As Marvel is forced to make changes to its slate of Phase 5 was supposed to be – and what it might be now. This, in turn, offers the biggest opportunity yet for Marvel to up the narrative ante and cement the shared universe’s filmic legacy for decades to come.
Phases 4 and 5 – the first two “seasons” of the MCU to take place after the overarching Captain Marvel were seemingly reserved for the latter.
Now, however, with the myriad and repeated delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the deck seems to have been completely reshuffled, resulting in one giant Phase 4 that looks remarkably similar to the previous Marvel heavyhitter, Phase 3 (which consisted of a whopping 11 films). Although nothing has been conclusively announced as of yet, it now looks like Phase 4 will contain nearly all of those sequels – along with most of the brand-new entries, as well, such as Blade. This would also mean that Phase 5 has to up its game, tacking on lots of extra series (and calendar years) to its suddenly depleted run.
What MCU Phase 5 Was Going to Be
As originally announced all the way back in July 2019, Black Panther 2, here’s what that release slate initially looked like:
- February 18, 2022
- May 6, 2022 (Black Panther 2)
- July 29, 2022
- October 7, 2022
- February 17, 2023
- May 5, 2023
- July 28, 2023
- November 3, 2023
The first four of those release dates have remained the same now that they’re part of Phase 4, with the added inclusion of Disney’s Fox acquisition, whether it be a retooled X-Men or Deadpool 3. (The eighth and final item on the list was, and continues to be, something of a mystery.)
Such a roster would go a long way to solidifying the new approach to the MCU’s phases that Marvel had attempted to adopt for the post-Infinity Saga period, with roughly half of the films continuations and the other half originals (at least, to the shared cinematic universe, that is). This balance, in turn, grew out of the company’s desire to pair old and new franchises together within a given calendar year, an effort that had begun in 2014; Marvel Studios was now just expanding the time frame from months to years, making the phases themselves the central element of its release strategy. (Note that this ing of either Phase Four or Five doesn’t include the Sony spinoff movies, like Morbius, since it is yet to be seen just how canon they really will be on the Marvel side.)
When Phase 5 Could Start and What Movies It Could Have
Now that all of 2022 has been sliced off and made part of Phase 4, it completely changes the filmic landscape for 5. For starters, this chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will now more than likely see an official start in February ‘23. Using the freshly remolded Phase 4 as the new template, fans could be looking at a total of 10 installments – assuming that Marvel sees success with sending an unprecedented five movies into theaters in ’22, and that the studio would be more than happy to continue that practice in the years to come. This would probably mean an extra release slot in March ’23, with the final one of the phase arriving sometime in November ’24.
As to what items could fill those dates, it's possible that Ant-Man 3, then, would follow it on July 28, ’23, seeing as how this series has always hit theaters in July. That’s a good start, both figuratively and literally, to Phase 5, but its follow-ups still need to be rounded out with new and returning projects.
Right off the bat, it’s a pretty straightforward assumption that the studio will turn to its just-introduced films from Phase 4 and offer up continuations of them all: that means Black Widow 2, Eternals 2, Shang-Chi 2, and Blade 2 would take up the next four release dates. Since there is still some level of balancing out going on between these next two phases (Guardians and Ant-Man, for instance, skipped 4 entirely to land in 5), it’s also probably safe to say that Marvel would hold off on doing Doctor Strange 3, Black Panther 3, and Captain Marvel 3 this go-round. And, lastly, it’s impossible at this particular point in time to make a prediction either way regarding both Spider-Man 4 and Thor 5, since the former is the product of intense negotiations between two different Hollywood power players and the latter keeps breaking new ground as the longest-running MCU franchise.
When factoring The Avengers.
Marvel’s Phase 5 Needs to Be Different
One of the keys to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s success has been its ability to constantly rope in new characters, storytelling styles, and, even, (sub) genres, keeping long-term viewers engaged and always attracting a subset of new fans. The phases themselves need to keep up this variety, as well, to ensure that it’s not just another Infinity Saga-esque narrative that plays itself out again, only this time without the presence of Iron Man or with the mantle of Thor being ed to a new bearer. In fact, this could be one of the big reasons why the comic book industry has continued to shed readers, especially over at the House of Ideas, specifically – regularly churning out one mega-crossover event after another leaves fans feeling burnt out instead of committed.
One gets the sense that Marvel Studios was keenly aware of this – hence the original attempt to make smaller, nimbler phases starting with Black Widow, along with the injection of the Disney+ TV shows (well, that and Disney’s desire to make its new streaming platform as successful as possible). But it’s not too late to salvage the more-or-less standardized Phase 5 that now seems poised to happen, and the company’s ultra-successful team-up series can be the perfect conduit to do so: with Avengers: Endgame playbook and go for multiple chapters, though not necessarily in the same fashion.
Instead of doing an one-two continuation, with a break in between for a few side movies, the next cluster of Avengers chapters could be spinoffs from one another, each tackling a different aspect of the ever-expanding MCU – a wise move, especially since practically every last character, major or minor, in the shared universe became an honorary his own Disney+ miniseries. (Or, perhaps, one giant-sized Avengers film could feature all of these multiple teams on multiple assignments, borrowing much of the structure of Infinity War.)
Conversely, if Marvel wanted to continue holding out on doing the next Avengers for Phase 5, as well, the studio could still employ this multi-aspect approach but in a different field: the X-Men franchise could instead be broken up into a similar number of constituent parts. In this way, just as Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, and the other major MCU superheroes were introduced individually before teaming up for the inaugural Avengers, perhaps Wolverine could get resurrected first in his own solo outing, followed by, say, the long-awaited Gambit or, just maybe, Iceman.
Either of these scenarios (doing multiple X-Men or Avengers spinoffs) would probably necessitate going over the 10-film number for Phase 5, but the amount of excitement it would generate – and the far bigger scope it would create – would be well worth the extension. And it would help make Phase 5 the most epic, awe-inspiring “season” of the MCU yet.
