‘Captain America 2’ Doesn’t Even Hit Theaters Until April, So Obviously Marvel Is Already Working on ‘Captain America 3’

Captain America was a surprise hit for Marvel, and old Cap is a huge part of The Avengers, which was the highest-grossing super hero movie of all-time until Iron Man 3 came along. So yes, it's a pretty safe bet that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is going to be a success. Still, you never want to put the cart before the horse. Marvel is still going to wait to make sure the sequel succeeds before giving the official green light to Captain America 3.

In the meantime, however, they've just gone and secured their star, found a producer, hammered out a story arc, and nailed down a director. You know, just minor details.

According to Variety, a "source" has confirmed that Winter Soldier directors Anthony and Joe Russo will be back in the directors chair (there may be two of them, but they only get one chair) for the third installment of the franchise. And together with Marvel execs they've already outlined the basic plot of the third film.

Why the rush when there's still so much time before Captain America 2 comes out? Apparently the studio execs are just thrilled with the Russo brothers' work and the movie is doing well at test screenings, so they want to get the key ingredients for the third film locked into place right away.

Meanwhile, over at Disney, J.J. Abrams hopes to have a final decision on which plastic cups they'll use for water at auditions for the role of Storm Trooper #35 some time week.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits theaters April 4.