Most of the reviews for Batman v Superman have been damning to the movie and the DCU. However, the things people were most worried about (Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman) were the elements fans seemed to have enjoyed the most. With this in mind will we finally see some female led Wonder Woman is due for release in June 2017 and is being helmed by Patty Jenkins (writer and director of 2003's Monster which saw Charlize Theron picking up the award for best actress in a leading role). It remains to be seen if the solo outing can be the very thing needed to kick start some female led Superhero franchises but with Patty Jenkins in the directors chair we're in with a great chance. Sure we have Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in the MCU but we still haven't had a standalone movie featuring the Russian spy as the lead. It's interesting to see that DC are more proactive in casting for female Superhero leads.
There is some hope for the MCU though:
Last years Ant-Man was a fun experience and had some strong foundations with which they layered the simple story around. One of the better inclusions was Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne (The Wasp). Will we finally get a strong female Superhero in Ant-Man and the Wasp due 2018? I think so. Evangeline Lilly did a great job as Hope and played well as the strong daughter of Hank Pym who wanted to do the hero stuff but was protected by her father Hank Pym. It was also nice to see the original Wasp tie in with the flashback sevens and assume that we will get to explore the quantum realm in the sequel.
It is exciting to see what the MCU will do with their characters while we approach the next phases and the looming contract negotiations. Will we get a new Iron Man? Will Falcon or Bucky take the Captain America shield? Will Thor finally pay that parking fine? I don't know but two things are clear. One, we need some more character driven villains and two, we need more strong female leads. At least one of those things seems to be en-route with Ant-Man and the Wasp and let's hope that the former also happens. Loki has been the best villain so far in the MCU and it is because he is quite likeable making his actions mean more to the audience. Plus he wears a sweet scarf in The Avengers.
Kevin Feige has been making sounds about Captain Marvel for a while now and while we are a way off a Captain Marvel solo movie (slated for November, 2018) I think the seeds will start to be planted soon in a similar way that Agent Sitwell mentioned Steve Strange in Captain America: The Winter Soldier or how at the end of Ant-Man we hear references to Spider-Man. However Captain Marvel is introduced to the MCU let's hope it will be a strong movie going experience and with Marvel's track record over the last decade we should be in for a belated treat.
The mid credits scene of Ant-Man summed up my thoughts exactly ending with Hope being given the Wasp outfit while growling "it's about damn time".
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