27 superhero movies in five years? Here’s your guide

Disney and Marvel set the nerd world on fire this week when they released their slate of superhero movies through the next five years. Which means between now and the end of 2020, Marvel and DC (and Sony and Fox, which own film rights to Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four) will release 27 comic-based films. The breakdown:

2015

May 1: “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (Marvel): Tony Stark’s suits come to life in the form of villain Ultron.

July 17: “Ant-Man” (Marvel): Our very own Paul Rudd stars as a guy who can shrink and talk to bugs.

Aug. 7: “Fantastic Four” (Fox): A reboot of the franchise; plot details are sketchy.

2016

Feb. 12: “Deadpool” (Fox): You may remember Ryan Reynolds played Marvel’s unkillable mutant assassin in “X-Men: Origins — Wolverine.” Then again, you may not.

March 25: “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (DC): An aged Dark Knight fights the Last Son of Krypton and meets Wonder Woman and other super good guys in this sequel to “Man of Steel.”

May 6: “Captain America: Civil War” (Marvel): Cap squares off against Iron Man on the topic of superhero registration. If you think it sounds like an episode of “Schoolhouse Rock,” you’d be right. Many comic fans don’t care for this story.

May 27: “X-Men: Apocalypse” (Fox): Our favorite mutants battle a blue bad guy as old as time.

Aug. 5: “Suicide Squad” (DC): A government-sanctioned team of supervillains is forced to go on doomed missions. Helmed by William Ayer, director of Brad Pitt’s “Fury.”

Nov. 4: “Doctor Strange” (Marvel): Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts is a fan favorite but largely unknown. But now that they’ve cast Benedict Cumberbatch to play Strange, soon everyone will know his name.

Nov. 11: “Sinister Six” (Sony): A sextet of Spidey-villains band together to do … what exactly? Well, if Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Venom, Vulture, Mysterio and Kraven are involved, they won’t be playing pinochle.

2017

March 3: “Wolverine” sequel (Fox): Hugh Jackman returns, bub.

May 5: “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” (Marvel): The surprise success of the first chapter this summer fast-tracked a sequel that explores even darker corners of the galaxy.

June 23: “Wonder Woman” (DC): The Amazon warrior princess gets her own movie.

July 14: “Fantastic Four 2” (Sony): We’ll see how well the reboot goes.

July 28: “Thor: Ragnarok” (Marvel): In Norse mythology, Ragnarok is a great battle that kills major players. It doesn’t look good for the Thunder God …

Nov. 3: “Black Panther” (Marvel): Despite the “first black superhero” hype, this is the fourth black superhero in Marvel’s movie universe (Nick Fury, War Machine and Falcon). The Panther is an African king who dresses like Batman (sans cape) and beats on bad guys.

Nov. 17: “Justice League, Part 1” (DC): All of DC’s heroes come together to fight some big, cosmic threat.

2018

March 23: “The Flash” (DC): The Scarlet Speedster gets his own movie, but it will star Ezra Miller of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” instead of Grant Gustin, who plays the Flash/Barry Allen on the CW’s TV show.

May 4: “Avengers: Infinity War, Part 1” (Marvel): Did someone say big, cosmic threat? Thanos from “Guardians” and the end of “Avengers” is up to no good with all those gems/artifacts/gewgaws Marvel’s heroes chased in the previous movies.

July 6: “Captain Marvel” (Marvel): Not to be confused with the guy who says “Shazam!,” Marvel’s Captain Marvel will be a woman who, in the comics, gets powers from the Kree race we saw in “Guardians.”

July 27: “Aquaman” (DC): Formerly known as the lamest superhero in comics, the king of Atlantis will be played by Jason Momoa, aka Khal Drogo in “Game of Thrones.”

Nov. 2: “Inhumans” (Marvel): A mysterious race of super-people created by the Kree (those guys again!) try to fit in among humanity. Any resemblance to the X-Men is absolutely on purpose.

2019

April 5: “Shazam!” (DC): This is the guy who says “Shazam!,” and his nemesis Black Adam will be played by Dwayne Johnson.

May 3: “Avengers: Infinity War, Part 2” (Marvel): The second part of the throwdown with Thanos.

June 14: “Justice League, Part 2” (DC): The second part of the super-friends’ big battle.

2020

April 3: “Cyborg” (DC): Half-man, half-robot, all awesome.

June 19: “Green Lantern” (DC): By 2020, everyone will have forgotten about the terrible first effort that featured Ryan Reynolds fighting a giant cloud of space diarrhea. We hope.

This story was originally published October 29, 2014 at 4:10 PM with the headline "27 superhero movies in five years? Here’s your guide."