“As we’re nearing the end of Phase 4, I think people will start to see where this next saga is going,” Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige recently told Total Film.
“I think there have been many clues already, that are at least apparent to me, of where this whole saga is going. But we’ll be a little more direct about that in the coming months, to set a plan, so audiences who want to see the bigger picture can see a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more of the roadmap.”
Two very obvious signposts in the coming months are Thor: Love and Thunder on July 8, and D23 Expo 2022, which takes place September 9 through the 11th. Marvel will be at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con 2022, but will likely reserve big revelations for September.
Specifically, on September 10th the D23 Expo will feature filmmakers, celebrity talent, surprise guests and representatives from Marvel Studios at 10 a.m. to showcase the division’s theatrical and Disney+ titles. The presentation will include exclusive footage and a preview what Marvel has in the works.
Many have speculated about where the Pandora’s Box of plotlines opened up by the Multiverse is leading. Thinking has centered around a massive 12-issue event in the comics known as Secret Wars. Secret Wars involves the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Deadpool and the Avengers. The mid-’80s Marvel series also happens to be a favorite of the two men who wrapped up the studio’s Phase 3 in spectacularly-successful fashion.
“You know, I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together,” Joe Russo explained in 2020. “I also like the idea of villains having to team up with heroes. Anthony and I like complicated relationships between heroes and villains, we like villains who believe they’re heroes in their own stories, so it’s all sort of built into this notion of Secret Wars. To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”
Anthony Russo was more blunt: “It would be the biggest movie you could possibly imagine, so that’s what really excites us about the story — the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.”
Feige, when asked about rumors of a Secret Wars finale for Phase 4, has played coy.
“I’ve seen those rumors as well. Why is everyone talking about that now? That’s what I want to know,” Feige said late last year. “I think one person writes about it, and then another person writes about it, and then everybody’s writing about it, and then it’s happening.”
Still, the Secret Wars saga would be a great way to tie all the current plotlines and synergize the reunited Marvel film assets. For instance, Spider-Man and the X-Men are now a part of Disney’s MCU — the former of which having just proved his box office might with Spider-Man: No Way Home nearing $2 billion worldwide. Each of the studio’s next five films — and virtually every planned show for Disney+ — involve at least one Avenger. Deadpool 3 is in the works. Oh, and there’s a good chance of a Fantastic Four film finally happening in this cycle.