Last week Marvel studios took the unusual step of announcing five upcoming movie release dates stretching into 2019 without actually announcing what movies they would be. Now they’ve added another date for that schedule: May 4th 2018.

Robert Downey Jr Susan Downey
Robert Downey Jr, pictured here with wife Susan, is unsure of his future role with the Iron Man films

Presumably this has been made possible because of the recent news that Sony has pushed back the release date of The Amazing Spiderman 3. The projected Amazing Spiderman 4 movie had been due to be released on May 4th 2018, but obviously that date has now become available.

Marvel’s 2015 schedule is already decided, with The Avengers sequel Avengers: Age Of Ultron and the Michael Douglas-featuring Ant-Man both out that summer, but this news now means that Marvel will be released three films per year for both 2017 and 2018. Exciting and busy times indeed for the studio, who have in the recent past revealed that the new Thor is a woman and that Iron Man is to get an overhaul. The Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. has recently cast doubt on his further involvement in the franchise.

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The announcement comes shortly before Comic-Con at the end of July, so perhaps some more information will emerge in the next week or so.

Until then, here is the full Marvel release schedule through to 2019:

2014

August 1st: Guardians Of The Galaxy

2015

May 1st: Avengers: Age Of Ultron

July 17th: Ant-Man

2016

May 6th: Captain America 3

July 8th: ? (rumoured to be Doctor Strange)

2017

May 5th: ?

July 27th: ?

November 3rd: ?

2018

May 4th: ?

July 6th: ?

November 2nd: ?

2019

May 3rd: ?

Watch the Guardians Of The Galaxy trailer: