Rumor Patrol: 'Avengers 3' Could Be Split In Two; 'Age Of Ultron' Trailer Arrives With 'Interstellar'

If the pattern of Marvel's last couple team-based movies holds, Avengers: Age of Ultron will likely be a gigantic affair, in terms of production scale, promotion, and (hopefully) reception. And with Avengers 3 known to be in the pipeline for a likely 2018 release, expectations will run high for that film to surpass everything Marvel has done before it. So could Marvel follow in the wake of other studios and split the final chapter of this set of Avengers stories into two parts? It's unlikely, but below we'll discuss a report that claims exactly such a plan is under consideration.

Along with the two-film rumor, there's a slightly more credible report floating around, saying that the Age of Ultron trailer will arrive with Interstellar.

A small site called The Daily Marvelite reports that The Avengers 3 will be split into two films — or, possibly, that the story of Avengers 3 will begin in that film, to be concluded in the as-yet untitled film Marvel has dated for May 3 2019. There are a couple things to unpack here. First is that Age of Ultron isn't even done yet, and that plans for any further Marvel movies beyond the 2016 window will be in very early stages.

Second, as Badass Digest points out, is that splitting The Avengers 3 into two movies isn't so easy thanks to contracts with actors such as Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Downey has a contract that goes through the third Avengers film and Evans' own Marvel contract will be running out by that time, too. Simply splitting The Avengers 3 into two movies wouldn't be an option for Marvel without renegotiating contracts to account for the extra film.  That could make a two-film Avengers 3 split a very expensive proposition.

There is, of course, the chance that the story of The Avengers 3 could be concluded in another film with actors such as Evans only taking part in the first chunk of the story. But such a thing hasn't been Marvel's MO to date, and would represent a significant deviation from pattern.

Meanwhile, the Age of Ultron trailer report comes from Russian website FilmPro (via CBM), saying the first trailer for the 2015 Avengers film will play before Interstellar starting on November 7. FilmPro reports that Warner Bros. Russia announced the film/trailer pairing during a showcase of upcoming studio releases, but we don't have any further confirmation of this plan. 

That November 7 date is also the opening date for Disney's Big Hero 6, loosely based on a Marvel property. While it might seem like a no-brainer to put the Age of Ultron trailer on that film, Big Hero 6 has a different (and probably smaller) audience than Interstellar. And Disney and Marvel have not been particularly close when it comes to that property, so to me at least, Interstellar makes more sense as a partner film.

Avengers: Age of Ultron will be released on May 1, 2015.