MARVEL’S PHASE THREE (Update)

• MARVEL’S PHASE THREE

Ant-Man

 We are just a few months away from seeing the start of Marvel Studios' "Phase Two", of their cinematic universe, when Iron Man 3 hits theaters on May 3. President of Production Kevin Feige updated MTV with plans for future big screen entries that look even further into the future. Ant-Man, he says, will officially launch "Phase Three" and early plans also call for the long-rumored Doctor Strange to be included.

"'Ant-Man' is definitely part of Phase Three," Feige explains. "Like 'Iron Man 3,' it's certainly set in the Marvel Universe, but it's also through the lens of Edgar Wright — which is the only reason we're making the movie... It's very much an 'Ant-Man' origin movie from the perspective of Edgar Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish. It will of course be firmly planted in the MCU, but a different corner than we've seen before."

Doctor Strange

The official line-up for "Phase Two," then, includes Iron Man 3 in May, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014 and, finally, The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015. That's all in addition to the upcoming "Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D." television series, now filming its pilot episode. After that, there are several new characters being considered for features.

"'Doctor Strange,' which I've been talking about for years, is definitely one of them," Feige continues. "He's a great, original character, and he checks the box off this criteria that I have: he's totally different from anything else we have, just like 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' He's totally different from anything we've done before, as is 'Ant-Man,' which keeps us excited."

In other Marvel news,  Cobie Smulders who starred in Marvel's The Avengers as Agent Maria Hill will soon shoot Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Cobie Smulders tells IAmRogue that she's in talks to join the cast of the upcoming television project "Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D", should the pilot go to series.

"The commitments to ['How I Met Your Mother'] won’t affect it," Smulders told the site. "I can’t really say but there are definite talks about it… I will do Maria Hill until they fire me and hire someone else to do it."

Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill

Smulders, who also stars regularly on "How I Met Your Mother", can next be seen in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven, opening February 14.