with the release of Thor: Love and Thunder Last week and closing Mrs. Marvell This week, we have six movies and seven TV series (this counts as animation What if… ?) in the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While we’re not entirely sure if every upcoming project we know will be part of Phase 4 or if some will become part of Phase 5, we may only be halfway through the first post-Infinity Saga. Regardless, the fourth stage will definitely contain more content than any stage before it. However, we would be hard pressed to describe what Phase IV “is about.” I find this to be one of the best things about the current MCU, but I feel like I’m the only one.
There seems to be a general feeling that the current MCU is unfocused, that we don’t really know where it’s headed, and I wouldn’t disagree with that statement. While a few big lines were clearly introduced and will be tackled in the future, most of the MCU stories lately have been their own. Looks like people want to know when we’ll get next Avengers A movie, or at least I’m seeing indications that one is coming, but I’m very happy just to get more Marvel stuff that I enjoy watching.
MCU Phase 4 doesn’t need to be about anything
The current phase of the MCU has certainly been all over the map as far as we get from the stories. We have seen a lot of original stories of completely new characters, such as Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or eternity On the big screen, presenting Kate Bishop in hookMoon Knight and Mrs. Marvel on the small screen.
Even the movies we’ve seen of characters we already knew, while they embodied those characters, don’t really give us an impression of how they fit into the larger fabric of the MCU. Black Widow It was a prequel story of someone who died and we don’t expect to see it again. Thor: Love and Thunder It sends the Asgardian into a completely different direction that seems to be much younger and more personal.
There were hints of bigger stories. The multiverse is a thing now. eternity It ended with some kind of cliffhanger. The ten Shang Chi rings have an unknown cosmic origin. Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine seeks to recruit potential heroes for a reason (probably the lightning bolt). All of these things happen and will likely become important at some point, but which of these stories might become the core of a larger story, we have no idea. Some of these pieces may end up calling each other, but it’s very hard to tell how now.
But the truth is, I don’t care. I don’t need or want Marvel movies to spend their time worrying about the future of the larger story. All they have to do is tell the interesting/fun/exciting stories now. For the most part, I think Phase 4 has done just that. We’ve seen stories being told creatively in WandaVision, as well as a variety of new characters that will only add to the MCU as a whole. While some of the recent Marvel projects are clearly better than others, I would consider the vast majority of them to be good and some of them downright great.
Most of the MCU stages didn’t have a definite trend and were still great
We look at what used to be a retrospective called Infinity Saga and see a broad and coherent story, an astonishing feat for a franchise spanning more than 20 films. However, it is important to realize that we are only seeing all of this with the benefit of hindsight. The truth is, the first three phases of the MCU didn’t have as much focused direction as we think now.
Even the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was really just a bunch of original story movies. The only real connections were made during the post-credits scenes, and even they were just surface level gestures. As an audience, we all knew that the plan was for all the heroes to come together in Avengers A movie, but solo movies never were Around which – which. No steps were taken to actually shape the Avengers until we got to this movie.
The second stage was all over the place. While we had a post-credits scene in Avengers, the final Phase 1 movie, tells us Thanos is coming, and none of the films that followed were about that. They introduced the concept of Infinity Stones in two of the entries, and two of them showed Thanos, but there was more that had nothing to do with the Infinity Stones. One of these was Captain America: The Winter Soldierwhich is widely considered one of the best films in the entire series to this day, and you can skip it entirely and it still makes sense infinity war And the game over.
Marvel’s broader story will become clear soon enough
None of this means I don’t like Infinity Saga, it’s great. It’s a fantastic feat of cinematic storytelling and I’m excited to see what Marvel Studios plans next. Assuming, of course, the company knows what it’s planning. It was never entirely clear how much of the MCU was planned up front versus how much was built during the production of these films.
It’s even possible that Marvel doesn’t know exactly what’s coming next. Many of the films that we know are on the way have yet to be written, let alone things that are currently in development. We expect to learn more about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con and D23.
However, if Marvel is planning another long-running story that will take 20 or more movies to complete (and with Disney+ now in the mix, it will likely be even bigger), it will likely be some time before we have a hint. What is the next Infinity Saga story. I’m looking forward to it, but until then, I’ll simply be looking forward to the next movie or TV series. I hope it’s pretty cool in and of itself.
[ad_2]
