The motion pictures in Phase 4 proved that the Marvel Cinematic Universe by no means has to finish. For years, there’s been a lingering sentiment that despite the unprecedented success experienced by Marvel’s movies, it may well’t final without end. And, admittedly, it’s true that almost all film franchises will need to have an ending in some unspecified time in the future or one other.
Multiple elements could be at play when a franchise involves an finish. Aging actors, as an illustration, power sure characters to be retired. Audience fatigue is one other setback, as a lack of field workplace potential can most actually trigger the doorways to be closed for good on a once-popular film collection. Plus, there’s the query of what number of worthwhile tales could be informed earlier than there’s nothing significant left to discover. These are all actual points that almost all film universes must undergo eventually, and there was a time when it appeared the MCU could be no exception. However, what Marvel managed to pull off in Phase 4 suggests in any other case.
The MCU Is Designed To Continue Forever
Comments from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige underscrore how the MCU is not designed to be like different franchises; it isn’t meant to have a real ending. Feige has stated up to now that he sees the MCU as a world akin to Star Wars and Star Trek in that it may be “passed down to future generations.” How Marvel deliberate to make this work has been obvious because the Infinity Saga. With every section, Marvel has endeavored to introduce new heroes able to main their very own movies, which is in the end what retains the MCU sustainable.
When Marvel started the MCU with Phase 1, it by no means supposed for its success to be carried on the shoulders of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor indefinitely, therefore why Phase 2 and Phase 3 added heroes just like the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange. Now, Marvel is about to start out its fifth section and is ready to preserve issues transferring by way of the characters Phase 2 and Phase 3 added to its roster of heroes. Introducing these characters helped Marvel put together for the inevitable state of affairs the place Captain America and Iron Man had been not available.
Of course, Marvel has a finite variety of A-list superheroes to offer its personal motion pictures. This lineup might be exhausted in time, however Marvel has persistently confirmed that utilizing obscure heroes can repay, because it did as soon as extra in Phase 4 with Shang-Chi. When wanting simply what number of characters Marvel owns, it is clear that this system could be exploited for many years. As the heroes that lead the MCU now are step by step put aside, Marvel can look to the handfuls and dozens of unknowns from the Seventies, Nineteen Eighties, and Nineties comics, like Darkhawk, Jack of Hearts, Ka-Zar, Machine Man, and extra.
Phase 4 Proved The MCU Is Still Huge (Even When It’s Not Amazing)
In distinction to lots of the motion pictures launched throughout the first three phases, Phase 4 is not shaping as much as be remembered as a celebrated period for Marvel. It had some huge hits in Doctor Strange within the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Spider-Man: No Way Home, but additionally confirmed some cracks with the reception to Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder, which uncovered flaws in Marvel’s present technique. But despite these hiccups, Phase 4 went a great distance towards expanding the MCU and revealing the scope of what Marvel can do sooner or later.
Marvel deepened the mythos of the MCU by reaching into lesser-known tales just like the Eternals comics, with which it established new concepts and characters after which tied them to the historical past of the MCU. Thor 4 revealed that gods from numerous mythological pantheons exist as actual folks within the MCU, whereas Doctor Strange 2 supplied a glimpse on the potentialities that include the multiverse. Plus, Marvel introduced in new distinctive worlds to discover via the introductions of Black Panther 2’s Talocan and Shang-Chi’s Ta Lo. All of those locations and ideas give Marvel storytelling alternatives it may well use for years to return.
Marvel’s Phase 4 TV Shows Brought The MCU Out Of Theaters
As if its motion pictures weren’t sufficient, Marvel expanded into streaming with a handful of TV reveals set instantly within the MCU. Unlike the scenario with Agents of SHIELD and the opposite reveals that preceded Phase 4, Marvel did not hesitate to make them actually matter when it comes to the larger image. Just how essential they had been was made evident in Doctor Strange 2 when Scarlet Witch’s story in WandaVision turned out to be the muse for the entire plot. By making the TV reveals so essential to its wider plans, they will have an opportunity to go on for at the least so long as the flicks themselves are nonetheless fashionable.
The resolution to make MCU TV shows created one other means for Marvel to search out success. With Marvel dominating the film business and the streaming enterprise, it is develop into even more durable to think about the MCU ever dying. Not in contrast to how Phase 4’s motion pictures gave big-screen tales to C-list superheroes reminiscent of Shang-Chi and the Eternals, the TV aspect of the MCU can preserve its longevity by constantly constructing onto its library of characters. That seems to be precisely what it is doing, contemplating that it is engaged on new reveals, versus simply specializing in producing further seasons of its present reveals.
Phase 4’s Multiverse Means The MCU Really Can Go On Forever
Marvel’s use of the multiverse created one more avenue that may make sure the MCU lives on. No Way Home gave two separate Spider-Man franchises their very own locations in MCU canon, and Doctor Strange 2 did the identical with the world of Fox’s X-Men universe when it featured a cameo from Patrick Stewart’s Professor X. By making different Marvel film franchises part of its universe, it is made it so that each Marvel film that is ever made could be a part of the identical shared universe. So within the extraordinarily unlikely occasion that superheroes motion pictures cease being worthwhile and Marvel subsequently has to cease making motion pictures for some time, the MCU will basically have a backdoor it may well use to develop into related once more. Upon the eventuality that it reboots the franchise with new variations of Captain America, Spider-Man, and all of the others, they’d all be occupants of one more actuality within the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multiverse.
