Upcoming Marvel Character Mysteries

The Marvel Cinematic Universe grows more complex with each film and live action series. Marvel has decades' worth of comic stories to draw inspiration from, and what we know so far about the MCU's plans is pretty epic, ranging from familiar sequels to entirely new teams of superheroes. Many Marvel films and TV series are currently in development, and we don't really know a thing about some of them yet. Let's shed some light on these new, mysterious characters coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

There have been no less than seven different heroes in Marvel's comics that have gone by the name Captain Marvel (and let's not even touch the one published by DC Comics), but Marvel's sources say that the 2019 film will feature the blonde, energy manipulating heroine Carol Danvers. The Hollywood Reporter mentioned that a Captain Marvel script was in development in 2013, before Carol Danvers was tentatively scheduled to appear in Netflix's Jessica Jones. The Danvers character was later replaced by future-Hellcat Patsy Walker, and the onetime Ms. Marvel was saved for the big screen instead of the binge screen.

Captain Marvel, who derives her powers from alien Kree DNA, easily ties into existing Marvel Cinematic Universe mythology, since Kree have already appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, and they also have a huge part in creating the powers of the Inhumans. Katee Sackhoff is a fan favorite for the role, though nothing has been revealed as of this writing.

The Inhumans are another aspect of the Marvel Universe that made their first appearance in TV's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when Agent Skye went in search of her parents and found super-powered humanoids instead. So far, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has just used Inhumans as a cheap stand-in for mutants, since Marvel Studios doesn't have the rights to anything even slightly mutant-related, but the Inhumans were scheduled to get their own movie in 2019...until that film was quietly taken off the schedule in April 2016.

As far as Marvel Comics is concerned, the king of the race of alien experiments is Black Bolt, a man whose whisper can level mountains. As a result, Bolt is relegated to a life of total silence, and literally unspeakable power. Any grumpy, hunky actors who don't want a speaking role out there?

As the queen of the Inhumans, Medusa is also a critical character in the Marvel mythos, since she's the communicator between Black Bolt's subtle silence and the rest of the world. She also has crazy, prehensile hair, because why not? If The Inhumans film does anything right, they'll cast a dour, powerful actress in her role, and finish off the team with the brutal, Earth-shaking Gorgon, the ultra-ninja Karnak, and...the dripping wet Triton.

The Inhumans are basically another superhero team with a wicked persecution complex, cursed to have awesome powers which also happen to isolate and deform them, unlike those handsome X-Men. As a result, the Inhumans are perpetually angry, so it may be tough to make them likeable. But hey, people watched Seinfeld, and all of those guys were absolute trash people. Then again, if the movie never makes its way back onto the schedule, this speculation may end up being moot.

Guardians of the Galaxy fans have been speculating about the mysterious identity of Peter Quill's father from the moment the the movie's credits started to roll. In the comics, Star-Lord's dad is the obscure J'Son of Spartax, an outer-space emperor-turned-criminal with a love of lovin' on Earth women. But Marvel has already confirmed that we're going to get surprise parentage in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

In this case, we know that the unknown babydaddy will be played by Kurt Russel, according to Vanity Fair, but Russel's on-screen identity is still top secret, at least as of this writing. Two big possibilities have been floating around however: the Kree Captain Mar-Vell, based on a supposed script leak, or Adam Warlock, based on some Easter eggs from the film, and the fact that he's set to be a very prominent figure in the whole upcoming Infinity War thing.

Still in early development, the idea of a Cloak & Dagger TV series was first floated around on April Fool's Day as a patently ridiculous idea. But a few days later, many news sources reported that the series was actually in development for Freeform, causing mass confusion and doubt. Rest assured, it's moving forward.

The show will be the third entry into Marvel's live-action-TV lineup, joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, and will focus on the show's titular characters: a lady who can throw shards of hard light, and a solemn dude who wears a magical, teleporting cloak of darkness. The 2017 show is billed as a "teenage superhero romance," but here's hoping that it's not just Dawson's Creek with more Morbius.

If the Marvel universe seems a little bleak after the ultra-violence of Daredevil and the psychological horror of Jessica Jones' Killgrave, Damage Control promises to lighten the mood a bit. The show will be a half-hour, Office-like sitcom run by Daily Show and Colbert Report alum Ben Karlin, which sounds awesome already. The comic book Damage Control features a team of civilians, and an occasional superhero guest, who have to clean up after our favorite heroes' destructive battles. Marvel's eye for humor is just as solid as its eye for action, and if you spotted the couple of background mentions of the team in Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D., you've known this has been coming for a long time.

By the end of 2016, filming is scheduled to begin on The Defenders, a Netflix series which will join Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist together as a New York superteam fighting against...something. The series is taking a very methodical, careful approach to coming together by introducing each hero in their own series. But will surely also follow Marvel Cinematic Universe patterns by giving them a pretty big, previously unseen villain to fight together. Let's just hope it's not Stilt-Man or New York's most devious threat yet: election fraud.