The announcement came as the first night of Comic-Con International in San Diego kicked off, with Marvel staking a claim on May 4, 2018, in addition to two previously announced release dates that same year. That brings the count up to 11 upcoming films (after Guardians of the Galaxy) that the studio has planned over the next five years.
As with previous release dates the studio has announced, there was no indication of which movie will be occupying that slot in the continuity of Marvel’s ever-expanding cinematic universe, but there’s likely to be at least some clues — and hopefully some confirmation — coming out of this weekend’s big Marvel Studios panel at Comic-Con. Given that Marvel seems to like May release dates for the Avengers movies and three years separate The Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron, it’s reasonable to suspect that this new release date could be set aside for the third film in that franchise.
Just to get an idea what the next few years will look like, here’s the current schedule of release dates for Marvel Studios after Guardians of the Galaxy premieres next week:
May 1, 2015 – Avengers: Age of Ultron (confirmed)
July 17, 2015 – Ant-Man (confirmed)
May 6, 2016 – The third installment of the Captain America franchise (confirmed)
July 8, 2016 – Unknown (probably Doctor Strange)
May 5, 2017 – Unknown
July 28, 2017 – Unknown
November 3, 2017 – Unknown
May 4, 2018 – Unknown (probably the third Avengers movie, since the previous films were both released in May and three years apart)
July 6, 2018 – Unknown
November 2, 2018 – Unknown
May 3, 2019 – Unknown
Other films likely to be in the mix are a third installment of the Thor franchise and a sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy if all goes well with that film’s premiere. Marvel’s big Comic-Con panel happens Saturday in San Diego, so we’re likely to learn more details once that event gets rolling.
