Entertainment

Could This Be *The* Big Marvel Announcement?

by Alanna Bennett

Comic-Con 2014 is but a mere ten days away. Have you prepared yourself properly? Stocked up on supplies? Are you prepared for the onslaught? Whether you're attending the convention or not, Comic-Con and everything that comes with it have come to symbolize one of the most frenetic times of the year for anyone who pays attention to movies and TV. Revelations, announcements, star hijinks — you name it, Comic-Con will provide it, along with long-winded dissertations on the benefits of Star Trek: The Original Series over J.J. Abrams' interpretation (or vice versa). And now it appears one of the ruling factions of Comic-Con is gearing up to launch the season before people have even started packing: Marvel's announcing something on The View Tuesday, and it's bound to be big.

Marvel sent out a very brief press release Monday that, predictably, got a bunch of people all in a tizzy. Titled, per The Mary Sue, "MARVEL ANNOUNCES AN ALL-NEW THUNDERING TITLE ON THE VIEW!", it read:

Marvel is excited to announce that on Tuesday, July 15th, at 11AM EST, it will be announcing its latest explosive title live on the Emmy-Winning, daily talk show The View.

It's already got a lot of people predicting a lot of different things, including but not limited to (and don't worry, we've left saved the best for last):

Something to do with Thor:

Perhaps the title to the third Thor movie? This has one main hint to support it: The use of the word "thundering" in the press release.

Star Wars comics:

Bleeding Cool reported that Marvel was planning to announce their new Star Wars comics the week before Comic-Con. Is this that? And if so, why would they choose to do so on The View?

Some other kind of comics:

Based on people's reactions on twitter, no one can really agree on whether they mean comic book titles or movie announcement with this tease. It could really be anything, though considering the daytime talk show as the announcement place it's likely to be something with a pretty broad reach.

It also begs the question: Why would they choose The View of all place to announce some new comic books? Even Star Wars ones. Why would they even chose it to announce more Thor? They're Marvel, they hardly lack options. Like when they chose to announce the first Muslim Ms. Marvel in the New York Times, there's likely a reason they're going with the women of The View as the first to get this news.

Which leaves us with:

A female superhero solo project

If a movie doesn't pan out it could also be another Marvel TV project — perhaps a show for Thor's Lady Sif, if we're following that use of "thundering"? Did they finally cast a Jessica Jones for their Netflix series? Or is a Captain Marvel movie happening? Someone else entirely?

But most specifically, we're guessing:

A Black Widow solo movie

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Marvel is out of their minds if they don't see the draw of a Black Widow solo movie. If they can make Thor — capes and gods and magical lightning and all — a successful movie then they can make a movie starring Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow a successful movie. An action-thriller bringing in Natasha Romanoff's past as a soviet spy and her current status as an Avenger who's had her dirty laundry exposed to the world? That shit could be damn intriguing. We'll find out in a few hours what Marvel's actually cooking up, but let's hope it's this. Johansson's contract's bound to end eventually, they've got to act while they can.