Marvel announces new Black Panther, Fantastic Four and Ant-Man films

Marvel Studios has announced a slate of new Phase 4 films, including Black Panther II, Fantastic Four and an Ant-Man sequel.

The next wave of Marvel movies should give us a peek into the future direction of the LEGO Marvel theme. The LEGO Group hasn’t shied away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past eight years, so it’s very likely that we’ll see sets based on every Phase 4 movie.

That means we can finally expect minifigures of Marvel’s First Family, as veteran Spider-Man director Jon Watts will helm a new Fantastic Four movie for Marvel Studios. There’s no release date yet, though, so we could be waiting a while.

Black Panther II, on the other hand, is full steam ahead for a July 8, 2022 release. The LEGO Group released two sets on the first Black Panther movie, so it’s safe to assume we’ll see more for the sequel. Ryan Coogler is returning to direct the movie, which won’t recast T’Challa after Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing earlier this year. Instead, it will apparently honour the actor’s legacy while focusing on the wider world of Wakanda.

Marvel Studios has also announced that Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Peyton Reed are all coming back to complete their small-scale trilogy with Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Kathryn Newton is joining the cast as Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott Lang (better known as the eponymous Ant-Man), while Jonathan Majors will portray Kang the Conqueror.

The iconic supervillain’s only LEGO appearance so far has been in video games, including as the central antagonist in 2017’s LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. Given both previous Ant-Man films have each inspired a corresponding LEGO set, we’ll hopefully finally see Kang in minifigure form when the movie arrives in cinemas.

Captain Marvel 2, meanwhile, will bring together Brie Larson as Carol Danvers and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel when it premieres on November 11, 2022. Vellani will also portray Kamala Khan in the upcoming Disney+ Ms. Marvel series. Both characters have already appeared in LEGO sets, but we can expect fresh new variants of them to tie in with the movie.

Finally, Marvel has provided updates on a handful of projects currently in production. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will debut on March 25, 2022, with Sam Raimi on directing duties and Xochitl Gomez joining the cast as fan-favourite comic character America Chavez.

Christian Bale will take on the role of Gorr the God Butcher in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder. If you’re not familiar with that particular Marvel villain, well, the name sort of speaks for itself. We’re expecting big things from the fourth Thor movie, and at least two LEGO sets to accompany it, in line with Thor: Ragnarok.

Production has also wrapped on Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, which will arrive in cinemas on July 9, 2021. It’s directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, with a cast including Simu Liu, Tony Leung, Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng. We’re hoping for something decidedly different from LEGO Marvel to tie in with what are admittedly lesser-known comic book characters.

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