MARVEL STUDIOS OFFICIALLY REVEALS PHASE 4 MOVIES
Who said Marvel was dead?
Last night at the San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel revealed their phase 4 of the MCU. They have a host of new titles planned, and most of them will be presented within the next two years. They're doing things a bit differently this time around, though. With Disney+ on the way, Phase 4 won’t just be a series of movies, but TV shows as well. The shows look like they are more important to the MCU timeline than say Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D or any of the Netflix shows. So while over ten different titles crammed into two years may seem a bit excessive, it’s probably important to remember that there are only 4 movies. Here’s everything that was revealed in a somewhat coherent order.
Black Widow
Like we all predicted, the Black Widow movie will be a prequel. But it looks like there’s a twist. The movie won’t center around Black Widow’s time before joining the Avengers and what she did as a Red Room agent (at least that won’t be the focus of the core plot). Instead, the movie is set to take place sometime between Civil War and Infinity War. So apparently Natasha was having some fun while on the run from the U.S. government.
It does, however, look like the Red Room will have some effect on the movie. Footage shown at San Diego's Comic-Con showed Natasha squaring off with Yelena, another Black Widow agent trained by the Red Room. Some point later in the showcase also revealed other women in Black Widow’s original costume, so it looks like we’ll be getting a deeper look into her past after all.
Most shocking of all, Taskmaster looks like he’s going to be a villain in the movie. Taskmaster has the ability to mimic any fighting style he sees, so for someone like Balck Widow -- who relies on her combat abilities more than anything else --, he’s definitely going to be an interesting opponent.
Black Widow is scheduled for a May 1st, 2020 release.
Falcon and Winter Soldier
This is one of the few shows that we knew were coming with the Disney + service, but Feige revealed new information on the show's details, not much, but important stuff all the same. He revealed the villain. Apparently, Baron Zemo will be a primary antagonist of the Falcon and Winter Soldier show. If you don’t remember Zemo, he was the villain of Captain America: Civil War. The one who recited the words necessary to take control over Bucky.
Zemo as the villain makes sense. Bucky has yet to overcome his Winter Soldier past and has had little development as a character since appearing on screen in the original Captain America. Zemo playing the villain will create a good opportunity for Bucky to get some development, and will also be a good opportunity for Falcon to strut his stuff like the new Cap.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier is slated for Fall 2020, and Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan will be reprising their roles as Captain Falcon and the Winter Soldier respectively.
Eternals
There were always rumors circulating that the Eternals was happening, but now we have official confirmation. Not only that, but it will apparently be the first movie of phase 4. Black Widow is still scheduled to come out before it, however, so it’s looking like Marvel’s counting Black Widow as being apart of phase 3 because of its prequel status, and the Eternals will be the actual first adventure of phase 4 (movie-side of things anyway).
If you don’t know who the Eternals are, they’re an offshoot of humanity that was genetically modified by the Celestials (the beings you see in Guardians of the Galaxy destroying worlds with the Power Stone). Their modifications grant them superhuman abilities and resistances.
To give you an idea of their power, Thanos is technically an Eternal (if we’re keeping to the comics), only he has a mutated gene that labels him a Deviant, a group that tends to conflict with the Eternals. Depending on how Marvel wants to handle things, we may get a bit more background on Thanos and his people upon the movie’s release.
The Eternals is set to release on November 6, 2020. It will feature Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, and Lia McHugh as Sprite.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Another rumored movie like the Eternals now confirmed to be happening. This is one of the more obscure heroes Marvel has, especially if we’re going off of just movie fans. So here’s a brief rundown of who Shang-Chi is.
Shang-Chi is the son of the Mandarin. And no, not the fake, disappointment of a Mandarin that came out of Iron Man 3, but the real Mandarin -- the one known for harnessing the powers of ten destructive rings and being an unsurpassed martial artist. This movie will finally be introducing him to us (no fight between him and Iron Man though, sadly).
Shang-Chi is a hero who pretty much equals the Mandarin in martial arts skill. Typically, he has no superpowers, but his martial arts prowess and control over his body’s chi is so spectacular that he can pull off superhuman feats such as dodging bullets and punching through metal. Recently, though, he was given the ability to duplicate himself, so there’s that.
Shang-Chi will be the second movie of phase 4 and is scheduled for a February 12, 2021 release.
WandaVision
Like Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We all knew this one was coming, too. WandaVision will be a Disney + show that centers around Wanda learning how to truly control and tap into her powers as the Scarlet Witch, which just sounds like a fancy way for Marvel to say that they're going to make Wanda as overpowered as her comic book iteration, or at least close to it. Keven Feige said that the show was going to get weird, so it sounds like something that is going to be akin to Doctor Strange but on drugs.
While there’s no news on how Vision is going to be making his grand return, we do know that a few other characters are going to be making an appearance. For starters, Captain Marvel’s Monica Rambeau will show up. She’ll be an adult and have her own kid, too. Considering how much WandaVision is going to be playing with magic, maybe this will be where Monica receives her powers and becomes Photon.
Another little tidbit of information is that WandaVision will tie directly into the newest Doctor Strange movie, and oh yes, Doctor Strange 2 was also announced as part of phase 4.
WandaVision will premiere on Disney+ in Spring 2021.
Loki
Another show we knew about, but it’s nice to see where it is in the timeline.
Like most everyone predicted, Loki will not center around the Loki who died in Avengers: Infinity War. That character is apparently just dead and gone. No, the show will center around the Loki who appeared in Avengers: Endgame. The one who managed to snatch the Tesseract (Space Stone) just before teleporting himself to some unknown location. This new Loki series will explain what happened to him after that.
It’s worth keeping in mind that this Loki has had none of the character development that the original one had. This is the Loki who just got smashed by the Hulk, so he’s also probably not feeling very heroic, wherever he is.
The new Loki series will arrive in the spring of 2021 on Disney+. It looks like it will be premiering right alongside WandaVision. Maybe they’ll be connected. Why not bring all of the magic characters together?
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
One of the best announcements of the set. Doctor Strange’s second movie is on the horizon, and from the sounds of it, it’s going to be wild.
We already stated that WandaVision was going to be directly connected to Doctor Strange 2, but it looks like it’s going to be a more direct connection than we originally thought. Wanda is going to actually be in the movie herself.
Director Scott Derrickson will be helming the film, and he’s known for horror movies like Sinister, so obviously, the film is going to be incorporating horror elements on top of the usual Marvel comedy. From the way Scott described how he wants to run this movie, the psychedelics we got in the first film sound like their going to be turned up to 11. It’ll incorporate the “weirdness” that WandaVision is supposed to present as well.
We can’t move on without mentioning the subtitle of the movie. Far From Home failed to deliver on it, but it looks like Doctor Strange is going to carry the mantle of exploring the multiverse. If we’re including horror elements, showing off Fox’s old properties would definitely be chilling.
Doctor Strange will appear on May 7, 2021.
Marvel: What If?
Another Disney plus show, but this one’s going to be on the animated side of things. From the sounds of it, Marvel: What If will be from the point of view of the Watcher, a character in Marvel comics who can see everything happening everywhere (think Heimdall but if he had no limits). The Watcher is going to narrate possible “what if” scenarios of the MCU. One example that was given was “what if Peggy Carter became the Super Soldier instead of Steve Rogers?”
The series will feature the voice work from actual MCU actors. So if there’s a what-if scenario that features Iron Man, RDJ will be the one to voice act him. The show doesn’t sound like anything that will be actual canon, but it does sound like an interesting time.
Marvel: What If will appear on Disney+ in the summer of 2021.
Hawkeye
The rumored Hawkeye tv series was confirmed last night with the other shows as well. For a guy who is supposed to be retired, Hawkeye always seems to be doing something active. The show will center around him training his daughter to take up the mantle of Hawkeye from him. In the comics, Kate Bishop actually becomes the next generation Hawkeye, so this makes sense.
Considering how heavily these new Disney+ series are going to affect the MCU, maybe this is a sign of things to come. Black Widow’s finally gotten her own movie after all of these years so maybe the Hawkeye show will set up a solo Hawkeye movie, one that solidifies his retirement (finally) and the passing of the mantle onto his daughter, or maybe the solo Hawkeye fill just feature his daughter. Whatever happens, the movies are going to be affected by it in some way.
The Hawkeye series will appear in the fall of 2021.
Thor: Love and Thunder
Breaking the tradition of trilogies, Marvel announced that Thor will be getting a fourth movie. Even more surprising, Natalie Portman will be returning to the MCU as Jane Foster in the movie. Even more surprising than that, the movie will be adapting the female Thor comic storyline, so Jane is either going to be a Thor or the new Thor. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as Thor, and Taika Waititi will be returning as the director.
Thor: Love and Thunder will be premiering on November 5, 2021.
Blade
Last but not least and the most surprising reveal to the MCU: Blade. Yup, the vampire slayer will be returning to the big screen, but under the MCU banner. No Westley Snipes, though. Instead, Blade will be played by Mahershala Ali, the actor who played “Cottonmouth” in Netflix’s Luke Cage series. Not much else is known about the movie at this point, including its place on the timeline or its rating, but Blade in the MCU is something to look forward too.
Feige also hinted that Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, Guardians of The Galaxy 3, and even the Fantastic Four and future X-Men movies were coming at as well. So stay tuned for more information.
