The Hollywood superhero craze continues strong as 2017 comes to a close, opening the door to new movie installments such as Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and X-Men: The New Mutants  in 2018.

    Under the direction of Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Infinity War is set to release in the spring of 2018. Following the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Captain America: Civil War, the third movie of the Avengers franchise will tell the story of the now disbanded Avengers team joining forces to defeat the titan Thanos, played by the recently casted James Spader, who intends to destroy the universe.

   Director Ryan Coogler’s upcoming film, Black Panther, takes a bold leap forward with a progressive all-black cast. Coogler’s casting decision addresses a commonly faced issue in movies, in which roles of foreign characters are played by white actors and actresses. Lead actor Chadwick Boseman’s character, T’Challa, also takes a subtle yet important step toward a more diverse Hollywood production by speaking with a regionally accurate North-East African accent during English speaking scenes.

    Lastly, The New Mutants, coming to theatres in 2018, is set in Marvel’s X-Men universe and is a standalone film. The plot follows five teenage mutants coming to grips with reality after discovering their own powers. However, the young mutants are locked away in a secret research facility against their will, and will have to do whatever it takes to escape. This thriller takes the X-Men into a new era, tackling the horror genre by surprise with artistic inspiration from the likes of famous horror author Stephen King and the late director John Hughes, who worked on many well known coming of age films in the 1980s.

    Even the animated side of Hollywood is looking to score big in the superhero genre this upcoming season, with Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 set to release in June of 2018. The long awaited sequel to the 2004 blockbuster, The Incredibles 2 follows Bob Parr, voiced by Craig T. Nelson, as he attempts to care for his three super-power enabled children while Helen Parr, voiced by Holly Hunter, is out on a mission to save the world.

    These big screen adaptations of fan favorite superheros and comic books will hopefully  bring in a large revenue for producers, as well as bringing about new fans to the genre. The wide support by pop culture media also does a great deal to keep the ball rolling for superhero flicks for years to come.