So the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to drive up nerd excitement the world over with years of movies based on beloved comic book characters in the works. These include a third solo adventure with Thor and a fresh Spider-Man tale that ties into other Marvel flicks.

Marvel today released the cast for ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. It’s looks be quite an all-star lineup with Cate Blanchett as “the mysterious and powerful new villain” Hela, along with Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Karl Urban as Skurge and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/the Hulk. These new names join the returning Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Idris Elba as Heimdal and Anthony Hopkins as Odin. It hits theaters on November 3, 2017.

Tom Holland made a big splash as the new Spider-Man in “Captain America: Civil War” with his brief yet endearing performance on Team Iron Man, and a post-credit scene built up momentum for the planned ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’. It’s a wonderful in-sync move by mega-studios Disney (owners of Marvel) and Sony to share the Spider-Man character in film, to tie the web-slinger to overall MCU world.

Variety reported today that an actor who earned a place in pop culture as a superhero could actually appear in the Spidey movie as a yet to be determined villain. Michael Keaton played Batman in two classic films from Warner Bros, was rumored to be a part of the film in an adversarial role but it was reported the film’s budget was bloated before Robert Downey Jr. could be secured to appear as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Now with Downey’s extended Marvel deal in place, all parties have been pleased and Keaton may once again be on his way to entering the web of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Keaton has made some great movies recently in the last two Oscar best picture winners, “Spotlight” and “Birdman”.

Speaking of mentally unhinged men who dress like birds, Joblo is reporting that The Vulture will get the call up from Marvel Comics to appear in the film, making it the first time the winged villain has been featured in a Spider-Man movie. Another obscure bad guy the Tinkerer will join the Vulture in a reported plot leak, and will construct a powered suit with tech left from alien technology that was left behind in New York after the battles in the first ‘Avengers’ movie. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” hits theaters on July 7th, 2017.

Here is a bunch of neat scoops about ‘Homecoming’ and how it’s going to likely please a lot of Spider-Man fans.

• @kevkellam