Movie News: Marvel Studios' Mystery Movie to be Announced at Comic-Con 2012

Marvel Studios is set to announce the identity of its August 2014 release at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, with internet rumours of late suggesting that the studio will announce Guardians of the Galaxy as the next big Marvel feature.

The space epic will follow Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, Alan Taylor’s Thor 2 and the Russo Brothers’ Captain America 2’ and is expected to lead directly into the events of Avengers Assemble sequel.

Debuting in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (January 1969), the original Guardians of the Galaxy were a team of Superheroes from the 31st Century, who travelled back in time to recruit the Avengers, when an evil alien race (known as the Badoon) conquered the Solar System. Members of the original ‘Guardians’ included astronaut Vance Astro, a crystalline being from Pluto known as Martinex T’Naga and Captain Charlie-27, a soldier from Jupiter.

Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2 #1 (May 2008) saw the creation of the modern incarnation of the team, consisting of a series of unusual alien creatures such as Groot (a highly intelligent extra-terrestrial plant monster), Rocket Racoon (a highly skilful, firearm-toting racoon with human attributes) and Cosmo (a telepathic dog).

The modern Guardians exist in the 21st Century and serve to combat universe-destroying threats, alongside other prominent members of the team including Star-Lord and Drax.

Rumours surrounding Marvel Studios’ plans to create a Guardians of the Galaxy feature have been around for several years. The first major step forward came in 2011 after the release of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor when Marvel Studios’ President of Production, Kevin Feige stated that ‘there is an opportunity to do a big space epic, which Thor sort of hints at in the cosmic side of the universe, with characters in a property called Guardians of the Galaxy’.

In a more recent interview, Feige explained that Marvel Studios were looking towards the modern incarnation of the team for the feature film, ‘it’s more Star-Lord, Drax and Gamora, and less Vance Astro and that team’.

According to sources, Guardians of the Galaxy already has two highly regarded scripts by Nicole Perlman. In recent years, Perlman has been developing a reputation for action writing, with credits on the Thor screenplay and the creation of a Black Widow script which left Marvel executives highly impressed and confident in her abilities to create a screenplay for Guardians. The scripts are said to be similar in tone to Avengers Assemble, with Kevin Feige commenting that Groot and Rocket Racoon are ‘going to steal the whole movie. They’re hilarious’.

The story is rumoured to heavily involve the classic Marvel villain Thanos, who was introduced in the mid-credits sequence of Avengers Assemble and is said to draw inspiration from the 6 issue comic story The Thanos Imperative (Published in 2010).

Rumours suggesting that Guardians will be Marvel’s latest feature announcement were further fuelled this week when the studio was found to have secured various domain names and merchandising rights under the name Guardians of the Galaxy.

Although Marvel Studios have made no comment on the mystery film slated for 2014, it seems likely that the long awaited Guardians of the Galaxy feature will be announced on 14th July 2012 at the studios annual Hall H panel at Comic-Con, with a scheduled release date of August 2014.