2019 has been a huge year for comic fans, with one of the greatest superhero movie franchises (Marvel’s The Avengers) coming to an end and successful additional releases (Captain Marvel and Spiderman: Far From Home) marvel studios is on the fast track to developing additional intellectual properties in the field of cinema. The marvel cinematic universe is an expansive and intricate bunch of stories inspired by the comic book source material. With the advent of Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have seen the development and culmination of a series arc ending with the death of both Thanos and Iron Man.
Now that the original stories have been told in Phase 1 2 and 3 it is finally time for the marvel cinematic universe to start working on the next arc of stories. With Thanos gone, it seems rather obvious that we are going to see a new villain take the forefront but what will be more interesting to see is what kind of heroes will take the limelight now that Iron Man and Captain America are ‘gone’.
With the release of Far From Home, it seems that Marvel wants to put Spider-Man in the center of the next series arc (a rather prudent move if they don’t fail with the execution). But the supporting heroes will play a very important role in the upcoming movies. On Saturday Marvel executives took the stage at San Diego Comic-con and announced their road map for Phase IV, they revealed 11 new projects, some of which we knew were coming, but others came as a complete surprise.
The announced titles are :-
- Black Widow
- The Falcon and Winter Soldier
- The Eternals
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the ten rings
- Wanda Vision
- Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of madness
- Loki
- Marvel’s What if
- Hawkeye
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Blade
Now not all of these will be feature length films, some will be released in the format of a show on the new streaming platform of Disney+. Not only will we get to see more of long lost heroes like the Black Widow, Loki, and Vision but we will also be treated with the continuous presence of Falcon and the Winter Soldier on our home devices. With the advent of Marvel Phase IV, a lot of things are going to change in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and these changes will come swiftly and with precision.
Eagle-eyed fans will also notice that included in the Phase IV lineup is Marvel’s What if. To comic fans, this is not a complete surprise because comic writers love to do these kinds of stories in the comic world every once in a while but it must be a conundrum for our average moviegoer. This title will include universes which are either very similar to our main reality of marvel cinematic universe or just radically different. The aim of such a title would be to give the viewer something new and different rather than the same old boring continuity.
Also included in the lineup is the much-awaited Taika Waititi directed Thor: love and Thunder. It came as no surprise to the fandom that the phase IV lineup has a thor movie but the fact that the movie will be based on the recent events of The mighty thor is surely a revelation to many. Upon being questioned Taika Waititi confirmed the plotline and told the fans that Jane Foster’s Thor inspired him to write material for this movie.
Finally, the Blade movie was also rumored for a long time but it’s nice to know that marvel plans to introduce supernatural elements in terms of vampires in their main universe. It is surely going to be a welcome addition to the Marvel roster of heroes since the main cast of protagonists is in desperate need of an anti-hero. The Eternals and Wanda vision movies have always been a mystery but more information will be revealed about these projects (including their prospective timelines) as time goes on.
Marvel Phase IV is here and it’s expected to be even bigger in scope. The central theme to this new Phase seems to be the multiverse theory and it’s implications on the marvel cinematic universe (looking at you Doctor Strange 3 and Marvel’s What If…..). Do you think that this change from linear storytelling to a more dynamic one is the right move for marvel? Be sure to let us know in the comments below and keep watching this space for everything marvel.
