Marvel Studios Mystery Event: Five Possible Announcements

Today, Marvel Studios will hold their very mysterious press and fan event at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles. Fans have been wondering what the event could possibly be about. After the Warner Bros. shareholders meeting a couple of weeks ago, everyone is waiting to see if Marvel can match the hype. So what should we be expecting out of today's big event? Here are five possibilities.

Official Confirmation of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange

Yesterday, the news hit that Benedict Cumberbatch would most likely be playing Doctor Stephen Strange in Marvel's Doctor Strange movie. While pretty much the internet picked the story up, Marvel Studios still hasn't' actually confirmed yet. A confirmation of this casting decision seems like the most likely announcement to come out of the big event, possibly with a release date attached, which leads us to…

Marvel's Phase 3 Release Schedule

Why stop with just a Doctor Strange release date? A couple of weeks ago, Warner Bros. announced release dates for 10 movies, mapping out their schedule through 2020. Marvel has plenty of release dates on the calendar, maybe it's time they start to steal back some of the big movie buzz by putting some names to those dates. If they do end up announcing some release dates, we may get our first real hint at what the post-Age of Ultron Avengers roster will look like, leading into our next topic…

Confirmation of Civil War adaptation, Robert Downey Jr.'s involvement, Captain America 3 title.

Two weeks ago, the news broke that Robert Downey Jr. was in negotiations to reprise his role as Tony Stark for Captain America 3. Stark would play antagonist to Chris Evans' Captain America, in the start of a multi-film adaptation of the Marvel Comics event story Civil War. Like the Doctor Strange casting news, this story was widely reported on, but hasn't actually been confirmed by Marvel Studios. Robert Downey Jr. could even make an appearance at the event if they confirm the announcement. Additionally, this would be the perfect opportunity to announce the official title of Captain America 3.

Avengers: Age of Ultron footage debut.

We already know that we're going to get to see some new footage from Avengers: Age of Ultron after tonight's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. One would imagine that it would be pretty easy for Marvel Studios to debut this footage at the big event. It's not very exciting, but it does seem likely. If they do debut the footage, I'd expect it to be in addition to another announcement. This event has simply attracted too much press attention for a simply sneak preview.

First footage from Ant-Man.

With all of the excitement over Avengers: Age of Ultron, it's easy to forget that Ant-Man will hit theaters just two months later. The film is already shooting, and they've already shown plenty of test footage. This seems like a great opportunity to show what the final film is going to look like, and maybe regain some of the good will they lost from fans following the departure of Edgar Wright.

Honorable but unlikely mention: Spider-Man comes home.

Rumors about Sony potentially entering into some kind of deal with Marvel Studios to share use of Spider-Man have been floating around for a little while. It still seems unlikely, but maybe, if these rumors are legitimate, Marvel and Sony will make the announcement at today's event. Spider-Man does play a major role in Civil War, so maybe they plan on including him in their Phase 3 plans. They'll have a lot of explaining to do if they're going to make the Amazing Spider-Man continuity line up with the Avengers continuity, but stranger things have happened.