Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Thor: Ragnarok
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Captain Marvel
Avengers Four
Those are the films remaining in Phase Three of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. And, yeah, sure Spider-Man: Homecoming is in there technically, but since he’s over at Sony it’s unlikely that his corner of the universe will have much effect or interaction with the larger MCU.
However, though that is what we were lead to believe, a new quote from Kevin Feige to Cinema Blend may forecast some changes in creative directions over at Marvel Studios. In an article about Scott Derrickson doing the Doctor Strange sequel, a rumor that started with a Deadline article about Hulu’s Locke & Key, Feige said of Marvel’s future slate —
“Truthfully, other than knowing that we’re going to work with Sony on another Spider-Man film for that year and that James [Gunn] is committed to continuing with the Guardians at some point, it’s all about Phase Three. I don’t even know if it will be called Phase Four. Things will be very different after 2019. After May of 2019.”
It’s no secret that up to this point each phase has pushed further and further into the Marvel universe, expanding from singular characters coming together for one big fight all the way to the outer edges of the cosmos, shrinking to the quantum realm and then exploring the mulitverse, other dimensions and magic.
All in all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe just keeps getting weirder and bigger and weirder and bigger. But that is not a sustainable model. You can only get so big before you have to scale back, otherwise the films start to circle back and eat each other, becoming top heavy and too cost prohibitive. After all, they’re making these movies to make money and, at a certain point, you’re spending so much money you can’t make enough back to justify it. Not to mention the narratives getting completely out of control.
Phase Three ends with Avengers 4 in May of 2019 and, after that, it’s anyone’s guess (unless you work at Marvel Studios are are Kevin Feige). It’s unclear what happens there or what the end results of their fight with Thanos will be, but whatever it is, it spins the universe in a completely new direction. But what exactly is that direction? Let’s take a look at what we know.
First of all, Feige spoke to Cinema Blend in another interview saying, “Where we go after Avengers; what those 2020 films are, we’re pretty sure what those are going to be… but if I tell you that, we’re getting into spoilers.”
In other words, if we announce our slate now, we’ll tip our hand and (presumably) you’ll know the fallout of the events in the last two Avengers films — who dies, who lives, who hooks up, if the Avengers even stay together or if they split up or form two new teams or if Thanos changes reality in a way that it completely resets the entire universe … There’s a lot that could happen in those two films that will impact where the MCU goes.
As for what’s slated, the only two movies we know for certain to be in Phase Four are a second Spider-Man film, which we established may not even count, and the third (presumably final) Guardians of the Galaxy film. Regarding that third and final Guardians film, James Gunn has hinted that Adam Warlock will be a part of that film in some way and that he’ll be a much larger part of the Marvel Cosmic Universe. This to us means that they are constructing more films to exist off of Earth, out in space.
Contracts will certainly start to come due. Actors are growing weary of their time in these roles and are ready to move on. It seems certain we can count on Iron Man and Captain America jumping ship in some capacity. We could also end up losing Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow, who have all been part of the universe since Phase One. Thor could end up leaving the MCU as well, though Taika Waititi has said that the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok spins his character in a new direction that they will continue to explore. This, to us, seems to indicate that they may have future Thor films planned, or at least his inclusion in the universe.
And that would make sense given where we think it’s going. Just going off of contracts alone, the characters still definitively available are all more cosmic in nature. The Guardians are still there with their final movie, Adam Warlock will be there in some capacity, Captain Marvel will have just started her run with the MCU as will Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp. All in all, the more terrestrial characters will be gone and the weirder, more cosmic, more extra-dimensional characters will still be around. The only real exceptions here are Scarlet Witch, Vision and Black Panther, but all of them also make sense to venture into space or beyond.
This starts to shape up the universe to seem more off of earth and in weirder realms. However, it’s also entirely possible that Feige is referring to the way their extended universe operates and connects. By that we mean that it’s possible we’ll see a lot more team-ups and film crossovers in the individual movies as opposed to a lot of standalone films that build towards a gigantic team up every three or four years.
But what do we know. We’re not Kevin Feige. For all we know they blow up the entire Marvel universe and start over after Avengers 4. Except for the Guardians. And Spider-Man. They’ll be around forever.
He has two cats and knows all things about Doctor Strange but little else.
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