothing wrong about running a poll for the most sex-able superhero on your site, especially one where you embrace the fact that Batman and Gambit come in within the top five. There isn’t anything wrong, in that context, of choosing art that sexualizes the characters in it. There isn’t even anything wrong with talking explicitly about sex in your commentary on the poll results. What’s wrong is the sheer amount of slut-shaming (on only the female characters) and anti-gay language that Gunn directs towards the majority of the male characters. These are not opinions befitting somebody who’s been given the task of bringing a major part of the Marvel Universe to the big screen (a set of characters, I might add, that includes a lesbian superhero couple, not that they’ll be appearing in Guardians).

The screenshot at the top of this post is the entirety of what he has to say about Batwoman, which is both a reference to the idea that lesbians just need a good (read: streotypically masculine) man to have sex with them and they’ll be “cured” of their homosexuality, a delusion at the heart of an innumerable number of rapes; and a dig at Nightwing, one of the few male characters in comics who has actually gotten away with being drawn for the female gaze. Apparently, having been depicted as a female sex fantasy occasionally (and still with nowhere near the frequency that any given female character is drawn for the male gaze) instead of a male power fantasy literally makes him a woman.

Rachel Edidin, who has worked in the industry as an editor at Dark Horse Comics among other companies, contributed this:

Gunn’s notes are fucked up and miogynist and homophobic.

They’re also over the top to an extent that can read as a parody of nonsense like this in comics media (not gonna name names, but we all know who we’re talking about here, right?). I’ve heard from a source I trust—someone who’s much more familiar with Gunn as a professional and person than I am, and who’s generally loathe to give quarter to assholes—that the post was likely meant to be satire, which I’m willing to believe.

Let’s run with that hypothetical for a minute. Let’s pretend Gunn’s intentions here were in fact to highlight and lampoon the rampant misogyny and objectification in comics media, where lists like this pop up with astonishing regularity (if usually marginally more work-safe official commentary).

If Gunn’s list is satire, it’s bad satire, because it skews incredibly close to material that’s not only already out there, but that comes from official media and in some cases industry professionals. There’s a significant slice of the comics community that is that misogynist and homophobic, and says so loudly and frequently. It’s telling, I think, that so many people took what Gunn wrote at face value: this is material we’ve seen before, again and again, presented seriously.

Heidi MacDonald, one of the leading names in comic book journalism and a woman who has worked as an editor at DC/Vertigo and Disney took a more cynical view:

I guess I’m jaded because what Gunn wrote is no worse than what 90% of guys have thought at some point, and probably 90% of the people who have directed superhero movies that we all loved in the past have made similar jokes. I mean, I’m not exactly sure that Sam Raimi wanted to do Kitty Pride in the butt, but I’m sure somewhere, at some time, he had a picture of the Invisible Woman taped inside his notebook. Maybe even right this very minute.

Which isn’t to say that Gunn doesn’t need to come out and say mea culpa and Gamora is his favorite Guardian and he supports Malala Yousafzai. It’s a good consciousness raising exercise, and a heckuva introduction to his future fan base. I just feel that the outrage energy is better directed at getting more opportunities for women and less at stopping men from having inappropriate sexy thoughts about imaginary women, because that will never, ever stop. Sorry.

Now, the story has gone beyond the realm of comic book fandom. The Hollywood Reporter has quoted Fred Sainz, vice president of communications and marketing for the Human Rights Campaign, who condemns Gunn’s words:

James Gunn’s blog post is offensive not just to LGBT people and women; but rather to anyone with even the slightest sense of decency. His tawdry post is not reflective of the character that someone charged with directing a film aimed at youth should exhibit. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Gunn has nothing better to do with his time than churn out graphic and homophobic dribble about imaginary superheroes.

Of course, if it was just this one post, it would still be fairly damning for Gunn. But the very next post, which was, of course, taken down by Gunn and can only be viewed in cached form, Gunn applies similar attitudes and language in listing the 15 super-heroines he personally would like to have sex with. And his most recent post, from July of this year, Gunn gloats over giving a female employee from the music department of the studio for his latest film,  Movie 43, a hard time after she tells him that the studio cannot use a the title Gunn submitted for a song he wrote for the soundtrack because it would be too offensive. The title? “That Gay Fucking Cat.” Classy. That post is still active on Gunn’s site…for now.

While most of Gunn’s critics are calling on him to explain his words and point of view (which, since his immediate reaction was to remove the offending blog posts and pretend they never happened, is unlikely to take place unless he is forced to do it), some female comic fans are calling for stronger action. There is currently a petition on change.org asking Marvel Studios to replace Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy and replace him with a director who has more respect for women. The petition already has 4,917 signatures as of this writing.

As of this writing, there has been no comment from Gunn or Marvel Studios in regards to controversy. But, since the casting process is beginning on the film even as we speak, neither party can afford to have such a controversy go unanswered. I would personally be interested in seeing how Marvel reacts to this situation, as it is the first public dust-up the relatively new studio has had to deal with.

UPDATE:

Shortly before 10pm EST, James Gunn posted this to his Facebook account:

Marvel Studio’s recently delayed “Phase One” blu-ray set, comprising all of their films from Iron Man to The Avengers, finally has a new release date – April 2, 2012. We also now have a hint as to what some of the extras in the box will be, thanks to studio chief Kevin Feige, who told Entertainment Weekly -

We spent an embarrassing amount of time compiling the ‘Shield Files’ included in the box set to be sure that each character’s file was full of great, movie-accurate props and Easter eggs, which help tie all of the Phase one [Marvel Comics Universe] films together.

(Sounds like we’re going to have to do another draft of our Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline.)

Feige also stated that there will some new, previously unseen cut scenes from the films in the set.

We went back to the editor’s assembly of each film and discovered some rare moments that dropped out of the films early on and had not been released on prior discs

Rounding things out will be some teaser material for Marvel’s upcoming Phase Two films – Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Avengers 2 and possibly Ant Man.

To whet your appetite for the new material, here is an alternate ending for Thor. If you listen closely to that dialogue, you’ll hear a reference to another Marvel Comics Universe intelligence organization, S.W.O.R.D. A pity that alternate scenes aren’t really canon for the Marvel Cinematic Universe,though I would not be surprised if S.W.O.R.D. were to eventually make their way on screen.

Not unexpectedly, Marvel Studios has definitely delayed the release of their mega “Phase One” DVD/Blu-ray box set consisting of all of the studio’s superhero films from 2008’s Iron Man to this past summer’s The Avengers. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the set has been postponed from a scheduled release later this month to an unspecified date next spring.

The delay is due to the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against the studio by German luggage manufacturer Rimowa GmbH over the set’s briefcase being modeled on the company’s own design. Marvel had received permission to use the company’s case in Thor and The Avengers, but Rimowa claims that that permission did not extend to the any auxiliary use including the packaging in question.

According to the Rimowa GmbH filing -

Marvel did not obtain any license or authorization from Rimowa to make replica copies of the cases for any purpose… Images of the replica briefcase on Marvel’s advertising materials, and fan video from Marvel’s product display at this year’s Comic-Con convention, show the plastic ‘replica case’ to be a close copy of Rimowa’s Topas attaché case in every respect but quality — from the proportions and coloring, to the style of the handle and latches, and, of course, in the use of the trademarked parallel ridges around the body of the case.

We first reported on the lawsuit last month and followed up when Amazon and Marvel quietly removed the ability to preorder the set from their websites. As we noted then, we figure that this will end with either Marvel and Rimowa GmbH reaching an agreement or Marvel designing some new type of packaging. Personally I would prefer it being the former option as the briefcase set looks pretty amazing. I would also think that Marvel may have already been in production on at least some of the components for the package and that they would rather not have to trash some of that work in favor of a restructured set.

Marvel’s parent company Disney has still not made an official statement about the lawsuit or the withdrawal of the box set from pre-order availability.

When Avengers director Joss Whedon was signed by Marvel Studios to write and direct the sequel to his blockbuster superhero mashup, he was also tasked with helping to oversee all projects that Marvel was developing as part of “Phase Two” of their interconnected cinematic universe, which includes a hitherto unannounced television series for corporate sibling ABC. Well, that television series has now been announced and it is one that will focus on the spy organization SHIELD.

According to reports, Whedon will develop the series, co-writing the pilot with his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Schedule permitting, Whedon will also direct the show’s pilot. Jed Whedon and Tancharoen co-wrote the internet distributed Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog with Joss Whedon and have also worked as writer-producers on Spartacus and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.

Since the announcement of Whedon’s involvement with a television series for Marvel, speculation as to what comic property it could be adapting has ranged from a SHIELD series to one that would involve more “street-level” superheroes. Marvel also has a number of projects still in development for ABC Family.

There is no word yet as to which, if any, characters will cross over from the films to the television series. I would find it hard to believe that someone like Samuel L Jackson, who has played the organizations chief Nick Fury in a number of Marvel’s films, would be a regular if the show goes to series, though he could show up occasionally in a guest star capacity. The same goes for Scarlett Johnasson and Jeremy Renner, who have also played SHIELD agents Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton in Marvel movies including The Avengers.

The availability of Cobie Smulders, who played SHIELD Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers, may depend if the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother, where she is a member of the ensemble, goes for a ninth season. My guess is that we may see more of Maximiliano Hernández and Titus Welliver, who appear as SHIELD agents in the upcoming Marvel One Shot short film Item 47 which will appear on the Avengers DVD and blu-ray next month.

Now normally we confine our coverage here to just films but given that Whedon’s participation is part of his deal with Marvel for The Avengers 2 and the show will tie into the movie continuity, I felt we could make the exception. A pilot order is no guarantee that ABC will pick the series up, but it is an exciting step in the growth of Marvel’s cinematic universe.

While Marvel Studios have had great success with building a cohesive cinematic universe with the comic book properties to which they own the film rights, there are still a number of key characters that the studio doesn’t have access to rather generous film rights agreements the studio made back in the 1990s when their parent company, Marvel Comics, was strapped for cash.

It doesn’t really take this past week’s news story that Marvel was looking to trade the rights to certain characters that Twentieth Century Fox had control of in return to extending their option on another to know that ultimately Marvel would like to get them all back under their roof. But until that happens, we’ve assembled a guide as to what characters currently reside at which studios.

Fantastic Four - The Fantastic Four are one of the cornerstones of the Marvel Comics universe, but their movie rights rest with 20th Century Fox, who picked them up in the mid-90s. According to most reports, the rights deal that Marvel initially struck with Neu Constantin (Roger Corman’s production company) and presumably transferred to Fox allowed for usage of all original concepts introduced in Fantastic Four issues 1 through 100.

Thanks to the two films Fox has already produced, we know that in addition to the team itself, Fox also owns the rights to ally Silver Surfer, villains Doctor Doom and Galactus and supporting characters postman Willy Lumpkin, Frankie Raye (although she first appeared in FF #164) and Alicia Masters. Frankie Raye’s appearance in Rise Of The Silver Surfer suggest that her heroic persona of Nova, a herald of Galactus, is also included. And while it is probably safe to assume that most of the FF’s rogue’s gallery are a apart of the rights package, the inclusion of Masters seems to definitely confirm the presence of her father, the villain known as the Puppet Master.

Although the FF have encountered many alien races over the course of their adventures, none more memorable than the shape-shifting Skrulls. Fittingly, the rights situation surrounding the aliens are as amorphous as they are. During an interview promoting the European premiere of The Avengers, Marvel Studio chief Kevin Feige stated that rights to the Skrulls are owned by both Fox and Marvel, and either studio could use them in their films. Although he did not say so, it would not be unreasonable to believe that the Skrulls centuries-old enemies the Kree, who also factored heavily  in many Fantastic Four and Avengers storylines, were under the same shared agreement. Furthermore, Feige did not clarify the status of one particular Skrull character, the so-called Super Skrull, who has all the powers of the Fantastic Four in addition to his native shape changing ability, though it is generally believed that the rights lie solely with Twentieth Century Fox.

Reports on J Michael Straczynski’s script for a Silver Surfer spin-off film stated that it would involve the character returning to his home world of Zenn-La. Presumably, many of the characters created in various comics stories for that portion of the Silver Surfer’s backstory including his lover Shalla-Bal fall under the Fantastic Four rights.

Although the superpowered evolutionary offshoot of heroes known as The Inhumans first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four #45 (December 1965), their film rights are still controlled by Marvel Studios as evidenced by statements made by Feige that a film based on the characters was in development. Likewise, Black Panther, ruler of the fictional nation of Wakanda, debuted in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), but his rights are also back at Marvel Studios around who they have been developing a film.

Another character who is often strongly associated with the Fantastic Four is Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. However, the Atlantean monarch’s rights are separate from what Fox owns. Back in September 2006, Universal Pictures had announced a Sub-Mariner movie with Jonathan Mostow signed to direct and rewrite a screenplay by David Self. However, as of May 2012 Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada has stated that “to the best of his knowledge” the rights to Namor, the Sub-Mariner currently resides with Marvel. Further evidence that Namor has reverted back to Marvel can be found at the end of Iron Man 2 in the scene where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is debriefed by Nick Fury of SHIELD. On a computer screen in the background a world map noting several areas that the spy organization is monitoring we can see one area in the Atlantic Ocean marked, supposedly the location of Namor’s undersea kingdom of Atlantis.

Daredevil/Elektra – Based on who we see in New Regency/Fox’s 2003 Daredevil film and its spinoff Elektra, we can get a pretty good list of characters that are included in the rights package. (Twentieth Century Fox is the production company’s distributor.) This gives us Matt Murdock/Daredevil, his father Jack Murdock, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, love interest Elektra Natchios, her father Nikolas Natchios, crime lord Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin,” villain Bullseye, reporter Ben Urich, Karen Page, Typhoid Mary, martial arts master Stick, the evil ninja clan known as The Hand headed by assassin Kirigi, Hand members Stone and Tattoo and the Chaste, the Hand’s secluded base of training and operations.

Furthermore, sequel discussions at the time of Daredevil’s release mentioned Mister Fear as a possible villain for a second film indicate that he is included. Other villains that are included in the Daredevil rights package probably include the Owl, Stilt-Man, Gladiator, Death-Stalker, Cobra and Mr. Hyde and Man-Bull, though no mention has been made of any of them specifically.

One Daredevil villain, the Purple Man, has an important role in the backstory of Jessica Jones, lead character in the recent comics series Alias. Marvel is currently developing a television series based on Alias, but it is unknown if the Purple Man is available to be included in the show or if his rights are still under the Daredevil agreement. Of course, if Fox doesn’t have cameras rolling on a new Daredevil film by the contractual rights reversion date of October 10 then the question as to who owns the rights to the villain becomes moot.

One thing that that Fox’s Daredevil rights doesn’t include is the right to use the Marvel Comics universe’s paper of record, The Daily Bugle. The rights for the Bugle are part and parcel of the Spider-Man rights over at Sony/Universal, leaving Fox to make the real-life tabloid The New York Post Daredevil supporting character reporter Ben Urich’s employer.

Ghost Rider – Universal has not had much luck at the box office with their two attempts to brong the supernatural character Ghost Rider to the big screen. With the casting the Norse gods of the Thor movies as humanoid aliens with technology so advanced that it appears to be magic, these movies are the only ones that explore the supernatural side of Marvel Comics. Judging from the two films starring Nick Cage, in addition to the characters of Johnny Blaze and his demonic counterpart Zarathos, the studio appears to have the film rights to the characters Blackout, Mephistopheles, Carter Slade/the Phantom Rider and Blackheart. However, if Marvel goes ahead with the previously talked about Doctor Strange film that would explore Marvel’s mystical side, none of these characters would be considered necessary for it as Marvel’s mystical roster is fairly deep and most of them probably reside outside of the Ghost Rider rights.

Spider-Man – Spider-Man has one of the most interesting supporting casts and one of the most dynamic rogues galleries in comics. And Sony most likely owns the rights to all of them.

The Amazing Spider-Man has shown that Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Aunt May, Uncle Ben, Richard and Mary Parker, Gwen Stacy, George Stacy, Flash Thompson, Curt Connors/Lizard, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin and the Daily Bugle are actively being used in the reboot franchise. Since most of these characters have appeared in some form in the Sam Raimi pre-reboot trilogy, it’s highly likely that Sony still owns all the characters from that series as well, meaning we might see Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Mendel Strom, the Daily Bugle staff (J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, Betty Brant, et al), John Jameson, Doctor Octopus, Sandman and Venom in the future installments of the reboot.

And, since there have been so many aborted tries at getting various Spider-Man films on the screen, we have a good idea at what other Spider-Man characters Sony owns rights to. James Cameron’s script treatment that he did while the Spider-Man rights were at Cannon/Carolco featured Electro as one of the villains, so that character has to be included in the film rights. Sam Raimi was developing a fourth film of his franchise, one that would have had the Vulture and Felicia Hardy (who may or may not have been her comic book identity, the Black Cat, in this film). Rumor has it that one of the reason Raimi left the franchise was because the producers were trying to force the director to use latter day Spidey villain, Carnage. If so, that’s another character they could use.

Outside of that, it’s fair to say that Sony has rights to Spider-Man villains such as Hobgoblin and Demogoblin (both of which tie into the Green Goblin character), Chameleon, Jackal, Kraven the Hunter, Molten Man and Tombstone, all of whom are pretty much exclusively Spider-Man villains. They might also have rights to foes such as Scorpion, Mysterio and Rhino, a trio who started off as Spidey bad guys yet have fought other Marvel heroes. When you get to villains such as the Beetle and Boomerang, the rights issue gets murkier, because those characters have appeared in enough of other character’s books that they aren’t considered true Spider-Man villains, therefore probably not included in the rights Sony owns.

Several Spider-Man characters that Sony definitely does not own are Cloak and Dagger, who Marvel is developing a TV show for the ABC Family Channel with, Kingpin, who Fox owns rights to due to his connection to the Daredevil universe, and Morbius, whose rights were owned by New Line through their agreement to make a Blade film (he was meant to be the villain for a potential sequel), and whose rights reverted back to Marvel with Blade’s.

X-Men: – Conventional wisdom states that the agreement made between Marvel Comics and Fox for the X-Men film gives rights to all Marvel’s mutant characters to the studio. This makes sense because there are literally hundreds of mutants created in Marvel X-Men family of books. And the conventional wisdom does seem true because Fox has packed numerous mutants into the X-Men films, even including such obscure characters as Phat and Glob Herman. And given the number of X-books Marvel publishes in any given month, Fox has not really begun to scratch beyond the surface of what they can exploit.

But where this becomes problematic is that mutants have spread to pretty much all aspects of Marvel’s comic book output. For instance, Cloak and Dagger and Sub-Mariner are mutants and former members of the X-Men, yet their rights are held by Marvel. Franklin Richards, son or the Fantastic Four’s Reed and Susan Richards, is a mutant (not really a problem for Fox as they own the rights to the character regardless). And then there’s Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch first appeared as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants way back in 1964′s X-Men #4. They were later revealed to be the son and daughter of X-Men villain Magneto. However, a large part of their comic book career was spent in the Avengers books, and both have contributed to many notable storylines in that title. Both also were members of the Ultimates, the version of the Avengers created for Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics, the universe where much of the feel and plot points for Marvel’s film universe is taken.

So, who owns the rights to these characters: Fox or Marvel? The answer is yes.

Kevin Feige, during an interview promoting the European premiere of The Avengers, stated that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are owned by both Fox and Marvel, and either studio could use them in their films much like the arrangement for the right to the Fantastic Four villains, the Skrulls.

Of course, the rights situations for any of these characters could change at any time, depending on the terms of each individual contract. Though we would suspect that over time Marvel Studio will eventually see most, if not all of their characters come home to live under the same corporate roof again.

-Rich Drees and William Gatevackes contributed to this article.

Earlier this week, we speculated that the earliest that Marvel Studios may get around to making director Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man adaption with their release schedule being booked through 2014 is 2015. But Marvel co-president and director of the new Marvel One-Shot short film Item 47, Louis D’Esposito hints that the company’s two-films-a-year schedule may be adjusted to let Ant-Man slide in to 2014.

In his interview with Collider, D’Esposito states that there has been some discussion about expanding Marvel’s release schedule beyond the current two films a year timetable and while they don’t want to stretch themselves too thin, they might do so if they were sure that they could maintain the same level of quality that they have so far. Ant-Man might be the place where they start.

That might be an opportunity where we do a third film, depending on his schedule when he finishes World’s End. But he’s such a competent filmmaker; the script is in great shape. The test will prove a lot of things on the visual effects front: how do we handle the shrinking, obviously, and the scale issues, because when he’s small he’s a half-inch. So we’re gonna work that out, maybe that’s when we do a third film.

Given that there has been a lot of positive reaction to the special effects test footage that Edgar Wright shot for the film and which was screened last week at San Diego Comic Con, Marvel certainly has an incentive to get the film out as soon as possible.

Currently, Wright is gearing up to shoot The World’s End, his third cinematic collaboration with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. If he were to jump into Ant-Man right after, he could very easily have the film ready for a 2014 release. Now currently, Marvel has Captain America: The Winter Soldier scheduled for April 4, 2014 and Guardians Of The Galaxy for August 1, 2014. If those dates hold, I could see Marvel possibly dropping Ant-Man into December. Then again they could conceivably rearrange their 2014 dates for Captain America and Guardians Of The Galaxy to accommodate Ant-Man.