Marvel Studios Has Plans For A “Very Different” Phase Four Of The MCU

With Marvel Studio’s Phase Three set to launch with Captain America: Civil War, plans are already in motion for Phase Four and a new storyline.

This May, Marvel Studios will officially begin Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the debut of Captain America: Civil War. It will be the first of a planned 11 films that will make up Phase Three and bring the saga of Thanos to an end with Avengers: Infinity War Part 2.

In between we will get a new Spider-Man, films featuring Black Panther, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel, sequels to Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man as well as what will probably be the final film adventure of the Mighty Thor.

With Phase Three already in motion and the endgame for Thanos in sight, naturally talk has already begun in regards to Phase Four of the MCU. And due to numerous factors, fans should anticipate something quite a bit different from what they have come to expect.

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Kevin Feige, king of all things Marvel Studios, was recently asked by Entertainment Weekly about what people should expect when Phase Four begins sometime around 2020.

"“I think you look at comics as a guide. I think there will be a finality to moments of Phase Three, as well as new beginnings that will mark a different, a very different, a distinctively different chapter in what will someday be a complete first saga made up of three phases.”"

Civil War co-director Joe Russo agrees that whatever Marvel may have planned for Phase Four, it needs to go off in a totally new direction different from what was done in Phases One through Three.

"“Things always get deconstructed, right? You build things up and people enjoy the experiences you’ve built up. But then you kind of reach an apex or you reach a climax, a moment where you go. This structure is really going to start to be repetitious if we do this again, so what do we do now?’ So now, you deconstruct it. We’re in the deconstruction phase with Civil War and leading into Infinity War, which are the culmination films.”"

One of the biggest reasons fans should expect something “distinctively different” when Phase Four begins is because by then, the contracts for most of the original actors will be up. While some, like Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. have said they would be agreeable to coming back on occasion, others such as Chris Hemsworth have made it clear that once their contract is up, they are done.

So what would a Phase Four look like? You would think that it would include sequels to Spider-Man, Black Panther and Doctor Strange as well as third chapters for Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy and the delayed Inhumans movie. And another Avengers film is practically a given.

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But could it also include a fourth Captain America film? Or maybe a Winter Soldier or War Machine movie? Or could we finally see after way to long the much requested Black Widow solo film?

Or, dare I say it, a solo Incredible Hulk movie?

Before we really have to start worrying about any of that (because we will), there is still Phase Three to get through and that begins on May 6, 2016 with Captain America: Civil War.