When Avengers: Endgame hit theaters in 2019, culminating in an arc of more than 20 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it looked like the most successful franchise of the 21st century had finally reached a saturation point. After all, how could Marvel do something as complex, self-referential and widely welcomed as Endgame? Is there anything left to do after releasing the highest grossing film of all time? (This is probably why I am not a studio executive.) But any concerns that the MCU had exhausted itself – and, by extension, its audience – with such a deluge of interconnected narratives were eliminated almost immediately. A few months later Endgamerecord box office peak, Spider-Man: away from home arrived and casually raised more than a billion dollars.
After Far from home– which functioned as an extended epilogue to Endgame, positioning Peter Parker of Tom Holland as the apparent heir to Tony Stark – the MCU was set to have a relatively long hiatus; at least by your standards. Almost a year has passed between Far from home and Black Widow, the first film in the so-called “Phase 4” of the MCU. But with all the careful planning and sequential narrative built into the MCU, there is really no way to prepare for a global pandemic.
Instead of sounding in 2020 with more big screen releases and Marvel Studios’ first television forays on Disney +, the MCU had a mulligan all year. (This does not include the final season of ABC SHIELD agents and Hulu Helstrom, both produced by Marvel Television, which has now been incorporated into Marvel Studios.) For the first time in more than a decade, no MCU films have been released in theaters for a full calendar year. And then Birds of prey debuted in a February pre-pandemic, superhero fans were left to feed on Netflix scrapsThe old guard, Project Power), Disney Disposal Stack (lol, sorry The New Mutants), and the captivating absurdity that is Wonder Woman 1984. For some, Marvel’s lack of 2020 left a void in pop culture; for others, it was a temporary remedy for a force closer to theme parks than to real cinema.
In any case, we’ll only have to wait until the end of the week for the MCU to announce itself in 2021. On Friday, Disney + will premiere the first two episodes of WandaVision, a limited series that borrows elements from sitcoms from television’s past and focuses on the MCU’s resident telepath and her deceased paprika-enthusiastic robot boyfriend. The first episode was reportedly filmed in front of a live audience in the studio. WandaVision it is, to say the least, a strange torchbearer for the next phase of the MCU. But it is also the result of a pandemic reorganization sufficient to thrill Christopher Nolan.
In a normal timeline, Black Widow it would have been the first MCU launch outside the Phase 4 pipeline; meanwhile, on the small screen, the most conventional The Falcon and the Winter Soldier should have preceded WandaVision. Rather than, WandaVision will release weekly episodes until March 5, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will continue with the series premiere on March 19 and, if everything goes according to plan, Black Widow will finally be released in theaters on May 7 (the slow implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States may complicate things, however.) The rest of the MCU’s 2021 schedule – despite the setbacks – would feature the Disney + series Loki debuting in May, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings coming to theaters in July, and Eternals doing the same in November. There is also the possibility of Hawkeye and Mrs. Marvel– two more Disney + series currently in production – will open later this year, and Sony Pictures plans to release its next Spider-Man movie in December. Marvel may have been absent in 2020, but by 2021, it looks more like the shark than jaws– and we’re all Quint.
Regardless of the order in which these Marvel projects come out, there is a unifying ethos for the next phase of the MCU, and I mean literally: for the first time, Marvel’s television and film ambitions will be aligned. As Marvel Studios director Kevin Feige explained earlier, the wires from the Disney + shows will bleed when released on the big screen and (presumably) vice versa. For example: whatever happens in WandaVision apparently will have ramifications for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, scheduled for launch in 2022. And the Disney + programs will also be a platform to bring new characters to the larger MCU board. Mrs. Marvel will present its namesake hero, who apparently will have a role to play in Captain Marvel sequel; Hawkeye is creating Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, who takes on the Hawkeye mantle in the comics. (It could also free Jeremy Renner to focus more time on his career as a mediocre rock star.)
Having already run a decade-long complex venture with the Infinity War saga, Marvel’s juggling of television and film plots may continue to dominate the studio in an era with an emphasis on streaming. (Streaming is Disney’s top priority as a company in the future.) But because of this unprecedented level of integration across different media – a multiplatform cinematic universe, the seventh circle of hell, whatever you want to call it – the MCU margin for the error becomes very fine. With so much planning going into what happens on the big and small screen, the MCU can’t afford to have another Ed-Norton-as-o-Incredible-Hulk situation. This could take everything off course and collapse much of the enterprise, like a Jenga tower.
Overall, Marvel still has a better track record than, say, the Disney era of Star Wars, but if the first three “phases” of the MCU already looked like many moving parts, Phase 4 will test the limits of the studio’s big designs. In addition to all the superheroes that have already been introduced, the MCU will eventually bring names such as the Fantastic Four, Blade and the antics of Deadpool – other less rude X-Men are sure to come. And I didn’t even reach the third Guardians of the Galaxy film (there will also be a Tutors Christmas Special), one bedroom Thor film bringing back Natalie Portman, a Black Panther sequel without the great Chadwick Boseman, as well as a series of MCU projects for the big screen and Disney + in various stages of development for 2022 and beyond.
If it all seems oppressive, well, it is. But the MCU worked more like a long-running TV series than a film franchise from the start, so the pivot for real television could be relatively continuous; furthermore, it does not matter that five of the last six Marvel films (Black Panther, Infinite War, Captain Marvel, Endgameand Far from home) exceeded the billion dollar limit at the box office. The MCU is betting on its audience not only returning to theaters, but also embracing the streaming wing of its ongoing quest to balance quantity with quality. (It’s much easier to accept Disney + than anything when we’re stuck at home waiting for the vaccine, anyway.)
What the MCU finally plans with Phase 4 and beyond can set up to defeat Thanos in Endgame I feel relatively strange. There is no doubt that WandaVision, with its sitcom pretenses and crazy premise, seems like a low-key affair – at least by Marvel standards. But the series belies the studio’s massive ambitions to somehow improve the release of the highest grossing film of all time, while trying to copy its record success on the small screen. In all, Disney expects the integration of the MCU domain into the streaming world, starting with WandaVision, it will be a small price to pay for salvation.