Here's why MCU Phase 4 will work despite an Avengers movie being absent from the mix
We saw the Avengers assemble in 'Endgame' and what ensued was an epic battle that will be remembered for ages. Prior to that, we saw the original Avengers- Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) team up twice to take on Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Ultron (James Spader). But after 'Endgame', it looks like the original team has gone their separate ways.
For starters, there's no Tony and Natasha, Cap has gone back to live out his life in the past, Clint Barton has retired and so has the Hulk, while Thor is off galaxy-trotting with the Guardians of the Galaxy in search of new adventures. That, also pretty much ended the iconic phase 3 of the MCU.
The San Diego Comic-Con saw Marvel Studios announce their lineup for the next couple of years and as heartbreaking as it may seem, there's no Avengers in the pipeline. Yet.
Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige explained to the Collider: "It is a complete Phase Four, the way I announced the complete Phase Three five years ago. Things can move, things can change as they did if you go back and look at what we talked about five years ago for Phase Three, but we've been working on this for quite a while and it's pretty set. But there are always changes possible."
It is evident that while we see new heroes, we'll see new formidable foes as well. Much like phase 2 and 3 of the MCU, the new season serves as the beginnings of the tales and origins of new superheroes and villains. What set up phase 2 and 3 beautifully was the formation of the Avengers. "The earth's mightiest heroes."
And the movies just continued from there, each one connected to the first movie of the Avengers. Eventually, we saw all the superheroes assemble to take down a mad titan who decimated half the universe just so that he could restore balance. But then, Thanos wasn't the last big bad dude there was. We are to sure to see greater threats coming in over the course of phase 4 and to combat it, unfortunately, we don't have the Avengers coming in this time.
What does this mean for MCU phase 4?
That there are a new breed of superheroes, perhaps even stronger than the ones we all loved and related to. But for them, to take center stage, we need to move on from the old bunch. It's hard, it is impossible but only practical and reasonable.
Feige also said that 'Endgame' was the definitive end. "We had a movie this year called 'Avengers: Endgame', and it is very much an ending, as you saw, to so many of those characters,” Feige told IGN. "So Phase 4 is about beginnings, and Phase 4 is about learning new things about characters you already think you know like Black Widow, meeting incredible new characters like The Eternals and Shang-Chi, going on new adventures with Doctor Strange and Thor, and these Disney+ shows, which I promise will be spectacular and not what anybody's expecting."
It may work for Marvel, by telling new stories, it can diversify and make a return. Get back to making an Avengers or an ensemble movie along the same lines. But for that to happen, it's time for a "Clean-slate Protocol" just like how Stark puts it in 'Iron Man 3'.
The next Avengers, who haven't really formed yet could be quite formidable too. We still have the Black Panther around, Captain Marvel is out there and so are the Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Wanda Maximoff's Scarlet Witch is still a force to reckon with and so are the Guardians. Does that mean we'll see the new Avengers work with the new heroes who will make an entry?
There is no whisper about a new Avengers movie yet. Not after the epic that we saw a couple of months back. It's yet to sink in and Marvel wouldn't want to cheapen it by announcing a new Avengers or a young Avengers for that matter.
The plan right now is to stay patient and believe. Marvel hasn't disappointed us in their last 22 films in the MCU and they're not about to start right now. It will work without an Avengers all right and expect them to drop in a surprise at some stage after they're done setting up the new heroes.