Marvel’s Phase 3 is starting to come together now, slowly but surely. We know that Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man is set to kick off the third phase on July 17th, 2015, but Marvel has also announced that two more Phase 3 films will be arriving on May 6, 2016 and May 5, 2017, respectively. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t say which films we’ll be seeing on those dates but today, thanks to JoBlo, we now know the identity of one of them.
An unnamed, but reliable source has reported that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be opening on May 6th, 2016. Now, while that’s not exactly the type of shocking news that’s going to send the internet into a tizzy, it is notable for a few reasons.
One, it’s interesting that the studio has already set a release date for a sequel to one of its most uncertain properties. The Guardians are by far the least well-known of all the Marvel characters we’ve seen on the big screen thus far and even the premise behind them is a bit wacky. Admittedly, reactions to early footage has been extremely positive but still, it’s not like Marvel is dealing with a sure thing like Iron Man or The Hulk. Not many people know of the Guardians of the Galaxy and I still think that the film will be a hard sell. Then again, this is Marvel after all and considering that they’ve already captured most people’s attention with their cinematic universe, it shouldn’t be too difficult to rack up ticket sales at the box office.
What’s even more interesting, however, is that this puts the film in direct competition with Batman vs. Superman, which also opens that day. Again, when you have two films at the box office, one featuring Batman and Superman and one featuring a band of heroes known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s pretty easy to determine which movie fans are more likely to see. Batman and Superman are both iconic superheroes and have much larger fanbases than Marvel’s intergalactic crew. Obviously Guardians of the Galaxy 2 isn’t going to bomb, and I’m sure it will be a great film, but to put it in direct competition with Batman vs. Superman is an odd choice. It must mean that Marvel has a ton of confidence in the property.
I guess we’ll see if the studio’s confidence is justified when Guardians of the Galaxy zooms into theatres on August 1st, 2015.