Summer starts strangely early this year thanks to the Disney-Marvel pop-culture machine. The studio pushed its long-awaited “Avengers: Infinity War” from May 4 to Friday, which in turn led Warner Bros. to bump its action-blockbuster “Rampage” a week earlier to April 13 – and now the summer movie season is basically starting in early spring. Here’s a look at some of the big ones.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (FRIDAY) – Nearly every character who has ever appeared in a Marvel movie – from Iron Man to Nebula – will come together in this, the 19th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It involves those Infinity Stones we’ve been hearing about for so many years.
DEADPOOL 2 (MAY 18) – Ryan Reynolds returns as the black-humored antihero Deadpool in this follow-up to the R-rated megahit from 2016. It’s Marvel’s version of its own counterculture, a rude satire of superhero cliches. Josh Brolin plays Cable, marking his second turn as a supervillain this year; he also plays Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Ryan Reynolds returns as the droll anti-hero in “Deadpool 2.”
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (MAY 25) – The origin story of ace pilot Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) has had a bumpy ride. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller left the film to be replaced by Ron Howard; a teaser trailer, released in February, met with lukewarm media response; and a French artist accused Disney of plagiarizing several of his album covers for the film’s posters. Nevertheless, the very idea of a stand-alone film about one of the best-loved characters in the “Star Wars” franchise would seem to guarantee a big turnout.
OCEAN’S 8 (JUNE 8) – This all-female spinoff of the “Ocean’s 11” series stars Sandra Bullock as the sister of Danny Ocean (George Clooney, in the previous films), and they apparently share a gene for masterminding heists. The intriguingly eclectic cast includes Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkwafina and Helena Bonham Carter.
SICARIO 2: SOLDADO (JUNE 29) – Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 action flick “Sicario” seems an unlikely film to launch a sequel. It was a moody, downbeat crime-drama about morally dubious FBI agents chasing Mexican drug kingpins. Nevertheless, it was a critical favorite and an unexpected hit, earning a healthy $89 million worldwide. Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin reprise their roles as sketchy law enforcers in the sequel directed by Stefano Sollima.
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (JULY 6) – It’s about time, said Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne when she received her own superhero costume at the end of 2015’s “Ant-Man.” As it turns out, Wonder Woman stole a bit of her thunder, but in this sequel, van Dyne shows what she can do as The Wasp. Paul Rudd returns as the amiable Ant-Man along with Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym.
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