While most of the films produced by Marvel Studios have featured recognizable top-tier characters, there are only so many of those available, particularly when you consider that the film rights to Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are all owned by other studios. If Marvel plans to continue releasing films, they’re going to have to start digging a bit deeper, and this month’s Guardians of the Galaxy was the studio’s first attempt at promoting a film that wasn’t anchored by a member of the Avengers.
As you might have heard, things worked out pretty well – Guardians opened to nearly $95 million domestically, giving Marvel the confidence to move forward on another project that might even be more bizarre and obscure: The Inhumans. Rumors of an adaptation have existed since 2011, and now Collider is reporting that Marvel has a script in hand from Joe Robert Cole, who was involved in the same development program as Guardians scribe Nicole Perlman.
For those unfamiliar with The Inhumans, they’re a group of advanced alien beings, created when the Kree began experimenting on primitive humans. The experiments were abandoned, but the test subjects went on to form their own society, and are led by Black Bolt, a character whose voice carries such destructive power that he never speaks.
Collider’s sources indicate that Marvel will handle The Inhumans much the same was as Guardians of the Galaxy, shopping it around to prospective filmmakers who will then come onboard and add their own style to the existing story. No word yet on who some of those potential directors might be, but look for the studio to target someone with unique sensibilities that will be able to relate to the characters, just like James Gunn with Star Lord, Rocket, and company.
While no official announcement has come out of the Marvel camp yet, Collider has a great track record with stuff like this, and we wouldn’t be too surprised to get an official acknowledgement in the near future, along with confirmation that the film will be planting its flag in one of Marvel’s already-announced release dates.