Kevin Feige and the crew at Marvel Studios are looking to build an oscillating movie universe. That is, a series of individual films that are punctuated by a periodic joining together in the form of Avengers movies. Everything separates out before coming back together again. My main problem with this, and I suppose the test we will see in Marvel’s Phase 2, is that you can’t un-ring the big bell of The Avengers. Once audiences have experienced the ‘team’ picture, how are you going to get them on board for the individual films again?

Phase 1 was all about the foreplay, tickling fanboy’s and general audience’s fancy with mediocre individual hero films whose only crossing over points were in the final moments of a post-credits stinger. Each film building audience anticipation for The Big One. Well, Marvel shot it’s load with The Avengers and now it’s going back to tickling.

“It’s not about going bigger,” Kevin Feige said in and interview with Collider, “I mean certainly you want to up the ante, you want to exceed people’s expectations, but I think there are various ways of doing that and Iron Man 3 is a very, very good test for us of doing exactly that.”

The success of Iron Man 3 so far is certainly a good indicator for this theory. However Marvel will have to keep excitement brewing on through the other character’s films — especially Phase 2 newcomer Guardians of the Galaxy and into Phase 3 with another new hero in Ant-Man.

Feige continued to downplay the role of action in subsequent Phase 2 Marvel films, especially Avengers 2. “What is most interesting to us and why we hired Joss Whedon in the first place is the interaction between the characters,” Feige said. “That’s more fun to us than the massive action scenes that are gonna have to come with it.”

I think 90 percent of The Avengers’ audience would disagree, Kevin, but go on.

“We’re gonna have to be clever and raise the bar, but already the scenes that Joss has of just the characters sitting around and interacting are hilarious and are awesome and are moving and a notch or two above the first movie, and to me that’s where you wanna top yourself.”

Alright everyone, so prepare yourselves for Avengers 4: European Vacation.

SOURCE: Total Film