Marvel’s future is not as big of a mystery as we all thought it would be. Everything’s right in front of us, and we just have to make sense out of it. Kevin Feige has claimed that everything about Marvel Phase 4 will be announced after we get to watch Spider-Man: Far From Home, since that is the final Phase 3 movie. But even though we don’t know which project would fall on which date, we do know the movies that are coming at us.
Here’s what Kevin Feige said of the future projects:
“The slate that we’re building over the next five years [is] not apples to apples. It is two very distinct things and I hope they’ll feel very distinct. But there is a similar mentality going into it, which is ‘How can we continue to tell stories with some of the characters that audiences already know and love in a unique way, in a different way, in surprising way, of which we have a lot of plans and ideas and work already going into it?’ [Then] ‘How can we introduce new characters that even hardcore fans, comic fans, have barely known or barely heard of.’ That’s really exciting too.”
He told Variety:
“Some of these films will feature characters that you already know. Some supporting characters will assume leading roles, while some new characters will be introduced. The reward for all of these films working is that we get to try to do it again and do it differently and learn from our mistakes and try something we haven’t tried before.”
Now Disney has come in and confirmed all the MCU release dates that have been scheduled in the past. Here’s the release schedule:
May 1, 2020, this will probably be taken up by Black Widow. November 6, 2020, The Eternals look to be falling on this date but a new rumor has suggested that Doctor Strange 2 could also release here. If it doesn’t, then it will probably fall on February 12, 2021. Logically Black Panther 2 should fit in it, so Doctor Strange 2 could swap its dates to release on May 2, 2021 as well. Then comes November 5, 2021, which could bring us Shang Chi. February 18, 2022 could be a potential Captain Marvel sequel, May 6, 2022 for sure Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and July 29, 2022 could bring us Ant-Man and the Wasp 3.
So all the sequels have been addressed in here. But The Wrap recently reported that right after Marvel finishes production upon The Eternals, they’d start shooting Shang Chi. So perhaps Shang Chi could fall in on February 2021 and not late in November. Everything will depend upon when Black Panther 2 takes place.
The Black Knight has been discussed quite a bit over at Marvel Studios. They see the character as a potential New Avenger and capable of holding his own solo film, and possibly a trilogy. #mcu #blackknight #newavengers #avengers4 #marvelstudios #marvelleaks #marvelspoilers
— Roger Wardell (@RogerWardell) December 5, 2018
Don't worry, Marvel still has big plans for Zemo, Ghost, Justin Hammer, General Ross, and the Abomimation. The Leader is being discussed to return as the main villain of Thunderbolts, which is being planned as a trilogy. #marvelstudios #mcu #thunderbolts #baronzemo #avengers4
— Roger Wardell (@RogerWardell) December 5, 2018
Roger Wardell, who tweeted Marvel’s future plans mentioned that Black Knight and Thunderbolts would also be getting films. So it will be interesting to see whether those projects get added into this assumed slate. Avengers: Endgame also laid in an Easter Egg for Captain Britain, and there has been a report that Guy Ritchie could direct a Captain Britain & Black Knight movie in the MCU. So there’s just a lot that could replace these films that have been mentioned above.
Moreover, there are still the X-Men and Fantastic Four projects that could come into the mix. Disney could carry Fox’s Deadpool franchise with an X-Force movie. So that also could fall somewhere in between these films. But we shouldn’t hope for any other X-Men or Fantastic Four projects to be a part of this slate as Kevin Feige did say that they will come in after the 5 year plan that the MCU currently has.
Feige told io9:
“It’ll be a while. It’s all just beginning and the five-year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of that was set. So really, it’s just more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back. But it will be a very long time.”
Let’s see what happens.
