The 'Avengers' Effect

The 'shared universe' concept has been in fiction for decades. Tolkein's Middle-Earth. The various Star Trek films and TV shows. Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob crossovers. And then, of course, there's the Marvel and DC continuities. Crossovers have always been popular, but the implications of creating an interweaving mythology are far greater. It's a concept that seemed to appeal more to nerds than causal film-goers. Then the Avengers became the third highest grossing film of all time. The Marvel Universe now exists on celluloid, and over the next few years it will continue to grow. But as with any popular show or film, success breeds imitators.

Every decade or so, Hollywood experiences a "paradigm shift." When a certain film gains a huge amount of success, it becomes a game changer that influences how movies are made from then on. "Jaws" and "Star Wars" created the blockbuster format. "The Little Mermaid" led to the Disney Renaissance of animation. "Jurassic Park" led to the CGI boom, which Pixar capitalized on to make "Toy Story" the first all-CGI film. "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" led to the re-emergence of fantasy epics. "Avatar" showed how powerful immersive 3D technology can be. But now we are in the midst of a new paradigm shift, one where the shared universe concept is becoming dominant.

Before "The Avengers," you could make a solid case for Chris Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy causing a new paradigm shift in Hollywood. The dark, realistic take on Batman has indeed influenced other franchises, most notably James Bond and Star Trek. This year, Nolan will produce the Superman reboot, "Man of Steel," which also looks to use the Dark Knight treatment in grounding the big blue boy scout. But while the Dark Knight films may have grossed over two billion dollars, it's slowly becoming old news. Nolan's trilogy is over, and Batman has been cast aside in favor of the Avengers, an entire team of superheroes. How exactly has Hollywood reacted to the Avengers' overwhelming success since its release? Just look at the news.

Besides Disney/Marvel moving full speed ahead with Phase II, the other Marvel projects at Sony and Fox are taking their leads from "Avengers." This year's "The Wolverine" will, in all likelihood, lead in to next year's "Days of Future Past," a time travel story which promises to cross over the original X trilogy with "First Class." The filmmakers at Fox are expanding the scope, fleshing out the X-Men film universe and straightening their continuity. Crossing over timelines and having films build into a larger story arc is the perfect way to build a shared universe. And the fact that Mark Millar has been brought in to shepherd all of Fox's Marvel properties means that at some point, a rebooted Fantastic Four will get to play in this X-Men film universe as well.

Not only that, but the direction Sony is taking with their rebooted "Spider-Man" series looks like they're also expanding their scope. Besides the Green Goblin build up, we know Rhino and Electro will be the villains and there's reason to believe we may get a build up to the Venom storyline and introduced to the Black Cat. If the rumors are true, Venom may actually get his own spin off film and then unite with Spider-Man and Black Cat in a later film, possibly against the Goblin or even the Sinister Six if Rhino and Electro live to see the credits. Just like X-Men, Sony is hoping to use the extensive cast of Spidey characters to create a larger universe, all in the hopes of getting that "Avengers" money.

But of course DC wants in on the action as well. They've been trying to make either a "Superman/Batman" or "Justice League" movie for years, but every attempt has fallen through. When "The Avengers" made bank, a Justice League film was put into production for a 2015 release. Word has it the script's been scrapped and WB is waiting on the results of "Man of Steel" to move forward with the project, but it's clear at some point DC wants to make this happen. They may not have the momentum that Marvel has, but they're smart enough to see the appeal of crossovers, and if Superman is the massive success they're hoping for, expect a Justice League film sooner rather than later.

Then again, superheroes come from shared universes already. How could all of Hollywood possibly be affected by this, instead of just one genre? Well, there's this little thing called Star Wars that's been in a lot of headlines lately. Not only is Disney moving forward with the long-rumored Episodes VII, VIII and IX, but apparently we're also getting spin-off films for Yoda, Boba Fett and Han Solo. It's obvious that Disney doesn't just want Star Wars to consist of three trilogies charting the Skywalker family- they want an interlocking universe of stories, similar to the Expanded Universe, that focuses on different characters that can then unite in the main Episodes. "The Avengers" model is already influencing one of the biggest film franchises of all time, turning the main series into an entire universe of interlocking franchises that build into one mega-franchise. And if "Star Wars" jumps on the bandwagon, what other series will?

"Star Trek" at one point had three different TV shows airing at once, all of them crossing over with each other. Since the reboot, the universe has been streamlined, but whose to say after they finish rebooting Kirk and Spock they couldn't move on to the Next Generation, Voyager and DS9 crews? It would be interesting to see all of those shows get modernized casts then build up for a massive crossover film, maybe involving the Borg or the Dominion War. Even though J.J. Abrams is jumping ship to Star Wars, he's still producing Star Trek. If Abrams leads Star Wars into the shared universe model, he could do the same for Star Trek as well.

Middle-Earth could potentially do this too, if after the Hobbit trilogy WB decides to adapt the Silmarillion as a series of films focusing on the different stories and characters that forge Middle-Earth's backstory. What if Doctor Who and Torchwood ever get feature films, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel? Will they have interlocking stories that build into a crossover spectacle? If Star Wars does get solo films, Hollywood will see the shared universe concept as more than just world building for superheroes. Any major franchise may get greenlit based on its potential to inhabit a shared universe.

The crossover will be the new paradigm shift, and soon every major franchise will be vying to have its own "Avengers" style event film. Only time will tell if this truly becomes a reality, but given all the news about the future of superheroes and Star Wars, it's not hard to imagine other big franchises capitalizing on the shared universe concept. If it does happen, hopefully the studios will take the time to craft an interweaving mythos that benefits the story and characters, as it did for the Avengers.

Fanfic: Iron Man 3 Revision

Almost a year ago, on a whim, I decided to create a fanfic speculating about what Iron Man 3 would be about, using information I already knew combined with speculation of where Tony would be post-Avengers. Now Avengers is out, the film is coming in May and we already have posters and trailers revealing more info, including the recent Super Bowl TV spot. Between the given footage and all the rumors out there about what may go down, I decided to take all this footage and even the various rumors and work out a new plot for the Armored Avenger's third outing.

We begin the film by exploring the world's post-Avengers mindset. The World Security Council and several government higher ups are pissed off that SHIELD isn't tracking the Avengers and that these powerful super humans aren't under government control. As a result, the government redesigns Rhodey's War Machine armor to give it the friendlier moniker of the Iron Patriot, and takes out a contract with A.I.M. to try and create a new Captain America serum. Scientists Aldrich Killian and Maya Hansen create the Extremis nanotech virus as a result, and begin looking for human candidates.

Meanwhile, Tony is becoming more paranoid after his journey through the portal traumatized him. Convinced he needs to be prepared should another large scale attack happen, Tony rapidly speeds through several armor designs and gets to the Mark XLII, a version that he can mentally control with a tech-com link. When he begins having nightmares about being unable to save Pepper, the armor subconsciously springs to life to check up on her, making Tony wonder if his paranoia and obsession with upgrades is causing him to lose his humanity.

Killian grows desperate for human trials and, through shady deals, meets the Mandarin, leader of the Ten Rings society who had dealings with Obadiah Stane, Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer. Mandarin seeks revenge against Tony and also wishes to enact a master plan to remove the public's idolization of super heroes, while consolidating his own power. He hires mercenaries Eric Savin and Jack Taggert to undergo the Extremis procedure, and they are transformed into Coldblood and Firepower. Mandarin sends helicopters to blow up Tony's home, and he escapes in his suit while Rhodey saves Happy Hogan. During this time Pepper finds out Tony, in his paranoia, built a suit of armor for her, called the Rescue armor, should she need to escape a hostile environment. She escapes the crashing mansion in the Rescue armor.

Tony, utterly defeated, finds his way to Russia, realizing he needs to get off the grid. He works his way to China to rondevue with Dr. Chen Lu and Maya Hansen, who has left A.I.M.'s employ after learning of Killian's deal. Rhodey, Pepper and Hogan meet up there as well. It turns out that Lu is already under the Mandarin's employ and sells them out to Killian, who sends Coldblood and Firepower to deal with them. Lu is given an Extremis dose and is transformed into the Radioactive Man, who kills Hogan. Tony, Rhodey and Pepper fight Coldblood, Firepower and Radioactive Man, and the fight ends with the former villains killed and the latter taken into custody by a mysterious female SHIELD agent.

In the fight, Pepper's Rescue armor and Rhodey's Iron Patriot armor is heavily damaged, forcing Pepper to discard her suit and Rhodey to resort to the War Machine armor. Tony is badly injured, and the only way to save him is to undergo the Extremis procedure himself. When he emerges, he finds he no longer needs a tech-com link and can mentally summon the armor by thought alone, as well as communicate with other forms of technology via the nanobots that run through his system. Tony resolves his identity crisis when he realizes that technology will improve him but never consume him.

Killian, using footage from the Coldblood, Firepower and Radioactive Man trials, boards Air Force One for a meeting with the President and the rest of the Executive Branch, hoping to make his case for Extremis as a viable military application. The meeting is a ruse to rig the plane, killing the Executive Branch so Mandarin can make his move: unleashing a homeland invasion of America with an army of Extremis infused Ten Rings mercenaries. Iron Man and War Machine board Air Force One as it explodes. War Machine captures Killian while Iron Man saves the 13 freefalling passengers.

As Mandarin's army marches, Tony, Rhodey, Pepper and Maya travel to Stark Tower, where Tony reveals his secret weapon: a fully functional Hall of Armors, almost 40 different models all able to be remotely activated and controlled. He used a combo of his Mark XLII tech-com link and reverse engineered Hammer Drone tech to accomplish this. Tony has himself, Pepper, Rhodey and Maya each control 10 armors, leading them into battle against Mandarin's Extremis army.

With the fight ended, Tony races off for a final confrontation with the Mandarin, who reveals that he named his Ten Rings organization off the ten rings that he wears. The rings were miniature repulsion drives for an ancient alien starship that crash landed in the Middle East thousands of years ago, which Mandarin found and fashioned into rings. He studied them but could never get them to work, but after injecting himself with Extremis he is now mentally bonded to them and can unleash devastating blasts of energy at his opponents. Iron Man and Mandarin engage in an intense battle that ends when Tony forcibly cuts off Mandarin from his rings, a process which eventually kills him.

The mysterious female SHIELD agent returns to talk with Tony, and reveals herself to be Janet Van Dyne, a high ranking scientist and partner to one Henry Pym. Janet thanks Tony for collapsing Mandarin's Ten Rings empire, and says they have Killian in custody and have confiscated the rest of Extremis. Mandarin's story of the rings gets Tony thinking about what other threats are lying out there in the stars. Donning a new deep space armor, the film ends with Tony rocketing off into the cosmos after saying goodbye to Pepper.

In an after credits scene, Janet meets with Dr. Pym, who is pouring over the Extremis tech and leftover Iron Man drones pondering the possibilities of A.I. Wanting to know more, Janet takes him to meet Radioactive Man, where Pym asks him to tell him everything he knows.

I have no idea how accurate this plot will be to the final product, but this was created through what I know of the story, what plot points I could gather from the trailers, and the various rumors floating around online about who will show up and what will happen. Whatever we end up getting, I hope that Iron Man 3 doesn't dissapoint.