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Avengers: Endgame
is the definitive conclusion to the Infinity Saga. After 11 years and more than
20 films of build-up, the Infinity Stones are dealt with, and Thanos is
permanently thwarted. Some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s greatest heroes
perish or retire. Besides Spider-Man: Far
From Home, which came out after Endgame
and caps off Phase Three, the path forward for the MCU seemed unclear.
Then, Marvel Studios finally revealed some information on
what will come, first at Comic-Con and then at D23. What we learned is nothing
short of exciting.
The Movies After the Avengers
Our first step into the future is actually a film set in the
past. Black Widow, the long-awaited
solo feature of Natasha Romanoff, will take place shortly after the conclusion
of 2016’s Avengers: Civil War. Marvel
Studios remains tight-lipped, but in May 2020, we will get a greater insight
into the character’s trouble history with the KGB and some of the people she
knew.
Of course, Marvel Studios will not be content with returning
to characters from earlier films. November 2020 will bring us The Eternals, featuring a large group of
immortal aliens. The all-star cast is downright voluminous: Salma Hayek,
Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Brian Tyree Henry,
and Lauren Ridloff comprise the team. One character will be the MCU’s first
openly LGBTQIA+ hero.
Anyone disappointed with the lack of Asian representation in
the MCU can find hope in Shang-Chi and
the Legend of the Ten Rings. Japanese-American Destin Daniel Cretton will
direct from a screenplay by David Callaham, who is of Chinese descent.
Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu will star as Shang-Chi, “Master of Kung Fu.” He
will also fight the Mandarin, who will be quite different than his portrayal in
Iron Man 3. It is scheduled for
release in February 2021.
Things will get really weird in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, slated for May 2021.
The Master of the Mystic Arts will team up with Scarlet Witch in an adventure
through the Multiverse. Marvel Studios has promised that this will be “the
first scary MCU film,” which brings up all kinds of exciting possibilities.
Phase Four concludes in November 2021 with arguably the most
exciting of its five films, Thor: Love
and Thunder. It will see the return of Thor:
Ragnarok’s beloved director Taika Waititi. This time, as with his acclaimed
non-MCU films, he will also be writing. In an MCU miracle, not only is Natalie
Portman returning to the franchise, but Jane Foster will claim the mantle of
Thor for herself. Valkyrie is also expected to return, and Tessa Thompson
announced that as the new King of Asgard, she will seek out her own queen.
Where is Everyone Else?
MCU fans are accustomed to seeing new installments starring
the franchise’s major characters in each phase. This means they could not help
noticing some big names left off the slate for Phase Four. Where is the
much-anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 3? Where is the second Black
Panther? For that matter, where are the Avengers, the group that served as
the lynchpin for every phase?
Marvel Studios is approaching Phase Four quite different for
several reasons. The biggest may be that the Infinity Saga is over and the
Avengers as we knew them are disbanded. They need time to build up the next
franchise-wide arc and its major players, many of whom were only recently
introduced. Another significant factor is Disney+, the new streaming service
exclusively for Disney productions. The platform will feature multiple original
TV shows centered on the further adventures of various MCU characters. These
include Hawkeye, Falcon, Winter Soldier, and Scarlet Witch, as well as a slew
of newcomers like Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.
Anyone who is missing will likely appear in Phase Five. Black Panther II is slated for May 2022,
meaning it will almost certainly be part of this future phase. Guardians Vol. 3 is on hold as
writer/director James Gunn works on other projects. A follow-up to Captain Marvel is in the works.
Meanwhile, a new take on vampire hunter Blade, Marvel’s first hit film
superhero from long before the MCU, has been confirmed for Phase Five. The
future is bright.
Marvel Cinematic Universe Merchandise
We at Your WDW Store hope you have enjoyed our
retrospectives on the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. We did these partly because we offer a massive
assortment of merchandise related to the characters. We also did these partly
because we know how much these movies mean to its fans.
The MCU has changed cinema forever, and not simply by
smashing box office records. It proved that a new form of comics-inspired
serialized storytelling, complete with ambitious crossovers, could succeed in
the medium of movies. It might look easy now as we head into Phase Four, but it
was the result of a lot of hard work and patience from a lot of real-life
superheroes. None of it would have succeeded without the most important element
of any good movie: great storytelling.
If our detailed analyses on these films increased your
appreciation of that effort by even a little bit, then we did our job.
