MCU Discussion Thread (General News)

[mr.negativity]

AVENGERS 4 SPOILERS

[mr.negativity]

[lhb412]

Neat, I hope there's an emphasis on actual martial arts and not just special effects!

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[lhb412]

..... hmmmm, with Disney's streaming service being a home for, I guess, family-friendly material it makes sense that Hulu, now with Disney as the majority owner, would be the home for, uh, less family-friendly stuff?

[Gentleman]

Kevin Smith is working on a Howard the Duck cartoon. I am entirely happy.

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[Ultraseven]

[Benjamin Haines]

[Dai]

Surely a three-year slate with that many slots in it would have an Avengers movie at the end. I can't see Fantastic Four, of all things, being held back as the pièce de résistance of the next phase.

[Benjamin Haines]

There will definitely be an Avengers 5 to close out Phase Four but my guess is it will be the Summer kickoff event of 2023. While there were three-year breaks between The Avengers, Age of Ultron and Infinity War, after the massive ordeal of producing the third and fourth films back to back and releasing them just a year apart, I'm thinking (hoping) that Marvel will take a four-year breather between Endgame and the fifth Avengers flick.

Not only would a four-year gap be the same as the wait from Iron Man to The Avengers, it would allow Marvel to take their time to develop their Phase Four franchises and steer them organically toward the next big ensemble. We know that Cate Shortland Black Widow, Chloe Zhao The Eternals, Ryan Coogler is to write and direct Black Panther 2, Scott Derrickson will for Doctor Strange 2, and Marvel just earlier this week hired Destin Daniel Cretton Shang-Chi.

Toss in James Gunn's GotG Vol. 3 and that's six movies that Marvel has in development beyond 2019. Since Gunn has already written Vol. 3, I think he can have it ready to kick off Summer 2022, presuming that he starts shooting it in Summer 2021 and just takes a break for The Suicide Squad's press junket. That would make for a five-year gap between Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, although it will have been just three years since the characters were last seen in Endgame.

That leaves two more untitled Marvel movies on the 2022 calendar and I think they'll end up being a Captain Marvel sequel and the first fruits of the Fox merger. Captain Marvel 2 in February 2022 would be just under three years between film appearances for Carol Danvers and that date could get shifted to early March just like her debut flick.

With Disney's acquisition of Fox completed in 2019, I'd be shocked if it took Marvel Studios more than three years to produce their first film with characters that Fox currently owns. Considering the volume of widely-seen X-Men movies and related spinoffs that already exist, my guess is Marvel will start by revitalizing the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom for the MCU. I think that's what they'll have for July 2022.

Beyond that, I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel squeezed in an Ant-Man 3 for July 2021 and a Thor 4 for November 2022 before Avengers 5 in April/May 2023. That would bring Phase Four of the MCU to a total of 12 movies in a span of four years, with three new franchise-starters, seven sequels to existing franchises, the first Black Widow spinoff and another big Avengers ensemble.

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

Kevin Feige Says Marvel Has a Five-Year Post-‘Endgame’ Plan, But Don’t Expect X-Men or Fantastic 4


The Russo Brothers Would Gladly Return to the Director’s Chair for One Specific Marvel Event

[O.Supreme]

The original 80s Secret Wars would be awesome. The one from a couple years ago, not so much.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Dr Kain]

Doctor Strange, Blade, and Fantastic Four are the only ones I truly care about.

The Eternals and Shan-Chi I'll go see because it's the MCU, but I would have no interest in them any other way. Black Widow is 50/50 for me.

As for Thor, eh, I think he's had enough movies.

[Gwangi]

Truth be told, I think I am kinda of done with the MCU. I am not sure if it is fatigue or that fact that I am pretty satisfied with everything I've needed to see. This lineup, while having the capacity to create some good movies, does not overall give me that excitement. If there is a film that is considered "very good", perhaps I will watch it.

[Benjamin Haines]

I'm down with the MCU as long as they keep turning out quality content, or maybe until they start introducing rebooted X-Men characters.


It's awesome that Rachel Weisz is joining the MCU in the Black Widow movie! The cast of Eternals is also ridiculously stacked with talent.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will feature Daniel Bruhl reprising his role as Zemo for the first time since Civil War. One would think that a more accurate title for this miniseries would be Captain America and The White Wolf at this point. I'm interested to see how this show follows up on the events of Avengers: Endgame.

Hong Kong actor Tony Leung will be playing the Mandarin in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I guess all of the comic fans who ripped their hair out over Iron Man 3 will have ample time to glue it back on.

The Disney+ miniseries Loki will feature the alternate-timeline version of the character from Endgame who escaped capture with the Tesseract after the Battle of New York in 2012.

WandaVision will bring back Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision. It will also introduce Teyonah Parris as the adult version of Monica Rambeau, who was previously portrayed as a child by Akira Akbar in the 1995-set Captain Marvel. The events of this miniseries will reportedly lead directly into the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which will also co-star Elizabeth Olsen. Maybe that movie will be the MCU's adaptation of the House of M comics storyline.

Hawkeye will be about Clint Barton training Kate Bishop to be a hero with no superpowers. I wonder if this miniseries will be a passing of the torch and thus possibly Jeremy Renner's final performance in the role.

Not only will Thor: Love and Thunder be directed again by Ragnarok's Taika Waititi but it will also feature the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, who will reportedly gain the powers of Thor just as she did in the comics a few years ago. Portman and Marvel seemed to part on less than amicable terms after Marvel fired Patty Jenkins as director of The Dark World. It's cool that they seem to have patched things up, as Portman did attend the Endgame premiere and was featured in the film via unused archival footage.

[Dr Kain]

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Because movies like Logan, X-Men: First Class, X2, Deadpool and X-Men: Days of Future Past are already leagues better than 90% of the existing MCU films.

Because characters like Wolverine, Magneto, Professor Xavier, Mystique and Beast have already been well and truly explored in cinema at this point, and superficial things like yellow spandex won't add anything meaningful.

Because there are already so many established MCU characters that the ensemble films are packed to the gills, and trying to squeeze in a dozen or more X-Men characters would just mean that everyone would get even less screentime.

Because the MCU is a universe that's been saved by the Avengers and that's public knowledge on Earth along with the identities of just about every superhero, so it wouldn't make sense for people to suddenly be met with prejudice and hostility for being born with extraordinary abilities.

They would have to bend the MCU backwards to shoehorn the X-Men into it. Bring on the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, Silver Surfer and Galactus but my interest in MCU X-Men is less than zero.

More concerning to me is the fact that Marvel Studios seems to be inching toward disavowing the Marvel Netflix shows as part of the MCU. If they ever bring Daredevil and Wilson Fisk into the movies and they aren't played by Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio, I'm out.

[lhb412]

These are some really cool, interesting announcements. A lot of really cool people being brought to the fold. An emphasis on the weirder stuff. Ali is BLADE!

...

But, honestly, Disney's conquering of mainstream movies and pop culture in general leave me feeling a bit depressed. You know when you're going to see a Disney movie, especially a Marvel one, that you're going to get a certain level of quality, but you also know it's going to taste very much like the exact same last meal you got from them no matter how many of the details are different. There are a few meals I can eat over and over again never get tired of it, but not most meals. Most meals if you eat it dozens of times in too close a proximity you get sick of it and can't look at it for a while.

And what's more, they're in complete control of Pop Culture's news cycle. They don't just dominate movies, but the talk of movies and TV and it makes you just weary, right?

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]