Marvel Studios At SDCC: Thor/Captain America Sequel Titles And New Hero Additions

Go ahead, lavish Marvel/Disney's officially titled Captain America and Thor sequels with their appropriate excitement, but save some for denizens of the comic universe apparently headed soon into stages of production.

As reported by E! News, Marvel Studios reps announced during a Saturday San Diego Comic-Con presentation that following "Iron Man 3" into the next era of "The Avengers" canon will be first "Thor: The Dark World," then "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." Ah, but Marvel isn't stopping at building on established hits.

Not only did the studio announce that "Guardians of the Galaxy" would boast the big-screen debuts of Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord, Draxx the Destroyer, Groot and Gamora, but it's already been tapped for an Aug. 1, 2014 release date.

Topping it all off, the studio provided a very, very, VERY early look at what fans will (quite justifiably) take to be the next addition to the established lineup of "The Avengers."

Word had already surfaced that Edgar Wright - writer/director of "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" and "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" fame - had been diligently preparing test footage to rally enthusiasm behind bringing Ant-Man to the big screen. Wright and pal Simon Pegg adamantly insisted on Twitter that Wright wouldn't be anywhere near the San Diego Convention Center this weekend.

Which, of course, made it a surprise to no one when he showed up to talk about his "Terrence Malick" approach to taking a meticulous long time preparing a script and the aforementioned demo reel.

"I did shoot a test, this is true," Wright said. "you guys wouldn't want to see the unfinished test, would you?"

Of course, judging by what E! reported, he might not have escaped Hall H alive if he'd declined to screen it. So fans got to glimpse 30 seconds of a fully costumed Ant-Man shifting from large to small sizes battling two henchmen. Of course, fans know that Henry Pym, the original Ant-Man, was indeed a founding member of The Avengers.

And now, fans know it's a character that can be pulled off. This is now a thing that has to be.