Iron Man 3 (2013) produced every film in Phase Two.
Tony Stark faces a powerful enemy, the
Mandarin, who attacks and destroys his mansion. Left to his own devices and battling
post-traumatic stress disorder, Stark struggles to get to the bottom of a series of mysterious explosions. A third
Iron Man film was announced in late 2010. In February 2011, Marvel hired
Shane Black to direct
Iron Man 3. Black co-wrote the script with
Drew Pearce.
Robert Downey Jr.,
Gwyneth Paltrow, and
Don Cheadle reprised their roles from the previous
Iron Man films, with
Guy Pearce and
Ben Kingsley joining the cast as
Aldrich Killian and
Trevor Slattery, respectively. Filming began in May 2012 in
North Carolina. Additional filming took place in southern
Florida, China, and
Los Angeles.
Iron Man 3 premiered at
Le Grand Rex in
Paris, France, on April 14, 2013, and at the
El Capitan Theatre in
Hollywood, Los Angeles, on April 24. The film was released internationally on April 25, and in the United States on May 3.
Iron Man 3 is set in December 2012, after the events of
The Avengers, with Tony Stark experiencing PTSD symptoms following the Battle of New York depicted in that film. Black explained, "that's an anxiety response to feeling inferior to the
Avengers, but also to being humbled by sights he cannot possibly begin to understand or reconcile with the realities he's used to... There's a line in the movie about 'ever since that big guy with the hammer fell out of the sky, the rules have changed'. That's what we're dealing with here."
Bruce Banner appears in a
post-credits scene, with
Mark Ruffalo reprising the role from
The Avengers. Ruffalo said production on the film was close to
wrapping when he ran into Downey at the
84th Academy Awards and was asked about "coming and doing a day". He said they "sort of spitballed that scene, then I came in and we shot for a couple of hours and laughed".
Thor: The Dark World (2013) Thor reunites with
astrophysicist Jane Foster as a series of portals, linking worlds at random, begin to appear. He discovers that
Malekith and his army of
Dark Elves have returned after thousands of years, and they seek a powerful weapon known as the
Aether. Thor must join forces with his now-imprisoned brother
Loki to stop them. A sequel to
Thor was announced in June 2011, with
Chris Hemsworth reprising his role as Thor.
Tom Hiddleston confirmed he would return as Loki in September, and
Alan Taylor signed on to direct in December. The title was announced as
Thor: The Dark World in July 2012, and
Christopher Eccleston was cast as Malekith a month later. Production started in September 2012 in
Surrey, England, with additional filming in
Iceland and
London. The film premiered at the
Odeon Leicester Square in London on October 22, 2013. It was internationally released on October 30 and in the U.S. on November 8. The film is set one year after the events of
The Avengers.
Chris Evans briefly makes a cameo appearance as
Captain America when Loki shapeshifts into him while mocking Thor. Hiddleston wore the Captain America costume while standing in for Evans, before Evans came to shoot the scene. Hiddleston said, "I did an impression of Loki in the Captain America costume, and then they showed Chris [Evans] my performance on tape. It's him doing an impression of me doing an impression of him."
James Gunn, the director of
Guardians of the Galaxy, directed the mid-credits scene that features
Benicio del Toro as the
Collector. It reveals that the
Tesseract from Phase One and the Aether are both
Infinity Stones. Gunn was given the script for the scene and filmed it at the end of a
second unit shooting day during production on
Guardians of the Galaxy.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) , directors of
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Steve Rogers, now working with
S.H.I.E.L.D., teams up with
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow and
Sam Wilson / Falcon to expose a conspiracy which involves a mysterious assassin known only as the
Winter Soldier. A sequel to
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) was announced in April 2012.
Anthony and Joe Russo were hired to direct in June, and it was officially titled
Captain America: The Winter Soldier in July. Evans and
Samuel L. Jackson were set to reprise their respective roles as Rogers and
Nick Fury, and
Scarlett Johansson would again play Romanoff.
Sebastian Stan, who portrayed
Bucky Barnes in
The First Avenger, returned as the Winter Soldier, and
Anthony Mackie joined the cast as Wilson. Production started in April 2013 in
Manhattan Beach, California, and filming also took place in
Washington, D.C., and
Cleveland, Ohio. The film premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 13, 2014. It was released internationally on March 26, and in the U.S. on April 4. The film is set two years after the events of
The Avengers.
Stephen Strange is mentioned by the character
Jasper Sitwell, with
Maximiliano Hernández reprising his role as Sitwell from previous MCU media. A remodeled
Stark Tower from
The Avengers, now known as Avengers Tower, also makes an appearance in the film.
Joss Whedon directed a post-credits scene featuring Baron
Wolfgang von Strucker (
Thomas Kretschmann),
List (
Henry Goodman),
Pietro Maximoff (
Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and
Wanda Maximoff (
Elizabeth Olsen), who appear in his film
Avengers: Age of Ultron. The revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by
Hydra is the main plot point of the final six episodes of the
first season of
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a television series set in the MCU.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Peter Quill / Star-Lord and a group of misfits—
Gamora,
Rocket,
Drax the Destroyer, and
Groot—fight to keep a powerful orb from the clutches of the villainous
Ronan.
Nicole Perlman began writing a screenplay featuring the
Guardians of the Galaxy in 2009. Marvel Studios announced it was developing the film in July 2012. It is directed by James Gunn, based on his and Perlman's screenplay. In February 2013,
Chris Pratt was cast in the lead role of Peter Quill / Star-Lord. The film was shot at
Shepperton Studios and in London from July to October 2013, and post-production work was completed on July 7, 2014. The film premiered on July 21 in Hollywood.
Guardians of the Galaxy was released in the United Kingdom on July 31, and in the U.S. on August 1. The film is set in 2014.
Josh Brolin provided the voice and
performance capture for
Thanos, the supervillain who was introduced in
The Avengers mid-credits scene. Gunn said the film would be connected to
Avengers: Infinity War (2018); the Collector explains the history of the Infinity Stones, and the orb that the characters fight over in the film is revealed to contain one of them. Several other objects of significance appear in the Collector's museum, including a
Chitauri from
The Avengers and a
Dark Elf from
The Dark World, among other characters. Ronan's race, the
Kree, were first introduced in the
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "
T.A.H.I.T.I." (2014).
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) , writer and director of
Avengers: Age of Ultron, consulted on all of the films of Phase Two. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, and
Hawkeye must work together as the Avengers to defeat
Ultron, a technological enemy bent on human extinction, while encountering the powerful twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, as well as the new entity
Vision. Development on a sequel to
The Avengers began in May 2012 after the success of the first film. In August 2012, Joss Whedon was signed to return as writer and director. In June 2013, Downey signed a deal to reprise the role of Iron Man for the second and third
Avengers films. The subtitle
Age of Ultron was announced in July 2013, and
James Spader was cast as Ultron a month later. Second unit filming began on February 11, 2014, in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Principal photography began in March 2014 at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, with additional footage filmed at
Fort Bard and other locations in the
Aosta Valley region of Italy, as well as
Seoul, South Korea. Filming was completed on August 6.
Age of Ultron had its world premiere in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on April 13, 2015, and was released internationally beginning April 22, and in the U.S. on May 1.
Loki's scepter from
The Avengers is confirmed to be another of the Infinity Stones, specifically the
Mind Stone. Brolin reappears as Thanos in the mid-credits scene wielding an
Infinity Gauntlet, meant to hold all of the Infinity Stones.
Andy Serkis portrays
Ulysses Klaue, traditionally an antagonist of the hero
Black Panther, and the film also references the Black Panther-related metal
vibranium and nation of
Wakanda. These references came ahead of the film
Black Panther (2018), in which Serkis reprised his role as Klaue.
Ant-Man (2015) Thief
Scott Lang plots a heist with Dr.
Hank Pym to safeguard the latter's Ant-Man technology, which allows its user to decrease in size but increase in strength.
Ant-Man is directed by
Peyton Reed with a screenplay written by
Edgar Wright &
Joe Cornish and
Adam McKay &
Paul Rudd, from a story by Wright & Cornish, that includes both
Scott Lang and Hank Pym. Wright was initially slated to direct the film, but left the project in May 2014 due to creative differences. In December 2013, Rudd was cast as Ant-Man, followed in January 2014 with the casting of
Michael Douglas as Pym.
Pre-production started in October 2013, and principal photography took place from August to December 2014, in
San Francisco, at
Pinewood Atlanta Studios in
Fayette County, Georgia, and
Downtown Atlanta.
Ant-Man had its world premiere in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 29, 2015, and was released in France on July 14, and in the U.S. on July 17. The film is set several months after
Age of Ultron.
Hayley Atwell and
John Slattery reprise their MCU roles as
Peggy Carter and
Howard Stark, respectively. Scott Lang attempts to infiltrate the new Avengers headquarters in Upstate New York featured in
Age of Ultron, and confronts Mackie's Wilson from
The Winter Soldier. McKay and Rudd decided to add Wilson to
Ant-Man after watching that film. The Russo brothers filmed the post-credit scene, which uses footage from
Captain America: Civil War (2016), and features Mackie as Wilson, Evans as Rogers, and Stan as Barnes. == Short films ==