Ever since it was announced that Batman vs Superman– the tentative title for WB/DC’s sequel to Man of Steel– was moved to May 6, 2016, all eyes have been on Marvel. See, Marvel announced long ago that May 6 of that year was when the studio was going to launch the first of its Phase Three films. They never announced what the film would be, but they made claim to that date. Then months later, amid reports that Warner Bros was making adjustments to its DC plans (including my exclusive assertion from someone in-the-know that Batman vs Superman / JLA would now be filming back-to-back), they announced they’d be co-habitating May 6.

IGN had the chance to ask Marvel honcho Kevin Feige, point blank, if the Avengers studio was going to shift the release of its first Phase Three movie. He started with this opening line: “The more the merrier.” He then continued, “We’re still on that date and we’re going to be announcing soon what the movie will be on that date. That’s what we’re sort of actively working on as we get ready to firm up and get into pre-production what will be the two films for ’16 and the two films for ’17.“

The current thinking amongst the folks covering these films is that the movie that will take on DC’s Holy Trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman will be none other than Doctor Strange. But when will we know for sure? “I hope it will be [announced] in the coming months. If it coincides with Comic-Con that would be nice, but if it happens before that or after that we’ll see,” said Feige. Then he pointed out that Marvel’s goal is never to rush into something- like announcing at Comic Con- until they have everything in place. “It’s not about the best time to make an announcement for us. It’s about when the team coalesces and when we find a group of collaborators that we want to spend the next two or three years with to bring one of the movies to life,” he added, in what could’ve been a veiled swipe at DC for announcing Batman vs Superman with a date at last year’s Comic-Con, only to have to backpedal and change the plan later on.

If you ask me, Marvel is in a win-win position here. If they make an excellent Strange movie- which they’ve been preparing to do for years- then one of two things will happen. It’ll open at #2, syphon off many of the casual fans that might’ve seen Batman vs Superman, and weaken the impact of what DC was hoping would be a huge game-changing film that bridges them over to Justice League. Or, they somehow open at #1 and show DC who’s boss. The latter is highly unlikely, of course.

It’s not like Marvel views Doctor Strange as on the level of DC’s titans anyway, so essentially using the character to knock them down a peg, soften their box office, and show the power of the Marvel brand, could be enough for them.

Another likely scenario is that one of the studios will adjust the release by a day or two. It’s not uncommon for a blockbuster to suddenly shift back to Wednesday of that same week, and market it as a big event. I remember when WB was set to release Superman Returns and knew that the sequel to the behemoth Pirates of The Caribbean: The Black Pearl was set to arrive a week later, they moved SR back to Wednesday to create a little more breathing room between themselves as Pirates- which was set to have an insane weekend. They made that move only 2-3 weeks prior to the film coming out. So, based on the early buzz for both films, the scores from test audiences, and the confidence of the studios, it’s likely we’ll see one of them jump to Wednesday at the last minute during this interesting game of chicken.

What do you make of all this? How do you think it will play out? Discuss. SOURCE: IGN