Marvel's 2015 Secret Wars: Could It Lead To Future Movie?

Marvel has announced that their iconic crossover story ‘Secret Wars’ will be retold next year in a year-long comic book mega-event.

'Secret Wars' will be written by Jonathan Hickman for publication from May (via USA Today).

The original ‘Secret Wars’ originally ran for 12 issues from 1984 to 1985, telling the story of a cosmic entity which transports groups of heroes and villains through the galaxy to “Battleworld” where they are told to fight to the death.

A teaser image for the new series appears to show classic heroes fighting newer ones, including the Sam Wilson as Captain America, the female Thor and Iron Man in his new silver suit. Intriguingly, the only character in the image whose movie rights Marvel don’t own is Spider-Man, there are no X-Men, no Fantastic Four, nobody else.

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Now, the question is: Does this mean Marvel’s plan will impact their film universe? There’s certainly a precedent, Marvel launched a ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ comic well in advance of the release of this year’s hit film.

Recently a number of rumours have circulated regarding the future of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. One report indicated that Sony could be working on a deal with Marvel to bring Spider-Man into the Avengers fold, while another has indicated that 'Avengers 3' might not feature Captain America, Thor or Hulk at all.

Part of that second story said that this decision would be designed so Marvel would have all their major players ready to partake in an enormous event movie. The obvious idea for what that movie could be is ‘Infinity Gauntlet’, which would star big-bad Thanos, but could it instead be ‘Secret Wars’?

If it is then the pieces start making some sense. Spider-Man featured heavily in the original Secret Wars, it’s a large-scale story big enough for its own film and elevating smaller heroes by given them the spotlight in ‘Avengers 3’ helps make it feel like an even bigger event.

Robert Downey Jr has also hinted during his lengthy promotional tour for ‘The Judge’, that he’ll be continuing to work with Marvel after his contract ends with ‘Avengers 3’ in something other than ‘Iron Man 4’. That major film - whether it’s ‘Secret Wars’, ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ or something else - fits the bill.

Personally I don’t think it will be Secret Wars. Marvel’s entire series to date has been building towards Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, and with the character’s recent appearance in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ it seems that will come to fruition sooner than later.

As it is the current reports indicate that the Infinity Gauntlet story won’t even be adapted in ‘Avengers 3’ as was once expected, making it the likely candidate for whatever Marvel has up its sleeve following that.

Secret Wars is also a major mind-bending concept, more so than talking trees and giant purple mad men from Titan, so it may be a little too much too soon for Marvel’s growing cinema audience.

If Marvel are intent on having their big screen heroes clash properly then the best way of making that happen is an adaptation of Civil War, which is a much more palatable story for a worldwide audience.

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Picture credits: Marvel