Why Doesn't Thor get Help from The Avengers in THOR: THE DARK WORLD?
The second phase of Marvel's movie plan is really interesting because they kind of have to avoid calling their Avengers teammates for help. Tony Stark couldn't call for their help in Iron Man 3, and Thor isn't able to ask for their help either in Thor: The Dark World. Marvel president Kevin Feige explains why in a recent interview with io9. When asked about these individual heroes not being able to ask for the help of the Avengers this is what he said,
That’s a new issue, right? That’s a new problem of Phase II, and the way we treat it in this movie and a lot of the movies is not dissimilar to how they treat it in the comics. Which is to say they’re either busy somewhere else — we know Thor is on another planet. But also, having the events happen very quickly in a way that there wasn’t time for the other characters or entities to get involved. And Shane has said recently, you know without giving too much away, the element of the government that would have reached out to S.H.I.E.L.D. was in on the plan, so they kept that at bay. And Tony tells us very specifically in a message he leaves for Pepper, I’m basically going off the grid, I’m going off the radar to try and figure this out on the down low, which is why he doesn’t pick up a phone and call a helicarrier to fly over and help him out.
He goes on to discuss Iron Man 3. He explains how it ties into the rest of the Marvel movie universe, but also how it's kind of its own film and doesn't really set up any of the other upcoming Marvel films.
Our plan was always, even before we started filming The Avengers, was post-Avengers to focus on the individual characters. To surprise the movie-going public with the notion of individual movies they could connect to another big movie, and then surprise them again by separating them and making them just as interesting when they’re apart again. And Iron Man 3 is obviously the first of the post-Avengers movies. And I think you can see with the unique voice of Shane Black behind it, it sort of reestablishes the character of Tony Stark.
He's asked about what he learned from Iron Man 2 and 3, and how he can apply those things to their future sequels,
I’ve been involved in a lot of sequels — some that have been great, [including] Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2, and I think Iron Man 3, and some not so great. So, you know, basically I’ve found that mixing it up, that changing people’s expectations and sort of turning things on their head is most fruitful, is the unexpected is the most exciting for people.
And I think Iron Man 3 is very unexpected, and what we’re doing in the next Thor film and in particular the next Captain America film [are as well]. They’re almost different genres than their predecessor movies. Which I think, again, just as unusual and unique as it was to have three or four different tent pole movies that could combine into a single tent pole movie [i.e. The Avengers].
Phase II is about changing even the genre that the prior movies were. So, there are elements of detective, technological thriller in Iron Man 3. I've already described publicly the next Captain America film as inspired by political thrillers of the seventies. Um, Guardians of the Galaxy is a whole other unique film and a totally new thing for us, so always putting that spin on it is what’s required.
He also goes on to talk about a little bit about Guardians of the Galaxy and the CGI special effects in the film saying that he hopes it doesn't turn out like Green Lantern. You can read what he had to say about that over on io9.
Of course in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers is going to get plenty of help from S.H.I.E.L.D. It might not be the full team, but he's going to have Nick Fury, Black Widow and The Falcon helping him out. In addition to the individual films and the Avengers films, I'd actually love to see these Marvel characters together, mixing it up a bit more. One of the things I would love to see is Iron Man and The Hulk team up in their own movie adventure. I bet that would be amazing! Marvel needs to do that!