Alright! So today I'm breaking away from my tried and true formula of Top 10 lists and Versus rankings to just have some fun speculating about the future of the MCU.
Also, spoilers, should my theories turn out somewhat correct.
Phase 4
I think that Phase 4 is shaping up to look like this: WandaVision is going to detail how, after losing her brother and husband/lover/true love synthetic humanoid robot, Wanda Maximoff has gone off the rails and created her own pocket dimension, which the agency S.W.O.R.D. is monitoring. They've brought in Kat Dennings' Darcy Lewis to help with that because why not.
But in WandaVision, Wanda will have two children, Speed and Wiccan, and after losing them will become the main villain of Phase 4 and completely shatter the multiverse with her vaguely defined powers (a la House of M).
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Spider-Man: Home Something or Other will then deal with the fallout on a ground level. This explains why this movie has been rumored to include previously dead villains from the different Spidey flicks like Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, Jamie Foxx's Electro, and most likely Andrew Garfield's and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Men.
We can only hope that this Spider-Man 3 2 will be able to balance several big-name villains, heroes like Doctor Strange and (Probably) Daredevil, the returning cast of Far From Home, and the massive cliffhanger that Spidey's secret identity as Peter Parker was revealed. Hopefully, this isn't like Homecoming's cliffhanger where Aunt May learned Spidey's identity and it ultimately just moved the plot instead of creating drama. Hasn't overstuffing the sequel been what killed the past two Spidey movies?
For the actual plot of this one, I bet that Spider-Man, facing legal battles for allegedly killing Mysterio, is defended by Charlie Cox's Daredevil, until Peter decides that he'll ask Doctor Strange to erase his identity from the world (a la One More Day). Strange agrees to do this, but he needs Peter's help battling the collapse of the multiverse, which brings in threats like Doc Ock, Electro, an alternate Ned as Hobgoblin, and, if they're really ambitious, Sandman and Green Goblin from the Raimi films and Jacob Gyllenhaal's Mysterio, setting up a Sinister 6 movie with Venom. They defeat the bad guy and Doctor Strange teases his movie.
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I also think that Doctor Strange 2 will feature Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man in some way, as Marvel got the original Spider-Man trilogy director (Sam Raimi) on board. And a Deadpool cameo.
On the solo film front, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals will all likely be stand-alone adventures with no tie-in to the multiverse arc.
On the TV front, we have Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye which will, for the most part, be completely separate adventures with tie-ins to Black Widow, but both will set up Young Avengers (We'll get to that later). Loki will tie into Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange 2, Ms. Marvel will tie into Captain Marvel 2 and reintroduce the Inhumans, She-Hulk will just do its own thing alongside Ironheart, Moon Knight, and Armor Wars, and Secret Invasion will probably be the most important moving forward, as it's introducing the idea that people are being replaced by Skrulls.
Beyond the Multiverse
Thor: Love and Thunder - May 6, 2022
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| Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor |
I'm guessing that this will be the final Thor movie (Based on Avengers also only getting four movies). The film will begin with Thor being a part of the Guardians of the Galaxy until he gets the shocking news that Jane Foster has cancer, which will somehow lead to Jane Foster getting Thor's powers. The main bad guy of the movie Gorr the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale, and I wouldn't be surprised if Enchantress showed up.
Valkyrie will become the queen of Asgard and probably marry Lady Sif (Yay representation!), thus solving the half-baked Thor/Valkyrie/Lady Sif/Jane Foster romance thing that they've been low-key setting up.
Black Panther II - July 8th, 2022
It's hard to tell how Black Panther will be handled due to the shocking death of Chadwick Boseman last August due to colon cancer, and Marvel confirming the role will not be recast, I'm going to guess he'll die off-screen. Whether that's peacefully or at the hand of the movie's main villain, I don't know. But I do know for sure that Shuri will become the next Black Panther. I'm also not too good on my Black Panther lore, so my best guess for the villain is Achebe (Since Man-Ape is a good guy). I don't think they'll bust out Namor yet.
Captain Marvel 2 - November 11, 2022
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| We're due for the traditional Carol Danvers suit at some point, right? |
All we know about Captain Marvel 2 is the cast - We've got Brie Larson as Captain Marvel (Who hopefully gets a better costume), Irman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau. I'm also hoping, hoping that Spider-Man shows up somewhere. I just want a Ms. Marvel/Spidey team-up. No clue about villains (Moonstone?) or plot. I'm mostly hoping that it'll flesh out Captain Marvel a bit more than her first film did, and having her interact with younger, peppier characters like Ms. Marvel should really help with that.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - 2022
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Quantumania is going to do three things: The first thing is that the villain, Kang the Conqueror, will introduce Iron Lad, which, combined with Cassie Lang as Stature, will set up the Young Avengers. The second thing is to wrap up Ant-Man's story, and the third is to introduce the Fantastic Four through Quantum shenanigans.
GOTG Vol. 3 - May 5th, 2023
I'm not expecting a ton from Guardians Vol. 3 in terms of setting up the MCU, just one last chill movie with the Guardians before their trilogy finishes. The one thing I am expecting it to do is to introduce Nova and Adam Warlock, who will then be major players moving forward.
Fantastic Four - July 28th, 2023
That's right, I think that we may get a Fantastic Four movie as soon as two years from now. Crazy to think about, but the director, Jon Watts, has been pushing out Spider-Man movies every two years, so with the last one in 2021, it makes sense for his next MCU flick to come out in 2023. There are two things I want from this: The first is to not have Doctor Doom as the villain and for it to be an origin story. That's what the last two did.
Fantastic Four should tread new territory. The main villain of the movie should be Annihilus, who followed them out of the Quantum Realm. They should also team up with Spider-Man because everyone loves Spider-Man (And he and Human Torch have a totally dope bromance). And it is time to bust out Mole Man in some capacity.
Theorizing - Phase 5
Kevin Feige said that they often have movies planned out 5 to 6 years from what they've announced, so let's do some fun theorizing. Since we've already gotten confirmation of four movies in 2023, let's try and figure out what the MCU is going to do - All the way until 2029.
I'm thinking that we're getting TV shows centered around Marvel properties that might not translate too well onto the big screen, so I'm placing my bets on Power Pack, Squirrel Girl, Hercules, Captain Britain, Howard the Duck, the Warlocks, and maybe even some adaptation of the Marvels storyline.
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| It is time for Squirrel Girl to take the spotlight. |
For bigger names, I would say Ghost Rider, Daredevil, and Doctor Doom are prime candidates for a TV show. Doctor Doom I could see as a real possibility since he's an A-tier villain, up there with Thanos, Galactus, and Magneto, but I don't think they'd necessarily want an entire movie devoted to him, since he's just one dude (And a villain). I think that a Disney+ show is definitely in the cards for Victor Von Doom.
The overall arc of Phase 5 would be introducing the X-Men, wrapping up older trilogies like Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Captain Marvel, and then ending with a huge tease of what's to come in Phase 6 via an Illuminati movie.
Deadpool 3 - February 17th, 2023
Deadpool 3 is confirmed to be in the works, R-Rated, and beginning to shoot in 2022. Depending on how that goes, I would see Deadpool 3 taking a February slot (Just like the first Deadpool did). The overall purpose of this movie would be to wrap up Deadpool's trilogy and maybe serve as a meta backdoor pilot for the mutants movie.
Blade - November 3rd, 2023
Blade, starring Mahershala Ali, is about a vampire hunter aptly named Blade. He previously had a trilogy of movies in the 90s, which were actually the first popular R-Rated superhero films with a black lead (Sorry Deadpool and Black Panther). I'm not sure what this Blade will be rated. While it could easily follow in the steps of the trilogy before it, Marvel might not want to release two R-Rated films in the same year.
Shang-Chi 2, Eternals 2- 2024
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| The most we know about Eternals is the leaked LEGO sets. Apparently, they have a pizza ship? |
Not much to say about these since we haven't seen the actual movies yet, but Marvel seems fond of having their movies come out three years apart, so 2021 releases with 2024 sequels makes sense.
Young Avengers - 2024
The other members could easily pop up at any moment - WandaVision is introducing S.W.O.R.D., which could lead to Hulkling. Falcon and the Winter Soldier could introduce Patriot, Loki can introduce Kid Loki, and Quantumania is introducing Kang the Conqueror, whose earlier self hates his older warlord self, so tries to take back his future as the hero Ironlad, so that would be really easy to incorporate.
Plus, we're getting TV shows centered around younger characters like Ironheart and Ms. Marvel, and we always have Spider-Man if they need a leader. This is such an obvious and huge Young Avengers set up (Almost exclusively through Disney+ shows) that I'm 100% sure it's happening. The only thing that might not be right is whether or not this is a movie. It could be a Disney+ show, but when you have "Avengers" in the title, you expect it on a big screen.
X-Men - 2024
The X-Men are coming to the MCU, even if Kevin Feige chose to only use the word "Mutants" when he promoted it at 2019's San Diego Comic-Con. I'm assuming this is just a regular X-Men movie - the team, led by Cyclops, probably has some combination of Colossus, Jean Grey, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat - basically X-Men: Evolution. They team up to fight the Brotherhood of Mutants, standard X-Men fair. I don't think they should have Wolverine in this, though. Leave that tease for the sequel, let the X-Men stand on their own for a bit.
Doctor Strange 3, Black Panther III, Captain Marvel: A-Force, Spider-Man 4 - 2025
Like Shang-Chi 2 and Eternals 2, we haven't even seen the previous installment of these franchises so we have no idea where these movies will go. Doctor Strange 3 will probably have a finale against Karl Mordo, Black Panther III will introduce Namor as the main villain, and I'm thinking that Captain Marvel 3 will feature A-Force, the female-led superhero squad we got a shot of in Endgame, but this time with She-Hulk, Jane Foster's Thor, and Medusa.
Spider-Man 4 will hopefully, hopefully, include Kraven the Hunter in some way (Played by Jason Momoa), and maybe some sort of Sinister 6 movie since Sony's over there making Venom, and we've got Doc Ock, Mysterio, Vulture, and Electro ready to go. That makes six, and you could even shove more villains in there - namely Morbius, Black Cat, Green Goblin, and Sandman.
Nova, Blade II, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse -2026
Yes, we will finally get that Nova movie, which will a spiritual continuation of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (And keeping the sequel span of three years). Blade II would just be another Blade movie (Maybe against Morbius, and teamed up with Moon Knight and Ghost Rider), and I think that the new X-Men movies would be stupid to not try the Age of Apocalypse storyline after X-Men: Apocalypse turned him into a completely generic character. We need some sort of proper Apocalypse movie. And, coming back to my idea, this is where they introduce Wolverine, Angel, and Jubilee as major players.
Illuminati - 2026
With Professor X, Doctor Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Black Bolt, and Mister Fantastic introduced, that means it's time for an Illuminati movie. The Illuminati are a group of the world's smartest superheroes who secretly meet up to discuss things. I think that this would be a prime place to end Phase Five on a big bang with the Kree-Skrull war. And, they could introduce other heroes to the roster like Smart Hulk, Black Panther (Shuri), Captain Britain, and Hank Pym. You gotta fix the hole that Iron Man, an original member, has left.
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 - 2026
Hear me out: Sam Raimi directing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is an example of the unofficial "One for you, one for me" deal between studios and directors, a la Christopher Nolan making Batman Begins (Franchise) and then The Prestige (Original), The Dark Knight (Franchise) and then Inception (Original), and The Dark Knight Rises (Franchise) and then Interstellar (Original). Or take Barry Jenkins directing The Lion King 2 and then, presumably, his own original Disney movie.
So now we get to Sam Raimi. I don't know how Marvel got Sam Raimi to direct Doctor Strange 2, but I'm thinking it's because they told him they would allow him to work on a fourth Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire. That, combined with the rumors of Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3, makes this theory all the more plausible.
Complete speculation - Phase Six
I'm going to say that this might be the last Marvel phase, the ultimate end of the MCU. I have it ending in 2030, because 22 years is exceptionally long for a franchise that pops out four movies every year. There's a law of diminishing returns, and, as much as we don't want it to happen, superhero fatigue might actually become a thing.
Shang-Chi 3, Eternals 3, Fantastic Four 2, Young Avengers 2 - 2027
Blade III - 2028
Once again, we haven't even gotten the first Shang-Chi, Eternals, Blade, or Young Avengers, so trying to predict the ending of their trilogies/second installment is really, really hard, especially when they're not particularly well-known properties. Fantastic Four 2 I can guess a bit more easily. Based on where my schedule has this place going, this story would have the main villains be The Maker, an evil version of Mister Fantastic from the Ultimate Marvel universe, and drop Doctor Doom in there. Take all the Fantastic Four villains you can! Mole Man, Molecule Man, Impossible Man, and Graviton. And some type of reference to the Bombastic Bag Man.
X-Men: Phoenix - 2028
You know what we've never gotten in an X-Men movie before? An adaptation of the Phoenix Saga. Nope, not a single time has the franchise tried to adapt Marvel's most popular story. Ideally, these X-Men movies would actually build up Jean Grey and Cyclops as likable characters and not just some Wolverine romantic triangle. And in terms of new characters, this would be a good place to introduce Emma Frost, as she's a pretty big player in the saga.
Spider-Man 5 - 2028
Spider-Man 5 will go full-on with the Spider-Verse - but this time with Miles Morales. They have to include him in the MCU at some point. And maybe even Spider-Gwen. Just go full-on Spider-Verse with Spider-Man 2099, Jessica Drew, Cosmic Spidey, Julia Carpenter, Superior Spider-Man, and any other character the animated movies haven't snatched up and portrayed definitively. Even go ahead and make Morlun the main villain!
My only problem with this idea is that if Jon Watts is directing all the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four movies, then having Fantastic Four 2/Spider-Man 5/Fantastic Four 3 three years in a row might be too much. Maybe let Peyton Reed direct FF? I'm sure he'd love to.
Young Avengers 3 - 2028
It's very, very tricky to try and get everyone to finish their own trilogy, and the only way I could get Young Avengers to fit is by having back to back 2 and 3. For plot and villains... I don't know. Maybe they kill off Stature, introduce Sentry and Marvel Boy. I don't know.
Fantastic Four 3 - 2029
Fantastic Four 3 would tell their grandest story yet - Galactus. The Maker and Doctor Doom would've been the main villain of the second, so the only other A-list Fantastic Four villain left is Galactus. Obviously, Galactus just wants to eat Earth for lunch, so the Fantastic Four lead a small-scale crossover to create the Ultimate Nullifier and defeat Galactus. This movie would also introduce the Future Foundation suits and Reed and Sue's children. Pretty standard Fantastic Four stuff.
Secret Wars - 2029
Secret Wars is, in my mind, what will be the Infinity War and Endgame of the MCU. The basic gist of the story is that The Beyonders want to destroy every single universe through the destruction of the failsafe known as Molecule Man. Doctor Doom learns about this and tries to kill Molecule Man himself. The Illuminati also learn that their universe is dying, and deduces the only way to save it is through the destruction of another innocent universe. Other heroes then catch wind of what the Illuminati is doing begin to fight each other over the moral consequences of their actions.
Eventually, it gets down to two worlds: The main Marvel universe, 616, and the Ultimate Marvel universe (Where Miles Morales is from). Each world is trying to destroy the other.
So this would bring in everyone - and I mean everyone. Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Wong, Shang-Chi, the Eternals, Miles Morales, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Black Panther, Rescue, Blade, the Inhumans, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, Moon Knight, Falcon, Bucky, Doctor Doom, the Sinister Six, Punisher, Ghost Rider, the Warlocks, Hercules, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, the Young Avengers, Power Pack, Howard the Duck, Deadpool, Adam Warlock, Gwenpool, and even Squirrel Girl.
But, the worlds end. Everyone dies except for the people on a "lifeboat" that Mister Fantastic created, which contains some of the more important Marvel characters - The Fantastic Four, Cyclops, Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Jane Foster's Thor, and Star-Lord. Unfortunately, the world ends and the ship is damaged, which causes Mister Fantastic to watch Sue, Ben, Johnny, and his children fall to their deaths.
But, Doctor Doom was able to save something. With everything destroyed, only Doom remained, and he created his own reality - Battleworld.
Nova: Annihilation - 2029
Nova's second and final outing is the only kink in my schedule. I was able to give everyone a third movie except Nova, and that infuriates me to no end (Secret Wars 1 and 2 act as sequels to Illuminati). But Annihilation would basically serve as a set-up movie to explain why Nova suddenly becomes so OP as Prime Nova in Secret Wars 2. The basic gist of the story is that a huge wave of ships known as The Annihilation Wave starts raking through the galaxy, destroying the Nova Corps and several planets and heroes along the way. Nova is given the entire power of the Nova Corps and makes a final stand against the Annihilation Wave and wins. It would also be a prequel. (Similar to Ant-Man and the Wasp and Infinity War).
Secret Wars 2 - 2030
Doctor Doom has reshaped the Multiverse to coexist in little chunks on his own planet, Battleworld. He has a Thor Corps that acts as the police force. He's altered reality to where Sue Storm is now married to him, and they have kids. He's been able to make everything perfect for himself except for his damaged face. Doctor Strange is Doom's right-hand man and retains his memories of the world before. Human Torch has been transformed into this world's sun. Franklin and Valeria, Doom and Sue's kids, have a giant toy called Galactus.
Because this takes place with fragments of all the multiverse, you could bring in a crap ton of characters - RDJ's Iron Man, Chris Evans' Captain America, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Ben Affleck's Daredevil, the 2000s X-Men and Fantastic Four, the 2010s X-Men and Fant4stic, and even Hugh Jackman as Old Man Logan.
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| And then Iron Man shows up... everyone loses their minds... |
But, the heroes on Mister Fantastic's lifeboat are not okay with this new reality (After waking up 8 years later), so they come up with a plan to stop him. Black Panther and Namor steal the Infinity Gauntlet. Doctor Doom kills Cyclops and Doctor Strange, and eventually, God Doom is defeated, and Mister Fantastic recreates the universe, combining Marvel 616 and the Ultimate Marvel universe, and is able to heal Doom's face. Everyone lives happily ever after.
This movie would be insane. The conclusion of 60 previous movies, like, 20 TV shows, and so many hours of watch time. Three generations will have grown up with this franchise at this point, and at least two more generations will have enjoyed it for the past two decades. This would be the definitive end for the superhero cinema, basically. At least Marvel, anyways (Depending on if DC can stick around). This would easily become the highest-grossing movie of all time, smashing the previous record of Avengers: Endgame and whatever the Avatar sequels can come up with. People would be talking about it for decades.
So, that's my very, very, very, very early guess for the MCU's next 9 years. Maybe they'd pump more original films in, and they'd almost certainly be able to think of more Disney+ shows than I did. I don't pretend to know what's going on in Kevin Feige's head as we speak, but we can sleep easily knowing that if anyone can do continue to expand this franchise without destroying the franchise, and then craft a finale that doesn't disappoint, it would be him.
Other potential ideas and things I just couldn't figure out where to place would be:
An X-Men movie with the main villain as Mister Sinister and Sentinels.
The Savage Land (Which could easily be dropped into Fantastic Four 2).
An Inhumans movie? Would Illuminati count since the main character is Black Bolt? Would they try to make it a TV show again?
Putting Sentry in somewhere (Maybe as a supporting character in Shang-Chi or Young Avengers).
An adaptation of the Daredevil story Born Again.
A Wolverine solo movie (Because you gotta have one of those).
The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
Avengers vs. X-Men.
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