10 shocking things I learned rewatching the MCU movies

6. Phase Four was far too long

Look, nobody loves the MCU more than I do, but Phase Four was just far too long. It's one thing to have 18 titles (which is a lot more than Phase Three's 11 titles), but for almost half of those titles to be multi-episode Disney Plus shows is another altogether. And unfortunately, the overall expansiveness of the phase ended up diluting a lot of the stories it was telling.

The Disney Plus platform certainly presents for some unique storytelling opportunities and it was used rather wisely in the beginning, with incredible outings like WandaVision, Loki, and Hawkeye, it soon made it that much harder to keep up with the MCU titles and the direction that the Multiverse Saga was taking.

It looked like characters such as Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Shang-Chi, and Loki were going to be major players in Phase Four, but the latter four never appeared in another title in the phase (excluding What If...?), while Wanda's arc was fast-tracked to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which pointlessly turned her into a villain and then took her off the board completely. Again, it all felt very directionless - and it shows even more-so in a rewatch.

Now I'm not saying that every character needs to appear multiple times per phase, but when you're investing a lot of time and storytelling in those characters only for them not to appear again in at least 18 titles, it does highlight how Phase Four's ambitions were a bit too much for the story.

Sometimes less really is more.