Lizzy Caplan To Headline Marvel’s Next Short, ITEM 47

Marvel must be feeling pretty good about their short film series, Marvel One-Shots, which have already appeared on their home video releases of Thor and Captain America. They have just announced the third in the series which is scheduled to appear on September’s DVD and blu-ray of The Avengers, and it will contain a couple of firsts.

According to EW, the short, titled Item 47, will be the longest one yet with an approximate run time of 15 minutes. That’s about three times longer than the previous shorts. It is also the first time where two of the lead characters will not be ones that have been featured in any of Marvel’s feature length films.

The new comers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe are Cloverfield‘s Lizzy Caplan and Flags Of Our Fathers‘s Jesse Bradford playing a couple named Benny and Claire. The pair find one of the alien guns leftover from the big alien invasion of The Avengers and proceed to go on a crime spree. As Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito, who just happened to have directed the short film himself, explains –

The world is topsy-turvy now. There’s been an alien invasion, and things are crazy. So when this gun ­literally fell into their lap, this is a sign: ‘We’re going to rob a few banks, we’re going to buy a boat, we’re going to the Caribbean, and all our problems will be solved.’

Of course, super spy agency SHIELD would take a dim view of such things and the send two agents after the pair – Maximiliano Hernández (who has already appeared as SHIELD Agent Sitwell in Thor, The Avengers and the short The Consultant) and Lost‘s Titus Welliver.

It is exciting to see that Marvel is starting to explore the potential promised by the short film concept. The two previous shorts, while fun, were just little side stories. This one looks like it is hoping to expand on their universe a bit and dealing with some of the consequences of the feature films. Could this be the first step towards shorts that will introduce new characters and heroes who will then “graduate” to feature films? I can’t wait to find out.