Marvel Phase 4: Why We Should Not Expect an Avengers Movie in MCU Phase 5 As Well (and It Makes Total Sense!)
Phase 4 and even Phase 5 is more about picking up the pieces and establishing new superheroes and teams in our minds, With Feige also teasing about Blade, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Phase 5 will be more about making how these three properties fit well into the current continuity.
On July 22, Marvel Cinematic Universe chief Kevin Feige announced the next phase of the future of Marvel movies. There were many surprising factors about the announcements made in the Phase 4 lineups. For one, for the very first time, there is going to be a prequel story for an established character in the MCU, dead one at that, which is what makes Black Widow more special. It will also be the first female superhero film from Marvel to release during the summer, i.e. May 2020, that too after a gap of nearly a year. Marvel Phase 4 Films Revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019! From Black Widow to Thor 4, Here’s the Complete List of Films and TV Series.
Then there are only two solo superhero sequel movies in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. Which means the sequels to Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther and probably, Ant-Man, are pushed to Phase 5. There are also two new properties in Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. So in total, we have five movies in Phase 5. And there are no Avengers movies in sight. Not even teased by Kevin Feige the way he did with Fantastic Four and the 'mutants'.
Instead for the first time, Feige has included streaming shows as a part of Phase 4, a first for MCU. This is interesting because in the past, the movie slate has never acknowledged the presence of the existing TV and streaming shows like Agents of SHIELD, The Runaways and the Netflix Defenders saga. Sure, The Disney + shows are about characters already established in the MCU movies like Loki, Wanda Maximoff, Vision, Bucky, Hawkeye and Falcon. But giving them the same amount of importance as MCU movies means only one thing - when it comes to Phase 4, Disney wants to give more priority to its upcoming streaming service rather than any Avengers property and MCU is the best way to do so. Marvel Phase 4: Six Superheroes or Superhero Teams Whose Absence in Kevin Feige’s Future MCU Movies and Shows Is Baffling!
Of course, this is totally from a business point of view. But even in terms of how movies have been built up so far, bringing an Avengers movie in Phase 4 and even in Phase 5 makes little sense, post Avengers: EndGame. Avengers: EndGame was considered as the culmination of the 22 movies that came before and marked the end of the journey for some of the OG Avengers, especially tophats like Iron Man, Captain America and Black Widow. The rest of the superheroes are scattered and MIA. This was confirmed (SPOILER ALERT) in Spider-Man: Far From Home, when Peter Parker was seen as the next big Hope. Even Nick Fury, the head of SHIELD who was responsible for bringing Avengers together in the first place, is taking a trip into space for reasons unknown (as seen in Far From Home post-credit scene) and even he doesn't care what's happening on Earth. As for Spider-Man, he is now a marked man and perhaps on the run, after the mid-credit stinger of his film. The remaining old superheroes like Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Falcon, Bucky, Scarlet Witch, The Hulk, Ant-Man don't really have a focal point or person to come together and have never really got the time to bond as a team.
So Phase 4 and even Phase 5 is more about picking up the pieces and establishing new superheroes and teams in our minds, With Feige also teasing about Blade, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Phase 5 will be more about making how these three properties fit well into the current continuity. The idea of having Wolverine, The Thing, Blade, Mystique work around with Spider-Man and co is pretty much exciting stuff as much as an Avengers film.
And there is also the fact that, face it, do you really want to see an Avengers film soon with the gaping holes left by Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, do you?
Even Kevin Feige knows that it is a highly difficult task to overshadow what they did with Avengers: EndGame. So what he and his team are upto is to make the road ready for the next Avengers movie, whenever it lands, so that it can be an epic event worth what they did with Infinity War and EndGame. Because, we don't really deserve anything less!
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 24, 2019 06:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).