Marvel and Disney have announced a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger will make its box office debut on April 4, 2014.
Chris Evans will reprise the role of Steve Rogers / Captain America, now trapped in our modern day with everyone he knew and loved long gone. The sequel will pick up where The Avengers leaves off, with Rogers continuing his new relationship with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D while searching for acceptance and comfort in modern times. Whether this storyline also includes S.H.I.E.L.D. staples Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) remains to be seen.
Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been working on Captain America sequel ideas since last year. In numerous interviews, they said the story will likely take place primarily in the present, but flashbacks to Rogers’ World War II days will also be used to further progress his character’s arc.
No one is currently attached to direct Captain America 2, though several frontrunners have been outed. They include George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job) and co-directors Anthony and Joseph Russo (TV’s Community).
One possible scenario for Rogers’ next adventure would see him encountering the Winter Soldier in modern times, the man he once knew as Bucky Barnes. In Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky fell off a speeding train into a wintery abyss, setting up the comic storyline of the Winter Soldier who, like Cap, became encased in ice.
Another scenario could see the return of Red Skull from the whatever realm he was dumped to at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. With Loki already proving someone can return from a tumble into the seemingly vastness of space, Skull could come back with an all-new army and revenge swirling the mind.
With Iron Man 3 gearing up to commence production next month, Captain America 2 isn’t expected to get underway until later this year at the earliest.
The current lineup for Avengers-world Marvel films is now as follows: The Avengers (May 4, 2012), Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013), Thor 2 (November 15, 2013), Captain America 2 (April 4, 2014) and an Untitled Marvel Film (May 16, 2014). The Avengers 2 is expected to be released as either that untitled film or in 2015 per comments made recently by Marvel boss Kevin Feige.
Expect the next Captain America 2 announcement to be Marvel’s choice for a director.
To go along with the Captain America sequel news, Disney passed along a new high resolution still from The Avengers featuring the star-spangled man (see below).
