Saturday, October 3, 2015

More Marvel One-Shots possibly on the way

As part of their coverage of the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Screen Rant noticed this wonderful bit of news from Kevin Feige:
“We talk about that [Marvel One-Shots] a lot actually, because when you have tables like that (lots of potential storylines, most unexplored in the finished film), and we go, What are we going to do with Howard [the Duck]? What are we going to do with Cosmo? We should do a one shot with Michael Pena. I mean, the universe is big. We’re moving up to three movies a year and I’m not sure how much beyond that we can go so the one shots are great for: ‘oh we have this great idea, wouldn’t it be fun to see…’ We talk about it a lot. We’re a relatively small team. We’re comfortable doing three movies a year so it’s just about finding the time and the place. But we have a backlog of ideas.”
They also mention that Marvel's "own internal research has proven that including these shorts as exclusive content on home video releases significantly boosts sales and promotional opportunities."

For those who aren't familiar, the Marvel One-Shots (named for a comic book line by the same name) are short films that work in-between the larger films and television shows, often showcasing minor characters, filling in plot holes, or just exploring things that were interesting, but just didn't fit into a larger movie. They've been included as exclusive content on the Blu-ray editions of some of the films (some can also be found online). To date, we've seen:
  • The Consultant – Agents Coulson and Sitwell discuss how to sabotage the plan to bring the Abomination (from the Incredible Hulk) into the Avengers Initiative. 
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer – Agent Coulson stops a convenience store robbery on the way to the first Thor movie.
  • Item 47 – A couple of low-level crooks find a Chitauri weapon left over from the Battle of New York.
  • Agent Carter – Peggy Carter takes on a dangerous criminal by herself while working at the SSR. This ended up getting turned into the Agent Carter television series.
  • All Hail the King – While in prison, Trevor Slattery (who pretended to be the Mandarin in Iron Man 3) is interviewed by someone who is more than he first appears.
That last one, by the way, is a masterpiece. Not only does it redeem the whole "they ruined the Mandarin forever!" complaint that many people shared (I'm not one of them - I loved the twist), but we also see Justin Hammer (from Iron Man 2) in a cameo, and Ben Kingsley is absolutely brilliant as the clueless stoner who can, seemingly at the flick of a switch, turn on the steely-eyed killer.

I love these one-shots, and have really been disappointed that they haven't done more. A one-shot with Cosmo, the telepathic Russian dog from Guardians of the Galaxy? Ten minutes of Michael Pena (from Ant-Man) doing his shtick? Something with the Collector, or watching a Nova Corps operative take out some space-criminal? A 1960's Nazi hunter in Argentina coming across an old Hydra officer? Someone comes nosing around Barton's farm who shouldn't be there? Seeing Jessica Jones come into the office of Murdock & Nelson for a consultation on some case? A day in the life of Aunt May (with Spider-Man always in the background somewhere)?

Oh, yes please.

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