The end of the year lists are coming in all around us as people reflect on what was a pretty intense 2016. While we will have plenty of retrospectives here at the MCU Exchange as well, this piece is all about what’s coming up for fans of the MCU in 2017 (hint: a hell of a lot). So get out your calendars and get ready for a peek at what you have to look forward to month-by-month next year! This piece obviously contains some speculative time frames in addition to dates already locked in by Marvel.
January
January 15th: Black Panther Begins Filming
This date recently revealed to the public, will represent the first major MCU event of 2017! Expect the usual production announcement and some set photos from Marvel within a week or two of this date. However, don’t expect to see too much in the way of set photos leaking online as much of this film is expected to be shot in-studio or in remote locations.
January 23rd: The Concurrent Filming of Avengers: Infinity War and the Untitled Avengers 4
With Black Panther beginning production a week earlier, the 2nd half of January should be full of announcements and official pictures. Expect a production announcement, which could certainly include a few surprises as the Russos have said we could see some new characters in the film, some official photos and some great teases by the Russo Bros. Twitter account. This is the beginning of the end for the MCU as we know it and filming is expected to go through July.
Casting Begins on The Inhumans
With the Royal Family headed to IMAX screens for Labor Day weekend, it seems reasonable that they’d have to start lining up a cast and a production schedule before long. We here at the MCU Exchange are VERY curious as to what caliber of actor Marvel TV lines up for these roles as we still have hopes of seeing Black Bolt and family crossover to the big screen one day!
Casting Begins on The Runaways
This show is still expected to air on HULU sometime in 2017 (see September for a guess) and with a writer’s room already in gear, we could expect to hear about the main cast as early as January!
February
February 5th: A Spider-Man: Homecoming Superbowl Trailer
It’s the Super Bowl and Sony is definitely intent on making money off their partnership with Marvel. It might be a tiny bit early for a traditional trailer, but I’m guessing that Sony and Marvel Studios will have something special lined up for Super Bowl Sunday. I’d expect this one to give a little more information about the plot of the film and really get us geared up for what already looks to be a fun film.
February 14th: Cloak & Dagger Begins Production in New Orleans
It was to great excitement at the MCU Exchange when a Cloak & Dagger series was announced and set to premier sometime in 2017 on Freeform. Since the original hoopla, however, not much was heard about the show until recently when it was reported that the show was pushed back and wouldn’t air until 2018.
That report can be called into question at this point as we now know that an 86 day shoot will begin in New Orleans on Valentine’s Day under the name “Shadows”. With that schedule, Freeform could easily turn it around for a September premiere.
Captain Marvel Finds a Director
This has been in the works for a while now, with the timeline having been moved around more than once. That’s fine by me as Marvel Studios needs to get this one right. With a star like Brie Larson on board as Carol Danvers, they need to make sure the director they choose has the perfect vision for how to bring her powers into the MCU. This would give the director roughly two years to go from pre-production through the film’s release, a time frame for which there is a great deal of precedent with this studio.
Casting Begins on Ant-Man and The Wasp
This film will start shooting somewhere in mid-summer, so it’s likely to begin casting anytime from the 1st of the year on. While we already know we are going to see some returning characters, the film is sure to introduce some new ones as well, with Janet van Dyne key among them. We’d look for news to trickle in about who will be filling the additional roles right up until the film begins production.
The Runaways Pilot (Probably the Entire Series) Begins Filming
One of the most exciting projects of the year is Marvel’s The Runaways. Announced as a HULU series last year, information has been very scarce, but we do believe HULU is aiming for a September release and that will kick-off with filming in February.
Casting for Jessica Jones Season 2
We’ve heard that the second season of Jessica Jones is expected to film either concurrently with The Defenders or back-to-back. The Defenders began production in late-October and while the Netflix shows have been taking about 6-7 months to film, the smaller 8-episode format should cut some time off of that. With that in mind and our expectation that the JJ crew will be back on set in March, we should see the cast filling out just ahead of filming as has been the case with the Netflix series to date.
March
March 17th: Iron Fist Airs on Netflix
The only thing we know for sure that will happen in March is that we will see Danny Rand’s story unfold over the course of 13 kick ass episodes. We can’t glean much from the trailer and few photos we’ve seen, but the fact that showrunner Scott Buck was chosen to head The Inhumans has to be a good sign. We still expect some surprise additions to the cast given some information we were able to locate, but at this point, we’ve been around long enough to know anything can change.
A Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer
I don’t know that Marvel Studios might not put a Guardians spot in the Super Bowl alongside Spider-Man, but it seems like that would be awfully crowded. Marvel has time to spread these things out and March has been a traditional place for a trailer for their May tentpole films.
Season 2 of Jessica Jones Goes into Production
Though we haven’t been given much in the way of information about any of the shows beyond Iron Fist, we do know that Jessica Jones is expected to begin shooting sometime around the end of production on The Defenders. As mentioned above, this is likely to be that time since we do not currently expect a full 6 month shoot on The Defenders.
April
The Final Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Trailer
It’s been past practice for Marvel to have a final, theatrical trailer run roughly a month ahead of a film’s release, so we’re expecting them to follow suit here. These final trailers usually kick off some intense TV spots that often give away more of the plot than most people want to take in before seeing a movie, but we know so very little about the plot of this film that I might have to watch some this time around!
Thor: Ragnaork Teaser
I fully expect this teaser to run in theaters before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. However, Marvel Studios hardly ever debuts trailers in theaters, preferring instead to release them online, at comic cons or by forcing the masses to watch Jimmy Kimmel, so we will likely get our first look at the conclusion of the Thor Trilogy and the film that seems set to put the Infinity War into motion sometime in late-April.
May
May 5th: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Opens in the U.S.
The first of 3 2017 films, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is going to give Marvel Studios a massive opening to 2017. The first film opened around $94 million and given the good feelings everyone has for that film and the love for the first trailer, it won’t be surprising to see this one open over $100 million.
A Final Spider-Man: Homecoming Trailer
As with Thor: Ragnarok, we fully expect this Spider-Man trailer to run with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but to be put online some time ahead of May 5th. Remember it’s a different studio pushing this film out, but there’s no way they miss out on the opportunity to put this in front of millions of people who will be CRAVING more MCU. With only 2 months between releases, people won’t have to wait long to sate their thirst.
Second Season of Iron Fist Gets Announced
Marvel has pulled the trigger on second seasons for Jessica Jones and Luke Cage about 2 months after the series premiered, so that gives us a general time frame for some sort of announcement about the continuation of Danny Rand’s story. We don’t even know what the first season is about yet, but most of us here are hoping that the epic Immortal Iron Fist comic is explored at some point. Maybe this is too soon, but it’s just too hard to say without knowing where Rand-K’ai ends up at the end of Iron Fist and The Defenders.
June
The Defenders
We have not been given anything official about a release date for The Defenders, so this is a semi-educated guess. We know Iron Fist will be in the spring. We assume The Punisher, which is really just kicking into high gear in its production cycle will air in the fall. The best time to run this out without crowding things up is sometime in June or July. July seems pretty busy, so I put it here to make sure you read it!
Production Begins on Ant-Man and the Wasp
As it stands today, we know nearly nothing about this film other than Peyton Reed is returning to direct Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. Sure, we all have our ideas, but I’d imagine we’ll learn a little more with a production announcement in June. Keep in mind the first film had a tight veil of secrecy around it for quite a while, so this may follow suit.
Casting for Daredevil Season 3/Luke Cage Season 2
This is just casting a line, but Daredevil Season 3 is probably going to shoot sometime in the second half of the year. It seems like they’ll be doing Jessica Jones first, then Daredevil, but it could easily get pushed back and Luke Cage Season 2 could be filming here instead. So whether it’s Daredevil or Luke Cage, we expect to get a slew of casting announcements headed into production.
Thor: Ragnarok Trailer
This probably sounds like a broken record, but with Spider-Man: Homecoming hitting theaters on July 7th, we expect to see a full trailer for Thor: Ragnarok in front of it. So…look for it online sometime in late-June or early-July. I have a feeling that this particular trailer is going to be the most insane trailer Marvel has ever thrown together. There’s a lot of bad vibes out there for the Thor franchise and this is the chance for them to catch the eyes of all the haters. Taika Waititi isn’t playing around here; he’s put together something insane and totally over the top and they will go balls to the wall in this trailer to show it off. Gladiator Hulk for SURE.
July
July 7th: Spider-Man: Homecoming
Finally, Spider-Man has come back to Marvel Studios! The first of what’s expected to be 3 solo films featuring your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man seems like a no-brainer for a huge event. People love Spider-Man. People love the MCU. People love Iron Man. While I’m not box office guru, I won’t be shocked to see this film net over $1B and give us a totally different take on the webhead that will absolutely return him to his rightful place as the most popular superhero on the planet!
Black Panther Teaser
See the other bits about teasers and trailers. Rinse. Repeat. I actually put this here just so it didn’t sound like I made a mistake and was still talking about Thor. I know it seems like you’re getting a lot of teasers and trailers, but that’s because you are. Marvel Studios is turning out 3 films a year, which means at least 9 combined teasers and trailers for those films. They will spread them out to some extent, but they will also absolutely take advantage of their own big films whenever they can. If we don’t get the Black Panther teaser with Spidey, I think I know when we might see it…
July 14th-16th: D23 Expo
We have no current info to support my guess, but past precedent makes it possible that Marvel Studios will not have a huge Hall H presence at Comic-Con this year, opting instead for a big panel at their own party in Anaheim. If I had to guess, and I have to, I’d say we’ll get some Thor stuff, a Black Panther blowout (including footage) and a whole lot of Avengers: Infinity War goodness, which will likely include the first look at footage from the film. We’ll certainly get some sort of updates on Ant-Man and the Wasp (hopefully a title treatment) and Captain Marvel but we can’t honestly expect much more because it’ll already be a lot. While I dream of Feige coming on stage and revealing the Phase 4 lineup, I realize he doesn’t need a convention to do that because random Tuesdays in October seem to work just fine and unless Marvel Studios plants another date in fall of 2019, we might not see anything about the 2020 films until later in the year.
July 19-23 SDCC ’17
Marvel Studios sat out SDCC in 2015 and we’re guessing they will again this summer. That doesn’t mean we won’t get Marvel TV, however, and they’ll have a lot to tell us. We should get updates on some Netflix shows (maybe even some new ones since we’ll have a pretty solid handle on almost all the announced shows and seasons. We could also get some updates on Runaways, Cloak and Dagger or even the rumored New Warriors show, but I would definitely expect that we see something Inhumans related to build the hype for the event TV series coming in the fall.
Daredevil Season 3/Luke Cage Season 2 Begins Production
Until we hear more about the order in which these shows are happening, I’m operating off my guess that Daredevil will happen first, but am totally open to them doing a 2nd season of Luke Cage instead.
Casting for Luke Cage Season 2/Daredevil Season 3
See June for the bulk of the ideas but, IF this is Daredevil, you might expect to actors cast as Bullseye and as Matt’s mom, Sister Maggie to intro some rift on the classic Born Again story. If it’s Cage, well we already gave you our Sweet Christmas wish list!
August
Casting Begins for Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel should go into production in mid-January to early-February of 2018 and Marvel Studios likes to get casting handled 2-6 months in advance whenever possible. Sure there have been plenty of late additions to casts, but it’s not a perfect world. With that being said, we could expect to start hearing some casting news for this film as early as August. It’s hard to even imagine what type of casting that will be since we have nothing in the way of an idea of what this film will be about. Should we expect it to heavily feature the Kree and be a take on an origin story? It sure seems a waste to take someone as powerful as Captain Marvel and keep her Earthbound for an entire film. This one is so far out there that we just don’t know what to expect, but I’m guessing Marvel will follow its precedent of making the first film’s villain someone very similar to the hero, which means we could get a real kick-ass female villain in 2019.
Luke Cage Season 2/Daredevil Season 3 Begins Production
You’ve read this before. September will be more fun. Go to September.
September
September 4th: The Inhumans in IMAX 3D
This is something about which many of us here are incredibly excited. Doug (who you may recognize from MCUEx and The Hangover) has talked about how this is equivalent to network TV’s last stand. This is developing as a huge event, unlike anything network TV has ever seen. As AMC, HBO, Showtime and the like have developed monster, event-like series (The Walking Dead, Westworld, Homeland), networks have devolved into a wasteland of reality-based series that are all just poor imitations of one another. ABC is aiming to change that with this series that really seems to be shaping up as a cinema worthy series. Their plan to kickstart it with an IMAX release (IMAX is footing some of the bill for the series) in an unprecedented partnership means that Black Bolt and the Royal Family are getting big screen quality for the small screen. With some of the series expected to take place ON THE MOON, we’re glad to know we’ll be able to see it on big screen first.
September 26th: The Inhumans Premiere on ABC
After a few weeks in the theaters, the 8-episode run of The Inhumans will come to ABC. Scott Buck, who called the shots on Iron Fist, is in charge and it’ll be fun to see how each of these characters is allowed to develop given 8 hours instead of just the 2 in a movie. In my mind, given the richness of all the characters in the Royal Family, this is a better vehicle for the IP. A 2-hour movie would have been Black Bolt and his amazing friends; this series is going to allow for us to dig deep into multiple characters and really get a sense of who these characters are.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5
No official announcement has happened as of writing this and there’s certainly room for doubt given that the ratings struggle and the fact that The Inhumans is going to air on Tuesdays, AoS’s traditional day. That doesn’t mean we’ve given up hope! Despite the ratings not being great, Season 4 has been a big upgrade in terms of quality and the addition of Robbie Reyes as the Ghost Rider gave the show a huge boost after what felt like an Inhumans arc that dragged on far too long (and poorly). It’ll likely be a while before we find out, but if AoS is back for round 5, we’ll probably see it kick off in late-September like the previous seasons.
The Runaways Airs on HULU
We don’t know much of anything about The Runaways other than how awesome it will be when it airs. HULU may or may not decide to release all episodes at once, but if they don’t, kicking it off in late summer/early fall seems to be a nice idea. Something to consider is that depending on how/if this show ties into other big picture concepts in the MCU and how that might impact a potential release date. For now our real hope is that we get it sometime in 2017, so it’s here as more of a reminder than an actual prediction.
October
Thor: Ragnarok Final Trailer
Part of me wants to think that this might air sometime during September (say with The Inhumans IMAX release), but there should be one final trailer for the film a month or two ahead of time. October looked pretty bleak when I had this in September, so here it is.
The Punisher Airs on Netflix
Assuming that this show, which is in production now, will air in the fall. Part of my brain likes to think that despite the divide between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV, that they’d at least coordinate a little bit about when to push out their products so we don’t have all of everything all at once. Premiering this in October gives The Inhumans time to breathe and allows us to digest the madness of Frank Castle before we head to theaters for Thor: Ragnaork. Whenever this airs, I’m guessing this will be something so far different from the other Marvel series that we won’t know what to think and that’s exactly what I want. The series seems to be taking a fair amount of inspiration from Garth Ennis‘ time on the Punisher MAX title which really gave us a very violent, very different Frank. No reason to think we won’t get that from Jon Bernthal.
Black Panther Trailer
Again, Marvel Studios doesn’t seem to be in the game of premiering trailers with films, so I expect them to find some platform on which to release this trailer a week or so ahead of Thor: Ragnaork. This will be the first official trailer (different from the teaser in July) and should give us the first idea of the scope of the film.
November
November 3: Thor: Ragnarok Opens in the U.S.
For as long as I’ve been thinking ahead to what a Thor movie could be, I’ve always anticipated something like Lord of the Rings meets Flash Gordon and I’ve just always been disappointed. To be clear, that’s my fault but I kind of think that Taika Waititi might be giving me something close to it in this film. As cool as it’s going to be to see some Planet Hulk beats and see more of Doctor Strange hanging out with Thor, I’m much more excited to see how Waititi gives form to what has to be an epic battle ahead of the end of all things. I have always said that any Thor movie should make Jack Kirby and Walt Simonson proud and knowing that the guy making this film feels at least partially the same, I look for a battle against the forces of evil that might be the craziest thing we’ve ever seen in the MCU.
Avengers: Infinity War Teaser
This is such a huge thing I wonder if Marvel Studios may not do what they did with The Avengers and run our first look as a stinger after Thor: Ragnarok. We THINK we know that Thor: Ragnarok is going to be directly tied into the events of Avengers: Infinity War so it would be ok with us if we got an extended post-credits scene linking the two films together that also served as our first teaser. This would be a bit unprecedented for Marvel, but by the time Ragnarok premieres, the film will have been in the can for several months and they will certainly have had time to put together something magnificent.
A Doctor Strange Sequel Announcement
Just wishful thinking here. The first film was a financial and critical success and Scott Derrickson has some great ideas for a sequel. IF Marvel Studios decided to do a 4th film in 2019, they could plant the flag for a Doctor Strange sequel in 2017, falling in line with the typical 2-year window they give the production team. Of course, November 2019 is a pretty busy month already, so it’s much more likely that the Strange sequel ends up claiming one of the already announced 2020 dates.
December
What, you want more stuff? Didn’t you have enough already? Honestly very little typically happens in the month of December given the short amount of time people work. You might get some casting announcements. You might get some random event in which Feige tells us all about Phase 4, but honestly not much goes on. So here’s to enjoying the 2017 holidays with your family and looking forward to the all the MCU Exchange end of the year 2017 lists!
That’s the best I could do guys. I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what I missed in the comments. Whatever you celebrate with your loved ones, do it well and enjoy them. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year…see you soon.
