The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen a meteoric rise in fame and acclaim in the past decade. Ever since the release of the first Iron Man, we have seen the culmination of the infinity saga into the giant interdependent story arc it is. The true magnificence of this lies not in the characters or the directors alone but in all the effort that went into cohesive world-building. Marvel Studios pulled off a wonder by completing the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everyone anticipated that superhero movies could never become a franchise; everyone assumed them to be one-off projects. Blade changed the perception by giving us a sequel and showing us to efficiently expand a supernatural world. Then came the Dark Knight trilogy which basically established the formulae for a three-movie arc for superheroes.
But the Marvel Cinematic Universe completely flipped the script on its head by creating a 22 movie long story arc. The likes of which no one had seen before. I mean even the X-Men movies also had to go through a soft reboot just to keep things fresh. But the best thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that the characters grow and go through different trials. They face even harder challenges and this departs from linear storytelling by telling a larger and wider story. However much you may hate Marvel DC fans, you have to admit that even though commercialization, the comic book culture has now reached the entire world. The most beautiful part of all of this is the Avengers movies. When the first one came out back in 2012 it showed us the potential of fleshing out backstories. When the last one came out in 2019, it showed us how to properly close those backstories. Marvel even ended the storylines of its two headliners, Iron Man and Captain America.
Although this makes for a beautiful set piece for a scene, it does pose the question, “What now!?” Well, Marvel seems to have an answer even for that. The answer is Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After Endgame, Iron Man is dead, Captain America is retired, Black Widow is dead, Hawkeye is retired, Hulk is damaged and has now become a scientist, and Thor will be touring with the guardians, which means that earth’s mightiest heroes will now be a mantle filled by the next generation.
The top contender for the spot is Spider-Man and his next movie Spider-Man 3 may as well be a setup for his storyline. We may not have an OG Avengers movie, but a spiderman movie exploring the multiverse and the Spidermen of the multiverse will be good compensation. Also, since tony christened peter before the battle on Titan, this is technically an Avenger movie. Who doesn’t want to see the friendly neighbourhood swing in and save the day?
The next main attraction in Marvel’s Phase 4 is the Dr. Strange movie. Dr. Strange in Multiverse of Madness is expected to be a very big story. It is anticipated to be one of the most complexly written stories. It is also speculated by the fans that the third Doctor Strange movie will feature many more worlds than we have ever seen before. We may get to see an alternate life for Steven strange where someone else became the sorcerer supreme. We may even get to see a version of our Avengers that we could have never imagined.
It will be fun to see what the writers come up with. But the consensus seems to be that the movie will have an evil version of Strange infiltrate and cause chaos on our earth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when the sorcerer supreme is forced to intervene. It is also possible that the long-dreaded consequences of using time stone catch up with Strange.
The next big movie in Marvel’s Phase 4 will be Thor: Love and Thunder. We don’t know much about the movie but the director has previously mentioned that the plot will be inspired by the female thor that took over the comics recently. The new heroine is simply known as “Thor” quickly became a fan favorite and it is to be expected that the same reaction will be seen when this movie hits the theatres. Thor is one of the original Avengers and as such his movies are always a fan favorite.
