The Hollywood Reporter has shared an update on Marvel Studios' 2021 plans, and it's clear that Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder is going to be a bigger deal than we may have expected. While it's no secret that the sequel is going to introduce Jane Foster's Mighty Thor, the recent addition of Chris Pratt as Star-Lord has already led to speculation about the Guardians of the Galaxy appearing.
According to the trade, "Thor: Love and Thunder is starting its Australian shoot with a sprawling cast assembling for what one insider is likening to 'an Avengers 5 feel,' thanks to its ensemble."
That isn't the first time we've heard this Avengers 5 comparison for an upcoming Marvel Studios movie, as Captain Marvel 2 is also believed to be similarly grand in scale. These team-ups certainly explain why we're not getting an Avengers 5 for now as Marvel Studios finds other ways to have their heroes share the screen (as they did in 2016's Captain America: Civil War).
The site also points out that Marvel Studios will shoot Ant-Man 3 in 2021, while James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is expected to begin filming nearer the end of the year.
We'll keep you guys updated as we learn more about these Phase 4 plans!
There are also rumours about the Inhumans returning to the MCU.
Click on the "Next" button below for a reminder of who they are!
10. It's Like Game Of Thrones With Superpowers
It goes without saying that there are some key differences between the Inhumans and Game of Thrones' eclectic cast of characters (Black Bolt and Medusa most definitely aren’t brother and sister), but the similarities are undeniable. In fact, when Marvel Studios was developing an Inhumans movie, the project was basically described as Game of Thrones with superpowers!
That's no great surprise considering the fact that there’s a royal family, and with a brother who is madly in love with the Queen, any movie is bound to include betrayals and plenty of twists and turns.
Medusa, can manipulate her own hair into powerful tendrils, Gorgon has super-strength, Triton is fishlike in appearance, Karnak is strong and agile, the brother we mentioned – Maximus – has telepathic powers, while fan-favourite Crystal has elemental powers. Then, there's their leader...
9. Black Bolt, King Of The Inhumans
As you likely already know, Black Bolt is the King of the Inhumans and married to Medusa, the woman he relies on to speak for him. Why? Because his powers are literally off the scale!
You see, if he utters even a whisper, his voice could destroy an entire city block. A scream? Possibly an entire city! He’s a complex character who is obviously both gifted and cursed, but a good man who does what is best for his people. It will be a challenge for Marvel to find the right actor, but Vin Diesel has hinted in the past that he may be in the running to play Black Bolt.
With little dialogue but an imposing presence required, that might actually work quite well!
8. A Storied History
So, who are the Inhumans? Well, they were created by the Kree (an alien race we've now seen a fair bit of in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel) millions of years ago when they visited Earth and tampered with the DNA of humans.
After the Kree abandoned their experiments, the Inhumans would go on to form their own very complicated society, but their seclusion from humanity led to them becoming vastly different.
This is something that could very easily tie into the upcoming Eternals movie, and it would be surprising if that didn't hint at their existence and somehow tie the two races together in the process.
7. Attilan
Attilan is the home of the Inhumans and is around seven thousand years old.
Originally located on a small island in the northern Atlantic Ocean, they started to realise that they were at risk when technology advanced to the point where planes and boats frequently came close to discovering them. It was then that they moved the city to a hidden valley in the Himalayan Mountain range, but the Inhumans were inevitably discovered and exposed to the world.
Since then, they’ve relocated to the "Blue Area of the Moon" in a bid to escape the effects of Earthly pollution and disease. That's a unique locale, and one it would be fun to explore on screen.
6. Lockjaw Provides Some Much-Needed Comic Relief
In some respects, the Inhumans are a pretty serious and humourless group of characters. That’s an inevitability after the hardships they’ve been through (not to mention some of the challenges they've faced) but Lockjaw should help to lighten the tone and deliver some laughs.
Lockjaw is a giant alien bulldog with the ability to teleport and is a vital tool in helping this group travel. He doesn’t talk, but he’s a loveable pooch who has every chance of being the next Groot or Rocket.
The ill-fated TV show completely wasted Lockjaw - likely because creating him was too expensive - but Marvel Studios can definitely do the character justice. His relationship with Crystal is particularly noteworthy, and it's not at all hard to imagine him being a breakout character.
5. The Terrigan Mist
The Terrigen Mists are the source of the Inhumans’ powers, and a vapour derived from the Terrigen Crystals. That has the ability to alter Inhuman biology and give them their unique powers.
When an Inhuman undergoes this procedure, they have no idea how it will physically mutate them, explaining their unique and very varied appearances. It’s possible too that Marvel is going to follow the comic books by having these mists exposed to the Earth’s atmosphere, causing anyone who was a descendant of an Inhuman to develop superpowers (which creates Ms. Marvel).
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. obviously gave this a go, but sadly, that series doesn't really matter.
4. They Live Among Us
Unless they've been mutated by undergoing Terrigenesis, the Inhumans are mostly, well, human in appearance. That means they can blend in for the most part, and while they do tend to avoid leaving Attilan for the most, there are plenty of them who do live among us here on Earth.
As a result, there are a lot of Inhumans or Inhuman descendants who are completely unaware of their history, and it's only when they're exposed to the mists that they undergo these changes.
A certain Kamala Khan is a good example of that, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe would inevitably be changed forever by the emergence of these newly superpowered individuals (especially if the mists are inadvertently released on Earth in the wake of the emergence of Inhumans).
3. The Alpha Primitives
We've established that the Inhumans have quite the storied history, but not all of it is good.
Just like the Kree created them, the Inhumans have taken a crack at coming up with their own new species on a number of occasions. However, they wanted to create salves due to having such a low population, and that race ended up becoming known as the "Alpha Primitives."
They were strong, but unintelligent, and mostly served their masters well. However, Black Bolt decided what his people were doing was wrong when he became King, and freed them. Things didn't really develop beyond that, but there's definitely some strong storytelling potential here.
2. What We Saw In Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Is Unlikely To Matter
As we mentioned, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. barely canon and not a series Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is likely to reference moving forward, the premise of being an Inhuman is bound to be reinvented. In fact, everything from their involvement in launching HYDRA to how Daisy Johnson got her abilities probably won't matter in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As for the short-lived TV show they appeared in, there's no way that's going to be anything other than rebooted, so don't expect a single cast member from that to make their return in a reboot.
Rumour has it that Marvel Studios will acknowledge the series in Ms. Marvel, using it as an Easter Egg of sorts to poke fun at how bad the ABC/IMAX collaboration ended up being back in 2017.
1. They Could Return To The MCU In Ms. Marvel
Rumour has it that two characters who could appear in the Ms. Marvel TV show on Disney+ are Inhuman Royal Family members Black Bolt and Maximus. Guardians of the Galaxy star Vin Diesel - who, as we said, is desperate to be Black Both - is being considered for the King of the Inhumans. He only voices Groot, so that's not something that would really confuse viewers.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who starred as Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron, was said to be Marvel's top choice to play Maximus, Black Bolt's brother. By the time Ms. Marvel hits screens, seven or eight years will have passed since he starred as the speedster, so they could probably get away with him playing another character (look at Gemma Chan, for example).
This should definitely be taken with a pinch of salt, but it's undeniably intriguing, don't you think?