Marvel Movies/TV and the MCU Future

[Nick]

I wouldn't be surprised if they keep a full-on X-MEN movie in their back pocket to anchor Phase 7. Maybe introduce a few characters individually leading up to that in Phase 6.

Yep. X-Men gives them plenty to work with if they want to wait until after Phase 6. I feel like Secret Wars is gonna be absolute bonkers enough without the inclusion of 616 X-Men. They can use Deadpool and Wolverine from whatever they want to call the Fox X-Men universe, but I don't think Deadpool is going to be considered 616's Deadpool, despite being an MCU movie.

If we remember back to the end of Deadpool 2, they were traveling through realities (or wolverine was) and I think that is how they are going to bring them over. Sort of part of the MCU and they get to have fun here, but they aren't "ours" so to speak. I could easily see Deadpool getting killed off in a beautifully gory way in Secret Wars.

Here's the full phase 6 slate of dates:

 

[Jerroddragon]

I’m surprised they are telling us both Avengers film names

we didn’t know endgames until like 8 months before

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I’m surprised they are telling us both Avengers film names

we didn’t know endgames until like 8 months before

Something tells me there's a reason for that. Especially with all the talk of Incursions.

 

[Nick]

Something tells me there's a reason for that. Especially with all the talk of Incursions.

Kang is also about to play a big role in Ant-Man 3 (and beyond) and Secret Wars is and has been obvious.

 

[HalfGlass]

So I’m definitely more excited after these reveals…but once again, looking at this slate, I see no through-line or correlation for the build up. We are going to go 6 years between Avengers films, and then two come out within 6 months of each other.

I also get this is called the Multiverse Saga, but most of the content in this saga so far didn’t even marginally tie-in to multiverse stuff. Not to mention, each of the first three phases had a culmination event (Avengers, AoU and Infinity/Endgame). Phase 4 ends with Black Panther and Phase 5 ends with Thunderbolts (which I guess could be a big event, but I’m not nearly as excited to see US Agent, Yelena, Zemo and Taskmaster as I was to see the Avengers).

Once again, cautiously optimistic, but this still feels bloated with little cohesive direction so far. And while I was okay with Phases 1-2 having some missteps (since it was an unprecedented experiment), my expectations have grown greatly from a quality and storytelling perspective due to Phase 3.

Sorry for being that negative guy again…

 

[Jerroddragon]

I mean I don’t think we need too much build up
Thanos was literally a different character in GOTG than he was in Infinity war and we all loved it

Kang will show up Loki and Antman 3

 

[Tobias]

Can't help but notice there was no word on Werewolf by Night, wondering if they're saving that for D23?

 

[pumpkinbot343]

I mean I don’t think we need too much build up
Thanos was literally a different character in GOTG than he was in Infinity war and we all loved it

Kang will show up Loki and Antman 3

That still didn’t make it good. It was still very shoddy buildup for the Big Bad of the Infinity Saga. And there’s fans (who are a minority but very vocal) who didn’t like how they changed Thanos motivation (or for those who didn’t read the comics, found it to be underwhelming and stupid). Not to mention it inspired the unholy “Thanos was right” crowd.

I mean really the MCU builds up its villains like they are Kingdom Hearts villains.

 

[Nick]

Can't help but notice there was no word on Werewolf by Night, wondering if they're saving that for D23?

They saved quite a bit for D23. I think we only got as much as we did bc of the trademarks leaking.

 

[CoryLevy91]

Seems like a super wild decision to go one or two phases without an Avengers movie and then have two less than six months apart in the same phase, especially since they appear to be dealing with different storylines per the titles.

The further and further we get out from how the MCU began and built up towards the big battle against Thanos, the more it feels like we were spoiled by near picture perfect planning from the start. I don't dislike the MCU or think it's awful now but it really does feel like we're getting a story here and a story there from whichever character they choose to spotlight whereas in the first three Phases just about every movie was introducing some brick that would later be used to build the walls of Infinity War and Endgame.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Seems like a super wild decision to go one or two phases without an Avengers movie and then have two less than six months apart in the same phase, especially since they appear to be dealing with different storylines per the titles.

The further and further we get out from how the MCU began and built up towards the big battle against Thanos, the more it feels like we were spoiled by near picture perfect planning from the start. I don't dislike the MCU or think it's awful now but it really does feel like we're getting a story here and a story there from whichever character they choose to spotlight whereas in the first three Phases just about every movie was introducing some brick that would later be used to build the walls of Infinity War and Endgame.

From what I think is going to be the norm, the Avengers projects would essentially be considered as if it was the end of a film saga for Marvel Studios going forward.

So say, Wakanda Forever and Thunderbolts are the "FInales" of the phases 4 and 5, but both do so with different aspects.

 

[Freak]

Phase bore, er, phase four of the MCU has been by far the most over-saturated and underwhelming phase of the MCU, period. Still have not watched Eternals or Ms. Marvel and don't care to watch it either one. Multiverse of Madness, while I appreciated the horror elements in it, was very disappointing as an MCU movie, Spiderman was the only standout, and Love and Thunder was pretty mid despite it being the best phase 4 movie outside of Spiderman IMO.

The only shows/movies from phase 4 I actually enjoyed were Spiderman, Moon Knight, What If, and Thor (Thor being the "best of the worst"). I even kind of liked Loki.

Apparently Kang is going to be the next big bad of the MCU so I hope they establish sooner than later that this is what the MCU will build up to. The lack of planning is pretty obvious.

 

[Nico]

Seems like a super wild decision to go one or two phases without an Avengers movie and then have two less than six months apart in the same phase, especially since they appear to be dealing with different storylines per the titles.

The further and further we get out from how the MCU began and built up towards the big battle against Thanos, the more it feels like we were spoiled by near picture perfect planning from the start. I don't dislike the MCU or think it's awful now but it really does feel like we're getting a story here and a story there from whichever character they choose to spotlight whereas in the first three Phases just about every movie was introducing some brick that would later be used to build the walls of Infinity War and Endgame.

I don’t think the Avengers themes/concepts are actually different. They feel like they def follow the model of the last two.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Phase bore, er, phase four of the MCU has been by far the most over-saturated and underwhelming phase of the MCU, period. Still have not watched Eternals or Ms. Marvel and don't care to watch it either one. Multiverse of Madness, while I appreciated the horror elements in it, was very disappointing as an MCU movie, Spiderman was the only standout, and Love and Thunder was pretty mid despite it being the best phase 4 movie outside of Spiderman IMO.

The only shows/movies from phase 4 I actually enjoyed were Spiderman, Moon Knight, What If, and Thor (Thor being the "best of the worst"). I even kind of liked Loki.

Apparently Kang is going to be the next big bad of the MCU so I hope they establish sooner than later that this is what the MCU will build up to. The lack of planning is pretty obvious.

In the terms of Kang, he'll be Film introduced beginning with Quantumania, and I imagine more will be shared of his role with stuff like Loki S2.

If anything, the central character for the Multiverse Saga is Kang, and I wouldn't be surprised if Majors becomes as involved as RDJ was with Stark.

 

[Nick]

Seems like a super wild decision to go one or two phases without an Avengers movie and then have two less than six months apart in the same phase, especially since they appear to be dealing with different storylines per the titles.

The further and further we get out from how the MCU began and built up towards the big battle against Thanos, the more it feels like we were spoiled by near picture perfect planning from the start. I don't dislike the MCU or think it's awful now but it really does feel like we're getting a story here and a story there from whichever character they choose to spotlight whereas in the first three Phases just about every movie was introducing some brick that would later be used to build the walls of Infinity War and Endgame.

Feige talked about the two Avengers movies coming out so close to each other. He said:

"The truth is, when we were doing phase one, phase two, and phase three, there were less projects over more years and they were smaller projects and more individual character stories. It felt appropriate at that point that after every two or three years that it took for a phase, we would do an Avengers film.

As four, five, and six were coming together, there were more projects and less years, because of all the amazing stuff we're now allowed to do on Disney+ (and getting characters from Fox), and it felt like, ya know, we thought Avengers movies aren't cappers. So many of our movies now are big team up films introducing big parts of the mythology, and that Avengers films really should be the capper to a saga, which is really all we wanted to lay the groundwork for today."

 

[CoryLevy91]

Feige talked about the two Avengers movies coming out so close to each other. He said:

"The truth is, when we were doing phase one, phase two, and phase three, there were less projects over more years and they were smaller projects and more individual character stories. It felt appropriate at that point that after every two or three years that it took for a phase, we would do an Avengers film.

As four, five, and six were coming together, there were more projects and less years, because of all the amazing stuff we're now allowed to do on Disney+ (and getting characters from Fox), and it felt like, ya know, we thought Avengers movies aren't cappers. So many of our movies now are big team up films introducing big parts of the mythology, and that Avengers films really should be the capper to a saga, which is really all we wanted to lay the groundwork for today."

That makes sense categorically speaking since they're retroactively referring to the first three phases as the Infinity Sage and these next phases leading up to these two Avengers films is the Multiverse Saga. What doesn't is probably born out of my lack of comic book knowledge to begin with. If Avengers movies are end caps to a saga, how can there be two of them so close together with likely nothing in between that feature different plots? Or will they be like a two part story similar to Infinity Wars and Endgame? I'm just going off the titles and thinking one would be a battle against Kang and the other would be the culmination of the Secret Wars story, which I know virtually nothing of. Maybe it'll make more sense if I familiarize myself with both stories, it just comes off as a lot of story to juggle going into two different Avengers movies so close together.

 

[Nick]

It should be noted that Disney has scheduled release dates for unannounced Marvel Studios films on February 16, 2024, along with February 14 and July 25, 2025. The July 25th date is a movie happening in between the two Avengers movies. Possibly Spider-Man 4?

That makes sense categorically speaking since they're retroactively referring to the first three phases as the Infinity Sage and these next phases leading up to these two Avengers films is the Multiverse Saga. What doesn't is probably born out of my lack of comic book knowledge to begin with. If Avengers movies are end caps to a saga, how can there be two of them so close together with likely nothing in between that feature different plots? Or will they be like a two part story similar to Infinity Wars and Endgame? I'm just going off the titles and thinking one would be a battle against Kang and the other would be the culmination of the Secret Wars story, which I know virtually nothing of. Maybe it'll make more sense if I familiarize myself with both stories, it just comes off as a lot of story to juggle going into two different Avengers movies so close together.

I think Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars will almost definitely be heavily connected as sort of a quasi Part 1 & 2.

I also don't mind the choice to wait until the end of Phase 6 for the next Avengers movies. As Feige said, there was less over more time in the first three phases and the movies weren't as big. They were typically smaller character origin films and then it culminated in an Avenger film every three years or so.

Phases 4-6 is a lot less of that, but there's still a lot of big films that are hyped up crossovers or highly anticipated films, such as Quantumania, The Marvels, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, etc. that I don't think an Avengers film is necessary yet. To me, I like Avengers films feeling special and with how short these phases are, if they capped off each phase with an Avenger film, we'd be getting one every two years or so and they wouldn't seem as special as we're also not at a point in the universe where we're even close to knowing what the current Avengers *team* is looking like, let alone getting an Avengers movie and we're at the tail end of Phase 4.

That said, I do wish Secret Wars was 2026. The only other time in cinematic history that two films in the same franchise (not meaning franchise as in the MCU or DCEU, but the singular IP) was Matrix Reloaded on May 7, 2003 and then Matrix Revolutions on November 5, 2003. That's pretty much release dates and the exact same six month timeframe as Avengers 5 and 6 will release during.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I'll also bite in that for the sake of Wakanda Forever, it should be a good finale to the transition/reset phase that this has been.

• Focusing on the many individuals of Wakanda coming to terms with Tchallas passing, especially for the Royal Family and Nakia
• Showcases the beginnings for both Riri and Namor, showing how both advance and begin their footing within the MCU.
• Should be the introduction of events triggered by the Celestial earthquakes from Eternals and Endgame
• Introduce how an Okoye show can progress following Wakanda Forever

And most importantly, the potential arrival of what will likely be the MCUs biggest threat outside of Kang with Doom. Thunderbolts should also be what we see tie into both NWO, and how Valentine brings her collection. Essentially becoming the anthisis of The Avengers (while also paying respect to the passing of William Hurt, who likely would've been the lead of the cast).

 

[Brian G.]

This kinda seems redundant since we have all these MCU movies with threads. I'm going to lock this and suggest we talk about it in each respective thread.