After a busy Friday, it’s been a slow weekend, so thanks to former contributor Corey, I thought I’d bring up this interesting speculation for the Iron Man 2 viral campaign.
With Iron Man 2 going viral via Stark Industries, could we be seeing some Captain America info even before the film is released? The pieces are there, it’s just a matter of what is the viral trying to accomplish. If they go the direct route, you’ll only hear about Iron Man and maybe Whiplash. If they go broader, you could see references to Stark Industries’ past involvement in the Super Soldier project, which would make sense given the company’s old focus being on making better weapons.
Thanks to the creation of Marvel Studios, the comic book company has the ability to create a singular Marvel universe on the silver screen. They have complete control of several of their hottest properties, and are thus able to do crossovers, including the mega-crossover of them all, The Avengers. The film, to be released in 2012, combines Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and other Marvel characters, including possibly the Hulk. In preparation for this, each of those characters have or will have their own film (or two).
So far, Iron Man and Hulk are the only two to be released, and we’ve already seen some great crossover tidbits. The Hulk had a scene cut from the final film that showed a frozen Captain America in the Artic, as well as dialogue references to the original WWII Super Soldier project, and a clip at the end of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) meeting with General Ross about “putting a team together” using that project’s tech.
This is of course a reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. (who eventually manage the Avengers) which poked it’s head a few times in Iron Man and Stark came face to face with after the credits (thanks to Nick Fury, played by the BAMF Samuel L. Jackson). In Iron Man, Captain America is referenced again, this time with his shield being on Stark’s work bench.
That leads us to Iron Man 2. What Avengers tidbits will we get this time? Well it seems that Tony Stark and Captain America (real name Steve Rogers) have a strong link. Stark appeared to be making the shield, but was it specifically for Rogers, or will it just be repurposed for him? We do know that blueprints of Captain America’s shield and a map of Antarctica are in Stark’s workshop this time around. The question is whether the Antarctic map is related to Rogers’ Artic location. We also know that Stark starts looking into his father’s past more in the film. How much does Stark found out, and what exactly is he working on besides his outfit?
There’s still a long way to go, so hopefully by the end of the viral, or at least the film, we’ll know how involved Tony Stark is with Captain America. Iron Man 2 opens May 7th, 2010. The First Avenger: Captain America will be released July 22nd, 2011.