Everyone knows that Marvel Studios has given the world some of the most beloved and successful movies in recent memory. But there’s so much more to know about what goes on behind the scenes at the company, and how it all came to be. Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about Marvel Studios—and its upcoming films. In the past decade, Marvel Studios has given us some of the most memorable movie experiences of our lives: from watching a man in a purple suit crawl up an NYC skyscraper to watching aliens fight Norse gods, these films have stayed with us forever. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you already know everything there is to know about Marvel Studios and its extensive library of films—everything except for these facts.
On-set camaraderie is crucial for Marvel Studios films.
Before shooting even begins, actors are put through months of extensive training in martial arts, weapons training, and more to prepare them for the big roles they’ll be playing. Directors typically cast people who are close to each other in real life, too, so that the on-set friends can maintain their friendship off-screen. This is because Marvel Studios films are massively, massively successful—but also because the company has a history of rushing through production to meet deadlines, which can lead to behind-the-scenes drama and, ultimately, a less-than-stellar final product.
Marvel Studios doesn’t have a movie in development.
One thing you’ll notice about the list of Marvel films is that many of them don’t have release dates—and that’s because the company doesn’t plan too far ahead in the first place. The idea is to have a general sense of what’s upcoming to avoid the production stumbles that have happened in the past. This makes sense, too, given how actors and directors can come and go from the company, and how many times a director’s vision for a film has to be reworked before finally being released. This is why we have a solid idea of what films are coming in the next couple of years—but not a clue about what’s happening beyond 2021.
There are two different MCU timelines you should know about.
The first timeline is called the “main” timeline and includes the films released between 2008 and 2019: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Captain Marvel. This timeline also includes the films that are planned to be released between now and 2022: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Captain Marvel.
The MCU has an extensive catalog of comics you can check out after you see the movies.
If you’d like to read more about the characters and stories behind the films you’ve already seen, there are plenty of comics you can check out from Marvel’s extensive catalog. The company has been publishing comics since the 1940s and is one of the biggest names in the industry. Marvel has published thousands of stories and created hundreds of characters, many of which have been brought to life in the films. There are also a few comics that are set in the MCU timeline and feature some of your favorite characters. You can find these comics at most bookstores or online.
A lot of the action sequences in Marvel movies are performed by stunt doubles, not the actors themselves.
Most actors take pride in the fact that they do all of their own stunts, but some of the scenes in Marvel films are done by stunt doubles—not because the actors themselves can’t handle the stunts, but because it makes the scenes look more realistic, and the actors feel safer performing them. You may not have even noticed this going on, but it’s true. This is particularly true in scenes where the characters are fighting each other: while Iron Man and Captain America have really put up a good fight against each other, the actors are not actually fighting each other.
Stan Lee didn’t write all of those Marvel Comics you read as a kid.
There’s a misconception that all of the comics that were written when Marvel Comics was first formed were written by Stan Lee, the company’s former CEO and Chairman. This is the case for a small portion of the comics, but not for a majority of them. For many years, Marvel hired writers from all around the world to create stories for their comics, and many of these writers were based in Asia. This is why Asian characters like Iron Man and Wong are so prevalent in the books—these characters were created by Asian writers.