After the major announcement two weeks ago of Sir Anthony Hopkins signing on to Thor as the title character’s father, Odin, we now have most of the principal characters cast, albeit with a few secrets yet to be revealed.

According to Production Weekly’s Twitter postings, the next Marvel Studios solo character film is nearing the start of principal photography and they’ve hammered down the shooting locations. Check out the details below.

This isn’t too much of an update, but it definitely follows that path of Ed Norton that we’ve become accustomed to in reference to his future with Marvel Studios as Bruce Banner/The Hulk.

Capone at Ain’t It Cool News had a chance to interview the talented and hands-on actor/producer for his work on the documentary, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, where he was specifically asked to talk only about that project. However, Capone was able to get in a few questions for the fans and that meant a question or two about The Incredible Hulk 2 and The Avengers.

Like I said above, we seemingly get an update from Ed Norton every few weeks about his involvement with Marvel’s future films, alternating between positive and hopeful, to negative and unlikely. This week’s update fall under the latter.

I guess those rumors of Brian Blessed playing Odin in Marvel Studios’ upcoming Thor movie aren’t coming to fruition. Who needs him when you have a knighted Oscar winner in Sir Anthony Hopkins!

That’s right folks, director Kenneth Branagh as added another huge name and talented actor to his cast of awesomeness.  I am pumped.

This movie was already my most anticipated of Marvel’s upcoming slate of solo films leading up to The Avengers, here’s just on more big reason to be excited.

Over the last several months, we’ve heard many industry folk chime in the Marvel Studio’s plan of bringing together their superstar superheroes into one shared project, the most ambitious project in comic book movie history: The Avengers.

From Matthew Vaughn (the original director attached to Thor) admitting his desire to helm The Avengers, Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier’s idea of a four-part series of Avengers films to writer Zak Penn’s fear that the epic team-up project is so complicated that it may “suck.” There’s been plenty of talk from the folks behind the cameras about Marvel’s on-screen future, but what about the characters?

One question for the filmmakers has been to figure out how Jon Favreau’s tech-based Iron Man can work together with the mystical Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor? It’s easy in the comic books, but how will they adapt it into live-action and have it make sense? Marvel comic writer Brian Michael Bendis knows it can work – check out his thoughts on The Avengers after the jump.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, a man who always makes the effort to talk to the fans, held his own Q&A at Big Apple Comic-Con over the weekend. While talking a ton about comics, characters and not being able to talk about the Disney merger, he did address some questions regarding some of the upcoming Marvel superhero movies.

Quesada fielded questions about Spider-Man 4, The First Avenger: Captain America and the new kid-focused cartoon series, Super Hero Squad Show. Read what he had to say after the jump – especially about what he says about the Cap movie!

Jon Favreau recently let it be known that he will not be directing The Avengers, Marvel’s super-powered mashup of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, which is being planned as THE summer movie event of 2012. That news dashed the hopes of some, but has thrown the door of possibility wide open for others who are wondering:

Who Should Direct The Avengers?

MTV News recently spoke to Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau about his involvement in the super sequel and where he fits in the larger scheme of Marvel movies.

In that interview (which we have for you below), Favreau dropped a bomb on the collective heads of fanboys everywhere: he will NOT be directing Marvel’s 2012 superhero team-up event, The Avengers! In addition to that bit of Donald-Downer info, Favreau also threw another jab of bad news: We shouldn’t get our hopes up about seeing a cameo from The Hulk in Iron Man 2.

Edward Norton sure knows how to keep fans guessing and anticipating. Now he’s saying his involvement in The Avengers just boils down to scheduling…

Ever since Mr. Norton played the part of Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk,  a film that featured and marketed a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, fans have been eagerly anticipating the moment when they will share screen time together as part of The Avengers team.

Rumors surfaced at the beginning of August that both Norton’s Bruce Banner and his large green counterpart, Hulk, would appear in a cameo role in Iron Man 2, repaying the favor for RDJ doing the same in his solo affair.

Edward Norton spoke exclusively with MTV at the Toronto International Film Festival where the actor is promoting his film, Leaves of Grass, and without surprise the topic of Hulk came up yet again.

The last we heard from Norton was a few days ago when he Hulk-Smashed the Iron Man 2 rumors about him appearing in the film in a cameo role to much disappointment of fans. Now he’s back on the positive band-wagon discussing the role of Hulk in The Avengers and what that may entail…

Will he appear in The Avengers? Will Hulk be a villain or hero? Read on for the details…

At the beginning of August, rumors surfaced about Ed Norton that said he might be making one wish of many Marvel fans come true in having an appearance in Iron Man 2 as Bruce Banner and possibly The Hulk.

This would have confirmed Norton’s involvement in Marvel’s upcoming slate of films and Hulk’s position on the roster of heroes in The Avengers.

Unfortunately, Norton doesn’t seem to know much about that nor does he have that much to say about it…

Pixar Wants Marvel’s Ant-Man? And so it begins…

The last time we touched on the Ant-Man project by Marvel Studios here at Screen Rant was back in July when we reported that Edgar Wright, the man behind Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, would be prioritizing Baby Driver as his next film.

For Marvelites, that news meant that his Ant-Man live-action adaptation would be delayed for a while, likely to 2012 (where it tentatively sits now) or later.

Well, if Disney wants that movie out sooner… there’s always Pixar, right? I’m just kidding of course. Or am i? As it turns out, they’re interested in actually doing that movie…

The recent Disney/Marvel partnership is still sending ripples out across the blogosphere. How will it affect the current state of comics? What impact will it have on Marvel Studios’ production schedule? So much was already happening at Marvel Studios with their epic slate of upcoming films, now they’ll be capable of exploring new territories as we (hopefully) get to see an expansion of their production capacity thanks to Disney’s vastly superior resources.

In light of the major news surrounding Disney and Marvel, we have for you some pictures of new characters born out of the merger between the two media juggernauts as well as some words about the corporate happenings from Stan Lee, the genius creator behind so many of the comics and characters we know and love today.

Today has been a big day for Marvel.

If you haven’t already heard, Marvel was acquired by Disney this morning in a massive $4 Billion agreement.

Looking at this optimistically, what that may simply mean for Marvel Studios, is more financial support and marketing resources to (hopefully) push into development more feature film projects. Perhaps, this could even fast-track some projects that are being considered for years down the road… perhaps a sequel to The Incredible Hulk?

To quote the late Queen of Blues, Dinah Washington, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Just recently all anyone was talking about in the movie industry was whether The Final Destination was in indeed final and if Rob Zombie was done butchering horror films (to answer that last question, NO, he’s trying to tackle The Blob next – and I’m not referring to my first girlfriend from high school). But here we are, just a scant twenty-four hours later and the biggest fish in the marketing sea has just eaten the biggest fish in the comic book sea.

Of course, I’m talking about the news that Walt Disney Co. acquired Marvel Comics, Inc. for the meager sum of $4 billion dollars. It’s a great deal of money, and I don’t care what the nay-sayers out there gripe about, if I owned a prospering business and a mega-company offered to buy me out for an exuberant amount of money, I’d sell too. Heck, I’d go buy a special pen just to sign the papers! Anyone who says otherwise just isn’t being honest with themselves.

OK, so just a few minutes ago Twitter literally exploded with news of a major financial announcement: according to The Associated Press, The Walt Disney Co. will acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Woah! If you ever wondered how much the Marvel Universe is worth, I think you just found out.

Matthew Vaughn, director and producer of the upcoming rated-R comic book adaptation, Kick-Ass, really wants to helm Marvel Studio’s The Avengers movie.

Vaughn, if you remember, was director of X-Men: The Last Stand… for a short while anyway. After he took over for Bryan Singer, he quickly left which opened to door for Brett Ratner to direct the project which in my mind, is the absolute worst of the four X-Men movies.

Looking forward instead of back though, Vaughn now has directed three feature films: Layer Cake, Stardust and now Kick-Ass (which quickly earned itself an American distributor after premiering footage at San Diego Comic-Con.) Now, he wants to do another superhero flick…

Due to her involvement in the upcoming sequel to Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson has been through an interesting ride up to this point, and we’re still nine months away from the movie’s release.

It all started with some negative reaction at her being cast into the role of the red-haired, slim-fit Russian spy, but after some pictures surfaced of her sporting a new look and reports of her working out for the role, heads were starting to turn in the right direction. Then the first images of her in costume made their way online and they were also received in a positive light helping solidify director Jon Favreau’s decision to give her the role.

Like all of the other contracts we’ve seen actors sign for with Marvel Studios, Scarlett has a multi-picture deal that could bring her and her Russian alter ego back for a couple more movies if Iron Man 2 does well and her character is liked by the fans.

Ray Park is one of those guys who’s just awesome. You’d think a man hits his peak of awesomeness playing Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, arguably becoming the best part of the prequel trilogy, but Ray proved that there’s no upper limit on that scale.

Since then, the lifelong martial artist has played Toad in the first X-Men film and more recently can be seen (kind of) playing Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. As Snakes Eyes, he didn’t even have to speak, let alone show his face, to be the star of the film, and many want a sequel just to see more of his action sequences.

But there’s another character he should have played but never got a chance to. That character is of course, Iron Fist and he still might get his chance…

Louis Leterrier, the director behind last year’s The Incredible Hulk, made a lot of headlines in and around the time of its release by hinting at a Captain America cameo in the film as an “easter egg” that never really met our expectations. Now he’s at it again, this time talking about the major upcoming Marvel films, what he knows about them, what he’d like to work on, and what he’d like to do with The Avengers, given the chance.

In a Clash of the Titans set interview, LA Times journalist, Geoff Boucher, sat down with Letterier who wasn’t shy about revealing some of his ideas and thoughts on the upcoming slate of films in development at Marvel Studios. We’ve taken the best bits to discuss and share with you, and then we share what we think could be done with the eagerly anticipated Marvel team-up adventure.

In one of last summer’s Marvel movies, The Incredible Hulk, we got to see the Hulk fight a worthy supervillain in the form of The Abomination whose alter ego, Emil Blonsky, was played by the talented Tim Roth.

SCI FI Wire was in attendance for the Television Critics Association summer press tour this past week and participated in a group interview with Tim Roth who was there for his TV series, Lie to Me. In the interview, Roth could not escape being questioned about his future with Marvel.

The other day, Screen Rant covered some updates on the future films in planning at Marvel Studios. This news touched on the future of Ed Norton’s Incredible Hulk, the Avengers movie and more. Today we have a bit of an update on that front for you.

NukeTheFridge is exclusively reporting that Ed Norton is set to have a cameo as both Bruce Banner and Hulk in Iron Man 2. Apparently, they have an inside source feeding them this bit of info, the same source that found out for them a while ago about Stan Lee’s cameo appearance as Larry King in the Iron Man sequel.

Marvel Studios had a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday by providing fans with one of the most entertaining panels of the event. That presentation was of course, for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, which he delivered to the loyal Hall H residents in full force.

Screen Rant master Vic and I attended the Iron Man 2 panel and were treated to something amazing. But we’ve already talked about that and while you wait for the trailer we saw to eventually come online, you may be wondering what updates there have been for the other more distant films in Marvel’s production queue.

Find the latest on the Avengers team-up film and other Marvel films in development after the jump.

A member of the Facebook group Marvel Movies! has provided the internet world with our very first look at Scarlett Johansson in costume as Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

Update: We now some quality images of Johansson and Entertainment Weekly’s Iron Man 2 cover!

Check them out after the jump:

Marvel Studios has announced that Star Wars star Natalie Portman will be playing the love interest in Kenneth Branagh’s big screen version of Thor.

Portman will star as nurse Jane Foster, the human woman who became Thor’s love interest in the early Marvel Comics. The film version of the heroic god of thunder comic will star Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-wielding superhero.

Previous reports had Green Lantern runner-up Justin Timberlake’s squeeze Jessica Biel up for a role as Thor’s love interest.

Are you excited for Marvel Studios’ upcoming films? Are you having a tough time waiting three more years to see the most ultimate team-up film of all time in the form of the Avengers?

Well, here’s a little dosage of Avengers action to keep you calm while you wait. We have for you today a little fan-made trailer for the Avengers movie that features characters from a variety of blockbuster Marvel films, meaning it’s extremely off from what (and who) we’ll be seeing come 2012.

MTV caught up with the new Nick Fury actor, Samuel L. Jackson, at an event for the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s film Do The Right Thing and discussed with him his role in Iron Man 2.

The star actor of seemingly every movie revealed that his role in the sequel to Iron Man will be limited to him pulling strings behind the scenes and not getting directly involved in any sort of combat.

Thor is arguably the toughest character and film to sell out of the upcoming slate of movies in development at Marvel Studios, but it is the one I’m most excited for.

Besides my interest in the character, what really grabs my interest is the man in charge: Kenneth Branagh.

Marvel Studios has made one of the biggest splashes into the film industry in recent years with them become a full-fledged independent studio that finances its own films.

You no doubt have seen the results of this in mainstream media in recent times with the two big summer movies last year, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, and the success that ensued.

Now we have an ever-growing list of films on Marvel’s production slate with talk of expansion to a production capacity of four big budget features a year in the not too distant future.

For now, we’ll have to settle with the massive upcoming origin films for Thor and Captain America, the sequel to last summer’s hit Iron Man, and the eagerly anticipated and almighty team-up film that will bring them all together: Avengers.

The First Avenger: Captain America is one of the four big budget summer blockbusters on Marvel’s official slate of upcoming films. Along with the Iron Man franchise, The Incredible Hulk and Thor, Captain America is getting his own origin film to establish his character in Marvel movie continuity all culminating to the main event: The Avengers.

It’s fantastic timing for Marvel to be doing this with their own fast-growing studio during the era of comic book films, but for Captain America, the timing seemed a little off in terms of lining up with the comics since the character the movie is based on is dead – and has been for over two years.

Well, that’s not going to be the case for long and it’s no coincidence in timing.

If you’re a regular Screen Rant reader, you’ve no doubt seen our extensive coverage of Thor leading up to and including the casting announcements. As we waited eagerly to see director Kenneth Branagh’s choice of who would play the God of Thunder, there was quite a bit of speculation abound as to what candidates were in the running for the role.

Back in March, we reported that the folks behind Thor had narrowed their choices down to six. They included Josh Hartnett, Liam Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Joel Kinnaman and Alexander Skarsgård.