How the new Avengers movie fits into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe

Avengers: Age of Ultron is about midway through Marvel’s current release schedule of intertwining superhero movie blockbusters
--------------------------------------------------
PHASE ONE 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU): Movies that share common plot elements, settings, cast and characters

Iron Man  The Incredible Hulk 

Least successful of all MCU movies to date, grossing $263.43m worldwide(cost $150m to make)

Iron Man 2 MOVIES

Thor  Captain America: The First Avenger

The Avengers

First Avengers movie made for $220m and grossed $1.52bn in global box office receipts, cementing future of franchise
-------------------------------------------------
PHASE TWO 2013 2014 2015 2016

Iron Man 3 Thor: The Dark World TV SHOWS Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Guardians of the Galaxy Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2

Avengers: Age of Ultron Ant-Man Agent Carter Netflix ORIGINALS Daredevil A.K.A.Jessica Jones

Avengers: Age of Ultron in cinemas from April 22

Captain America: Civil War Doctor Strange In comics Doctor Strange is founding member of The Defenders Iron Fist Luke Cage The Defenders

Characters from four Netflix shows, all set in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, likely to combine to form ensemble troop The Defenders
-----------------------------------------------
PHASE THREE 2017 2018 2019

Guardians 3000† Thor:Ragnarok Spider-Man

New deal with Sony Pictures, who hold rights to Spider-Man movies, means
he will finally join MCU

Avengers: Infinity War (Part 1) Black Panther

Captain Marvel

Avengers: Infinity War (Part 2) May appear in Avengers: Infinity War
(Part 2)

Race of aliens who experiment with Cro-Magnon DNA, to effect strain of modern day super-powered human beings

Inhumans

Known links

Speculated links

Bruce Banner/ The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)

Tony Stark/ Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr)

Steve Rogers/ Captain America (Chris Evans)

Thor (Chris Hemsworth)

Avengers include superheroes Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), neither of whom, to date, feature in their own movie franchises
-------------------------------------------------
Sources: Marvel, Empire, Variety, Cinema Blend, Box Office Mojo, IMDB

* titled Avengers Assemble in UK

† working title

Picture and character likenesses © Marvel Studios

words 338