Marvel Phase Four: Did ‘Avengers: Endgame’ break our chances of seeing the MCU as a cohesive universe?
It's been a year since the release of 'Avengers: Endgame,' and thanks to coronavirus concerns, it's still going to be a while before we see any further MCU content aside from 'Spider-Man: Homecoming.' The MCU is on shaky ground, as it introduces a wide array of new characters, and even familiar characters are heading to the unfamiliar territory of the small screen. In all of this, there's no word, or even a rumor, about what team will be anchored at the center of MCU's fourth phase, and 'Avengers: Endgame' might just be responsible.
Say what you will about 'Avengers: Endgame,' it still remains one of the most ambitious films in cinematic history. Bringing together several major franchises in a storyline that's been followed through since 2008, and played out in real-time delays on the big screen, it's a movie nobody would have thought possible before the superhero blockbuster era began. However, in its need to go as big as possible, and bring a resolution to over a decade of branching storylines, 'Endgame' may have broken apart any chance of seeing the MCU as a cohesive universe.
After the events of 'Captain America: Civil War,' the world was deprived of an official Avengers team, and despite the superheroes of the world uniting to face Thanos (Josh Brolin), it wasn't really an expansion of the roster so much as the fact that if Captain America (Chris Evans) is leading a collection of superheroes, no matter how big or small they are, then they're Avengers. With Cap retired, and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) dead, there's no Avengers team in place for any global threats.
This is highlighted in 'Spider-Man: Homecoming.' Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is called in to face a worldwide threat of attacking elementals. One-by-one, he lists off the names of other superheroes who should be able to help — only to find that they're all busy, off-world, or dead.
Now, as the comics have proven, the Avengers aren't the only team who can save the world. Even not united under a single name, there are a lot of superheroes who can defend the Earth from an invading force, but that's not really the point. The Avengers lay at the heart of the MCU. Everything pulled back to them, and they are what kept the MCU connected. At the moment, the MCU has no center, and its stories have been scattered wildly across its various franchises.
What's inevitably going to happen with this decentralized story is that there will be some that don't "count." Much like 'Agents of SHIELD' or the Netflix shows like 'Daredevil' and 'The Defenders,' which were supposed to be a part of the same universe, any franchise whose story doesn't quite find a way to fit in with the central MCU timeline is pruned away, failed branches of the grand experiment that the MCU is.
'Avengers: Endgame' focused heavily on being an end, despite the fact that it was known that Marvel movies would be continuing forward. It is the one MCU film that gave little to no thought as to what to build next, and as such, the Marvel Cinematic Universe may not hold steady for much longer.