Spiralling Into Marvel Cinematic Universe Can Be Confusing. So, Here are MCU Phase 4 Villains and Heroes Explained
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most successful movie franchise of all times, it is the home to a horde of different characters and story arcs. Debuting with Iron Man in 2008 the universe expanded to include characters like Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy even Spider-Man and many more. They formed the group of Earth’s mightiest heroes, The Avengers. Coming together with an overarching storyline that’s been built for nearly 11 years and now called the MCU’s Infinity Saga.
Heads Up! What To Expect From Marvel’s Phase 4
- The Direction of the MCU Phase 4 Movies
- MCU Phase 4 Secret Invasion Story Line
- The Next Big Villian
The Infinity Saga spanned over 23 movies and 11 years leaving fans mesmerized with movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. But that was then.
Now the MCU is entering its phase 4 and 5 that Marvel Studio Head Kevin Feige announced at the San Diego Comic-Con last year.
MCU Phase 4 – Leaping Into The Cosmic
With MCU Phase 4 the audience will enter into the artist and editor Jack Kirby’s ‘cosmic universe.’ We have seen the glimpse of this side of the MCU in Thor, Guardians and Captain Marvel respectively. But with Phase 4 movies like the Eternals, Doctor Strange and sequels line up for the aforementioned movie the next phase is going to be cosmic psychedelia for the audience.
The phase 4 schedule that has six movies and five Disney Plus shows lined up spanning till fall 2022 due to the delay caused by the Coronavirus.
Direction of the MCU Phase 4 Movies
Black Widow
The first movie to kick start the 4th phase of the MCU is Scarlet Johanson’s Black Widow. Natasha’s sad demise in the Endgame makes the stand alone movie all the more special.
The November 2020 release takes place between the Captain America: Civil War and Avengers Infinity war where we see Natasha Romanoff going against the villain The Taskmaster.
So, it is clear that this movie will serve the purpose of tying up loose ends and filling up any holes left behind. There might be more information from the past that might change the view about a few things moving forward. However the movie won’t be changing much of the universe’s direction.
The Eternals Movie
February 2021 will see Jack Kirby created humanoid-aliens living on Earth in MCU’s the Eternals movie. The movie features a star-studded cast with likes of, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Kumail Najiani. The story is about the race of immortal aliens sent to earth to protect the humankind. Giving us a lot more information about what we have already seen of the Eternals in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
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Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Set to release in May 2021, MCU hasn’t revealed much for this movie yet. We have heard name dropping of Ten Rings group in Iron Man 2 but nothing more than that. The movie will be the first ever movie in the history of Marvel to cast an Asian actor as Superhero. Possibly the movie will have many crossovers to make it a part of the greater MCU.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The instalment for March 2022, is the Doctor Strange franchise which will be tying in with the storyline of the Scarlet Witch. That gives us a major crossover between the Sorcerer Supreme and Wanda Maximoff. Never forget Wanda was this close to killing Thanos in the Endgame!
The possible story arc is of the House of M comic book series. In the comics, Scarlet Witch suffers a mental breakdown after losing her child. As a result, she creates a new reality from not being able to deal with her grief. Finally, Doctor Strange had to step into the Multiverse to convince Wanda to deal with her grief.
This could be the plot of the next instalment of the Doctor Strange movie following the alternate reality created by Wanda in the Disney Plus series. The movie is also Marvel’s maiden attempt in the Horror genre and the much talked about Multiverse in Ant-Man movies.
Spiderman 3
According to the first Marvel schedule, Spider-Man 3 was supposed to land up sometime between Strange 2 and Thor 4. But as of now, Sony has only pushed back the release of the date of the Spider-Man.
The fans were on the edge to see whether Tom Holland would pick up his role again as the MCU Spiderman. Fortunately, Sony and Disney came to an agreement! Under the new agreement, we might get to see Tom Holland’s character in Sony movies as well apart from MCU. In Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, Spiderman will be showcased in its own universe.
Back to Spiderman 3 – in this movie, we will see Peter Parker pick up from where he left us at the end of Homecoming. His identity revealed and labelled an evil villain by Mysterio.
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder will be especially interesting because Natalie Portman will reprise her role as Jane Foster.
This time around she will be taking over the Thor mantel, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie will pick up their characters from the end of Endgame. In February 2022, the audience will get to see Mighty Thor take over as the comic book storyline goes. The movie will be helmed by director Taika Waititi who redefined Thor franchise with Thor: Ragnarock.
MCU Phase 4 Secret Invasion
There you have it, 11 releases that are to be expected to from Phase 4 of the MCU. However, there have been many theories of what might come next.
What really seems to stick is the whole aspect of how it all builds up to the Secret Invasion storyline. In the namesake comic, Earth is infiltrated with aliens in the 1990’s and these aliens take over the personas our beloved MCU characters and the high ranking officials in the universe.
For all we know Marvel has already planted the seeds of this storyline over the whole of MCU since in launched in 2008. We have already seen it happen in the previous movies, like in Captain Marvel and Spiderman Homecoming, with the Skrulls personifying high ranking officials and even our very own Nick Fury.
The Next Big Villian
The final question for the MCU phase 4 though is who will be the next big main villain? What we know, it will be difficult to top Thanos. We could be looking at not only one but two main villains for the next phase and the coming future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Them being Norman Osborn, an evil businessman in the Secret invasion comic books as the Earthbound villain. Whereas previously hinted at in the Guardian of The Galaxy Movie, Adam Warlock a superhuman from outer space can be the possible cosmic villain.
The two villains could be taking over Phase 4’s ultimate storyline. One being Earthbound while the other space-bound breaks up the two main villains and give the new Phase a whole new Dynamic.
However, Marvel can go really big and introduce a cosmic entity like Galactus. Who might be agitated after all the gauntlet snapping!
This Story Is Contributed By Manasvi Kabra
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