Captain America: the 3-D Avenger?

The 3D format is undeniably big business, and everyone wants a slice of that delicious, lucrative pie. There is a whole roster of Marvel characters coming our way, but which will be the first to literally leap from the screen (with the aid of audience eyewear)?

The LA Times speculates that could be none other than the star-spangled superhero himself, CAPTAIN AMERICA. As Marvel movie honcho Kevin Feige recently told them, “The team has been doing a lot of research into 3-D processes, and we’re looking at it on future films when we have the time. We will be doing it at some point.“

THOR is the next character in the self-contained Marvel movie Universe to hit screens, but a 3D Mjolnir would require post-production conversion to the format. And Feige doesn’t seem too crazy about pushing that — he already avoided it on IRON MAN 2: “We couldn’t have turned over a version of the movie 10 or 20 weeks earlier for 3-D conversion without undermining the quality,” he said. “We used all the time we had for mixing and editing and discovering the right tone.”

CAPTAIN AMERICA doesn’t shoot until later this year, so it could hypothetically be shot using the latest 3D gear, and that famous bulletproof shield could be spinning right toward your head. The assembled AVENGERS would likely follow suit the next year.