Avengers: Endgame (2019, Joe & Anthony Russo) is out in cinemas and is breaking every Box Office Record in sight! Opening at $1.2 Billion in its first weekend! That's insane! But the movie also marks the final chapter in a long-running saga that has spanned 11 years. And now with that chapter has closed it's time to look at where the MCU is headed next. Marvel Studios has plenty of movies planned post-Endgame. With several franchises continuing or wrapping up and whole franchises like The Eternals and Shang-Chi that have been announced and will start off whole new franchises. So in this post, I will be looking into 5 things I think Marvel should focus on going forward.
The 5-year Gap
The first thing I want to talk about is the 5-year gap for all of those who were brought back from Thanos' snap. They all seemed to come back the same age that they died and are now part of a world that has had to adjust to a lower population. The two characters I expect to be affected by this the most are Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). I'd like to see how the 5 years affects Peter Parker as a kid. Have some of his friends grown older? Will he be sharing classes with students who used to be a lot younger than him? And how will his school deal with a sudden intake of students? I doubt that these questions will be answered but it would be interesting to know.
As for Black Panther, this is sure to affect his sequel. Wakanda has been without the royal family for 5 years! How did they deal with that? Did they get a new leader? Perhaps M'Baku (Winston Duke) took command. Or did Wakanda appoint an elected leader? Basically, when T'Challa returns to his kingdom there is going to be some sort of power struggle. This would be a very interesting storyline for Black Panther 2 if they wished to go down that route.
Overall, I don't think that the 5-year Gap should be brushed away or over-looked and should be addressed in its movies just after Endgame.
Avengers 5
So after the game-changing events of Endgame, it's going to be hard for the next Avengers movie to top it. So my best idea is to not try. Make the movie with lower stakes than Endgame. Like, First Avengers (2012, Joss Whedon) level of stakes. We don't know who will be part of this Avengers movie. After some of the main Avengers will no longer be part of the team (Iron Man, Captain America and Black Widow) and Endgame made it pretty clear that this was an end of an era for the original team. Marvel will be discussing its Phase 4 plans after Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019, Jon Watts) so hopefully the new roster for Avengers 5 will be announced. Characters that are guaranteed to be in Avengers 5 are Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Ant-Man & Wasp (Paul Rudd & Evangeline Lily) and the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie). As for other characters, it's a little uncertain. But it will be interesting to see who will make the cut and how they interact with one another.
Fox Superheroes (X-Men/Fantastic Four)
So it's no big secret that Disney recently purchased 20th Century Fox and, due to this, Marvel Studios will obtain the rights to the Marvel Superheroes that Fox has owned the movie rights to since the late '90s. Mainly the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. So fans are eager to see how those characters will be integrated into the MCU. for the X-Men, many fans have speculated that Mutants do exist but there's only a handful of them so no one has noticed them. But when Hulk snapped his fingers and brought everyone back he might have also unintentionally activated the X-Gene in some people, bringing on a wave of Mutants to the world. Similar to the comics where instead it was the Atom Bomb that accelerated the growth of the Mutant population. So that would be pretty cool to watch.
As for the Fantastic Four. I don't think audiences are going to sit through their origin story for the third time. So I'm not entirely sure how they would come into the MCU. But what I will say is that I am excited about how they will interact with MCU characters. How the Thing will interact with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) or how Mr Fantastic will interact with the Hulk, Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) as a fellow scientist, and possibly fill the void left by Tony Stark after dying in Endgame.
I think both teams would be great additions to the franchise and really change the landscape of the MCU.
Cosmic Movies (GOTG 3/Captain Marvel 2)
Marvels Cosmic movies have been a popular sub-genre for the MCU. With Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014, James Gunn) being a high-ranking favourite for fans and Captain Marvel (2019, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck) grossing $1 Billion Worldwide, it's quite clear that Marvel will continue with this sub-genre. From Endgame it's quite clear that Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3 (James Gunn) will focus on the team searching for Gamora, in the hopes that she's alive after Hulk brought everyone back. Also, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) will be joining the team, since he proved a good fit with the team in both Infinity War and Endgame. So fans are eager to see where that storyline goes. But the movie will also be introducing Adam Warlock to the team after he was teased in an end credit sequence in Vol.2. Making the Sovereign the most likely antagonists of the third movie. Which could work, since they were played more as a joke in the second movie and could have the chance to step up in this movie.
As for Captain Marvel, it's a little unclear what her sequel is going to be. Whether it'll be a prequel like the first movie or be set after Endgame. But what is clear is that audiences need to see her in space. We got a glimpse of her life in space in the first movie but the sequel has the potential of really diving into it. throughout Endgame Captain Marvel keeps mentioning how she's helping other worlds in the universe. And audiences have yet to see that. So her sequel will be a good opportunity to show her space adventures.
The Next Big villain
For the whole of the Infinity Saga Thanos was always the looming villain who was manipulating events to his own ends. And now, for this next saga, they will need a character who could be just as menacing and as big a threat to the MCU. But who could possibly match up to Thanos? Many fans have suggested Kang the Conqueror or Galactus. But I'm not a huge fan of those characters. But, now Marvel has the rights to the character, I strongly suggest that it should be Doctor Doom. Whilst in the Fox movies he hasn't really been much of a threat and comes off as more of a joke than a compelling villain. In the comics, he is a true force to be reckoned with. And with sympathetic motivations to his actions, which is what made Thanos an interesting character in Infinity War. In fact, a really good storyline which could be Endgame levels of epic is Secret Wars (2015) where Doctor Doom becomes a God and reshapes the universe in his image. Leaving a handful of Avengers to try and stop him. If done right, Doctor Doom would be the best MCU villain we have ever had. Maybe even surpassing Thanos.
So those are my ideas for the MCU going forward after Avengers: Endgame. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with any of my points? Please leave a comment down below. And, if you like what you've read then you can follow this blog for more content. Thank you for reading!
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