Holding out for a (super)hero

This is the first time in 12 years we haven’t had a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (or three!) on the big screen, and, sadly, the last of the X-Men films, The New Mutants wasn’t quite good enough to fill the Thanos-sized hole in our hearts.

This year’s MCU movies – Black Widow, The Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – will be released next year and there’s plenty more heroics on the way too, on the big and small screen.

Ms Marvel

Marvel’s first Muslim superhero, Pakistani-American teen Kamala Khan is also getting her own series, ahead of her big-screen debut. 

If her supe name sounds familiar, it should – in the comics, she’s one of a long line of heroes to take the Marvel moniker, along with Carol Danvers. 

Canadian newcomer Iman Vellani (19) has been cast in the lead role and Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, will direct the series.

Fellow Marvel superhero actor Kumail Nanjiani was among the first to congratulate Iman.

Nick Fury

Samuel L Jackson returns as the MCU’s all-knowing superspy in a TV series which was announced last week. 

It’s not yet known when the series will be set – the last time we saw Colonel Fury, he was chilling on a Kree spaceship at the end of Spider-Man Far From Home, out in who-knows-where, doing who-knows-what. 

The series might explore his space adventures, or maybe we’ll get another blast from the past, as we did in Captain Marvel.

She-Hulk

Orphan Black and Perry Mason’s Tatiana Maslany will go green, as lawyer-turned-She-Hulk Jennifer Walters. 

Jen is the cousin of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, rumoured to be reprising his role as the Hulk), who, in the comics, gets the family superpower after a life-saving blood transfusion from her cousin.

Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff’s long-awaited solo adventure is set between Captain America: Civil War and the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, because, you know, she died nobly in IW. 

Due for release in May 2021.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Filming resumed on this movie last month, in Australia. Based on one of the less well-known Marvel properties, it stars Canadian actor Simu Liu as the titular Master of Kung Fu. 

Pretty much nothing is known about the plot, but the Ten Rings of the title refers to the shadowy villains last referenced in the Iron Man movies, led by The Mandarin. 

He won’t be the whacky Ben Kingsley imposter version it’ll be the real Mandarin!(Unless Marvel doubles down on the Trevor Slattery gag, that is.)

Due for release in July 2021

The Eternals 

Best known as the movie for which comedian Kumail Nanjiani got ridiculously ripped.

Apart from Kumail’s six-pack, the cast includes Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Brian Tyree Henry and Salma Hayek.

They’ll be playing The Eternals, a near-immortal, god-like race of beings who, in the comics, have lived in secret on earth for thousands of years. 

Due out in November 2021