There have been six theatrical films and seven television series by Marvel Studios since Avengers: Endgame. In the years post “Infinity Saga”, some are saying that the path forward into Phase 4 has been all-set up and little payoff.
The loudest people complaining that it “isn’t building toward anything” are the ones who already know where it’s likely to be headed, they’re just mad that Nick Fury hasn’t shown up to talk about the Thunderbolts initiative. They need their hands held. Everyone else, who doesn’t give a ISHT, is happy to enjoy these movies for what they are and not upset that they’re not getting a continuous five-year-long orgasm.
I know, I’ve heard it before. Keeping up with the MCU has become homework.
I’m going to have to assume that all of those people who said they were walking off after Endgame didn’t actually do so, and now want to be gently reassured that they can safely leave the zeitgeist. My peoples, go ahead. When I was in High School, I just didn’t do homework when I didn’t want to, I didn’t tell everyone that I was tired of doing homework every chance I got. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Not to get lost in the metaphor, but how does it feel like homework if it also feels unnecessary? I would think that the part that’s compelling you to watch is that you know it will be necessary. That’s supposedly the homework part, that you know it’s going to help you pass the test eventually, but it sucks to do right now. Except movies aren’t tests, and homework is dumb regardless.
I’ve enjoyed everything coming out since Endgame, especially the television shows (I’m looking at you…Moon Knight, Loki & Ms Marvel). That’s why I keep watching this stuff. Does it seem unreasonable to make a choice between watching stuff you like and not watching stuff you don’t like? No. It doesn’t.
It takes years to plan, write, cast, and produce these movies, and almost exactly a year to the day after the Fox merger closed, the world was shut down by a pandemic. Tons of stuff got delayed and reshuffled. Nobody was even sure if movie theaters would still be a thing. The stuff that was in production (or essentially done) and the following few movies all got delayed, and everything else got pushed back, too.
In a non-pandemic world, we probably would have gotten major announcements of upcoming F4 and (maybe) X-Men movies in mid-2020; Marvel would have been spending that first year planning what they wanted to do, what they’d release when, and starting to look at casting. They may even have worked out some deals of who was going to be cast as what. It’s one thing to cast just Blade, because he’s singular; casting F4 (much less the X-Men) means a bunch of casting work, and it’s much harder and more time-consuming to do correctly because you have to find actors who mesh, as well as who are able and willing to commit to the multi-year Marvel machine. So the likely bet is on F4 and, probably, X-Men announcements at SDCC this week. And probably other stuff too; I’d guess a team-up movie of some kind since they’ve now introduced a bunch of new characters.
In truth, Phase 4 is proceeding at almost exactly the same pace as before. We all know Kang is on deck, and in Loki we got far more of a glimpse of him than we ever got from Thanos. Sometime next year we’ll see him as an actual villain in Quantumania. And by then we’ll probably know more or less what direction we’re going in, because Marvel will certainly release all kinds of goodies on their slate by then.
One other thing, this is a superhero comic book narrative. It’s never paying off. I truly hope that casual filmgoers who have been sucked into the MCU are beginning to understand the diminishing returns of superhero storytelling. WAEK ME WEN GALACTUS.
-Dagobot