The MCU’s next major project revealed?: Is Secret Wars happening?

Could we be seeing a Secret Wars project in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Marvel Studios is always up to something. It feels like a week can’t go by without some new reports coming out. Sometimes it’s small things; new trailers or preview clips that rely on the same footage as previous clips. Exciting for sure, but it’s stuff we’ve seen. Other times, however, it’s huge. New characters being developed, Disney Plus Projects in the works, or a Marvel Comics series that could be coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The latter is something that should get people talking.

It turns out something huge might indeed be in the works at Marvel as writer Jim Shooter says the Marvel Comics event Secret Wars is being developed for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The legend revealed his via a MegaCon convention (H/T: CBR).

The funny thing about this is, even with these reports, no one truly knows which Secret Wars project it is. There are three Secret Wars and each of them could be turned into an MCU project because any of the three popular titles could inspire a live-action adaptation.

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars

First, we have the original Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars (which was written by Jim Shooter). This was a 12-part miniseries that had some of the best heroes and villains in Marvel Comics. Heroes like the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man were involved. On the villains’ side, there was Dr. Doom, Enchantress, and Kang the Conqueror.

The latter of the villains suggests that this might be the one we’ll see adapted since he’s going to be one of the big villains of the MCU going forward. Moreover, it’s the most popular of the Secret Wars stories. However, it’s so vast that this adaptation may need to be a Disney Plus series rather than a movie.

Nick Fury’s Secret War

The next option is the Secret Wars involving Nick Fury and Latveria. In this story, Lucia von Bardas was funding tech-themed villains. When Nick Fury told the U.S. Government what was going on, they decided to do nothing.

Fury was hurt because he knew that doing nothing meant that acts of violence would happen in America and beyond. And he wasn’t going to sit by and do nothing. As a result, he took it upon himself to gather heroes and take care of the problem. This involved Quake bringing down their entire castle and killing hundreds of people.

This series may be easier to adapt into a movie. It doesn’t necessarily require the full exploration that a TV series would give it and it can be taken care of in two hours. If Marvel really wanted to go into detail, they could do two movies – one where Nick Fury recruits people and another where Lucia von Bardas comes back and tries to get revenge.

Secret Wars (2015)

Now we come to the most recent Secret Wars. This one came out in 2015 and it may be the most difficult to pull off. It’s an event that destroyed the entire Marvel Universe only to be rebuilt by God Doom, Molecules Man, and Doctor Strange.

This series ended up creating new realities within one world, different versions of the characters and so much more. It also involved every hero and villain in Marvel Comics. This wouldn’t be like Civil War where you can just have two hero teams fighting. There’s a lot of complex things that went into this that ultimately got the characters to where they’re at. It also seems like it would be too soon to try this. After all, you can’t have this Secret Wars without Doctor Doom and Reed Richards.

The problem with these titles

As great as it would be to see any of these projects come to life in the MCU, there’s one glaring issue. Each of these titles involves Marvel Comics characters that either haven’t debuted in the MCU yet or Marvel Studios doesn’t have the rights to. Among them is Spider-Man – who does appear in the MCU but is also owned by Sony (and thus may have a limited number of appearances going forward). Spidey has a huge part in each of those crossovers, with the first Secret War being where Peter first comes in contact with the symbiote. Furthermore, Doctor Doom and Latveria are prominent in each of them and neither have been introduced to the MCU yet.

Hopefully, Marvel will take their time and do this right. The last thing we need is another Dark Phoenix situation where a title is ruined by being rushed. Something as monumental as any of the Secret Wars series should be handled with care. It could become yet another classic film to add to the MCU’s already-long list.

What do you think? Which of these Secret Wars projects would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below.