MCU after Infinity War ... what then?

It seems the MCU will necessarily shift focus on some of the newer characters (Black Panther, Dr. Strange etc.) for a while until they can reestablish or reinvent folks like Iron Man (as a new person inheriting the tech?).

Ever since the Thanos stinger at the end of The Avengers everything's been building towards Infinity War which, presumably, will alter then MCU and set up for future films. But after IW will the remaining films simply be smaller arcs and standalone stories or will they build towards something just as big? How can you get bigger than Infinity War?

Answer: Avengers vs X-Men

Marvel has already tested the waters of studio collaboration with Sony. And with Marvel trading X-Men television rights for The Fantastic Four they've surrendered that property (X-Men) to Fox. The notion of Marvel vs. Warner vs. Fox vs. Sony isn't as big a deal to the industry as the struggle to keep superhero films at the top of the blockbuster heap. If this collaboration isn't tentatively in the works then it's at least something that has to be on the table between Fox and Marvel. I suspect the future can be collaborations like Marvel/Fox (then MCU/DCEU?). Some day we may have Storm in Wakanda or Wolverine in the Avengers. Maintaining continuity (especially on the part of Fox) is a tougher part of the equation but they'd have a while to work it out. Studio crossovers would be a great way to keep the genre fresh, yes?

Maybe I'm not the first but the idea just occurred to me while driving to work this morning.

dascoyne said:

Ever since the Thanos stinger at the end of The Avengers everything's been building towards Infinity War which, presumably, will alter then MCU and set up for future films. But after IW will the remaining films simply be smaller arcs and standalone stories or will they build towards something just as big?

Click to expand...

I hope it's the former. I am excited about Infinity War and its sequel, but after that I would prefer smaller standalone stories where it isn't always the fate of the world/universe at peril.

Spider-Man: Homecoming had situations where several people were in danger but stakes were comparitively smaller yet personal. I want the same to continue for future Spidey stories.

With a new Avengers team, the stakes will always continue to be higher and I think the audience would start to get weary of it. (Of course some already complain about that right now, but I think most of those people don't enjoy the overall MCU in general to begin with)

Crossovers are always good fun to watch and I want to see characters from different studios make cameo appearances. But I don't want heavily interconnected stories. Even in the current MCU I think they were mostly self-contained stories. I am curious as to how the core X-Men team will build up after the Dark Phoenix saga. Their timelines are confusing enough that adding MCU to the mix would be more messy.

Annual mega crossovers in Marvel comics is what turned me away from reading their new stories. And though that level of convoluted storytelling won't be replicated in the movies, there is the possibility of studios wanting to amp up the scale to match Infinity War.

My bigger concern is whether Kevin Feige will continue working for Marvel Studios after 2018.

-----------------

Speaking of timelines, I am glad Kevin Feige addressed the timeline issue from Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Kevin Feige Finally Addressed The Spider-Man: Homecoming Timeline Controversy

"All of that debate has made us go, 'Okay, at some point, I'm not sure exactly when, we're going to publish a timeline and see what it all is.' It wasn't meant to flummox anybody exactly, and I'm not sure I'd do it again the same way, but it does all connect to where we placed it. Other than very particular instances where there's a newspaper, or verbal reference to years, we never date the films. And I think there's a presumption, 'Well if the movie came out in November 2017, it must take place in November 2017' -- which is not the case."


Eric Eisenberg of CinemaBlend followed up for more. (I cracked up reading Feige's closing line, especially since he is known to be a huge BTTF fan).

I specifically followed-up with Kevin Feige asking if The Avengers was or wasn't set in the year 2012, and while he evaded the question, he did dive further into the plans to actually publish the timeline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and established the one key point in time where everything completely changed in the world:

"The specifics of the timeline, looking at... I've loved timelines, I love the Star Wars timeline, with the Battle of Yavin, everything is either After The Battle Of Yavin, Before The Battle of Yavin. We're doing that, and the origin point for us is Tony saying, 'I am Iron Man.' So everything will be years after that, years before that -- to the Big Bang, which is where it starts! It will look very cool and complex like Doc Brown on a chalkboard by the time it's published."

I'm sure they'll build towards something - a new group will have to learn to work together, etc. They don't have to build to a IW level conclusion, but i'm sure the every 3 year team up will continue.

Vivek said:

I hope it's the former. I am excited about Infinity War and its sequel, but after that I would prefer smaller standalone stories where it isn't always the fate of the world/universe at peril.

Spider-Man: Homecoming had situations where several people were in danger but stakes were comparitively smaller yet personal. I want the same to continue for future Spidey stories.

With a new Avengers team, the stakes will always continue to be higher and I think the audience would start to get weary of it. (Of course some already complain about that right now, but I think most of those people don't enjoy the overall MCU in general to begin with)

Crossovers are always good fun to watch and I want to see characters from different studios make cameo appearances. But I don't want heavily interconnected stories. Even in the current MCU I think they were mostly self-contained stories. I am curious as to how the core X-Men team will build up after the Dark Phoenix saga. Their timelines are confusing enough that adding MCU to the mix would be more messy.

Annual mega crossovers in Marvel comics is what turned me away from reading their new stories. And though that level of convoluted storytelling won't be replicated in the movies, there is the possibility of studios wanting to amp up the scale to match Infinity War.

Click to expand...

I guess I still don't always credit the industry with that much ingenuity but I agree that would be the best of case. There are elaborate and interesting stories to tell about each character.

I lament that we had two Thor films which barely show us much of Asgaard (and in the third film it's being destroyed). It was basically a set piece in The Dark World but most of the action was still in rooms with a handful of people at a time and we didn't really get any new characters (e.g. Baldar ...) or got a sense of Asgaard as a living community with history. That's one thing that Black Panther seems to do right - that Wakanda seems like a thriving place and not just a backdrop.

Some of my favorite Marvel stories, in fact, are personal character-based ones.

Vivek said:

My bigger concern is whether Kevin Feige will continue working for Marvel Studios after 2018.

Click to expand...

I haven't kept up to speed with the news but was there any news to suggest he wouldn't be with Marvel/Disney until the end of time? Please say, "no".

dascoyne said:

I haven't kept up to speed with the news but was there any news to suggest he wouldn't be with Marvel/Disney until the end of time? Please say, "no".

Click to expand...

Ha, yeah it should stay that way. But his contract ends in 2018. I'm hoping it's a standard practice of having a 10 year contract which will be renewed after both parties have agreed upon the new terms.

More likely is people will be burned out and ready for something different or they will keep milking the stand alone movies until the stars want too much money or are too old and then the reboots will start. But I may be a bit cynical.

Sent from my Hewlett Packard 48G using Tapatalk

It's Hollywood...give it five years after the last Avengers, and watch. They will just reboot the series again.

Hopefully Thanos just uses the mind stone or whatever and resets the whole timeline! JK, but what if he unwittingly throws everyone into a time warp and they have no recollections of what they were a part of before?

I think I'd prefer a multiple film mystery? Deep rooted, takes us to all corners of the MCU as we unravel something. Make it smaller with personal stories with important nuggets that you can connect throughout the films.

They have the fanbase and the gumption to pull off something massive and original (I'd hope), but using the characters we've come to enjoy.

As a way to naturally cause smaller stories, they could have a massive offscreen event take place (if IW doesnt do this) that lays everyone low. I'm thinking something that knocks out technology in wakanda, IM suit tech is ruined, Strange suffers disconnect from dimensions, etc. Mystery could stem from there. I'm thinking the throughline of Logan, but on a massive multi film scale.

I feel like they'll start with standalone films similar to how Phase 1 was done. Simple story, focusing only on the hero, no huge set ups, the difference being there would be occasional crossovers like in Ragnarok. I also think that Adam Warlock (Magus) would be a huge player in the next chapter of the MCU.

The nice thing about the Infinity Gems, especially Reality, is they can completely alter how anything in continuity is at will during Infinity War. The timing with contracts running out syncs up too well. They can literally write any retcon they want into the movie and its plausible in-universe as the fallout of the movies

A vs X won't happen anytime soon. Fox is doubling down on the IP. There's another X-Men movie coming, which combined with Deadpool 2, is basically soft rebooting the universe with a lead in to X-Force (Deadpool included). There's also New Mutants and two TV shows-- Gifted and Legion. They're ramping up hard so there's no need to think they'd go and make a deal with Marvel.

I definitely think they'll revert to small stories for a while after infinity war, and take their time before they set up the next big one. There's a wealth of comic material to sift through, alter, adapt and take from. The MCU could feasibly go for 30 more years if some right.

There's so much they could do I rather boggle at it. I already know they're plotting out the long game, introducing or hinting at Cassie Lang, Miles Morales, potentially Wanda and Vision's kids, Sharon Carter, etc. I'm hoping Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop will show up somewhere around or after IW, even in the deep background of a throwaway line like the Miles Morales reference in Homecoming. This is some serious generational worldbuilding going on here. Peter Parker will be Spidey for another three films after IW, before he reverts to Sony, but we can potentially still have a version of Spider-Man (not sure if the Miles Morales version or even Miguel O'Hara's future Spidey are part of the rights package or separate).

I imagine in the immediate aftermath of IW, we'll have Captain Marvel on the scene, Adam Warlock will be a presence, possibly establishing something like the Infinity Watch to guard the Stones (thinking possibly him, Gamora, Drax, Strange, maybe a revived Vision, plus someone else I won't speculate on). I'm hoping against hope that Marvel did get FF back, as that would let them play with Doom, Galactus, Silver Surfer, et al.

There's so much raw material to mine for individual stories, team stories... and, yes, eventually a new universe-threatening event in another decade when the Young Avengers are the ones who have to step up and save the day.

--Jonah

Inquisitor Peregrinus said:

I imagine in the immediate aftermath of IW, we'll have Captain Marvel on the scene, Adam Warlock will be a presence, possibly establishing something like the Infinity Watch to guard the Stones (thinking possibly him, Gamora, Drax, Strange, maybe a revived Vision, plus someone else I won't speculate on). I'm hoping against hope that Marvel did get FF back, as that would let them play with Doom, Galactus, Silver Surfer, et al.

Click to expand...

Really hoping that they get FF back. Doom with the Power Cosmic would be a great final villain.

I hope it ends to be quite honest but I know that won't happen.:unsure

cboath said:

I'm sure they'll build towards something - a new group will have to learn to work together, etc. They don't have to build to a IW level conclusion, but i'm sure the every 3 year team up will continue.

Click to expand...

I agree, I think that in AoU they did a great job with bringing in some of their other movies, but that wasn't anywhere near the scale of IW.

However, I do think that having an MCU Fantastic Four movie would be great, because, I mean, look at Spider-Man! On the third try they finally got it right!

I think that the prospect of introducing the X-Men into the MCU would be interesting, especially if they continued the X-23 Wolverine story as in Logan.


Basically, I hope that they get it right! :lol

-​5P1D3RM4N

- - - Updated - - -

I think that after Infinity War, maybe they should bring in the New Avengers. Like Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, etc.
That​ Would be interesting!

dascoyne said:

And with Marvel trading X-Men television rights for The Fantastic Four they've surrendered that property (X-Men) to Fox.

Click to expand...

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat when did this happen? I thought they just got the rights to use Skrulls?

SpiderPhantom5 said:

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat when did this happen? I thought they just got the rights to use Skrulls?

Click to expand...

It’s not official but I’m 99% sure that’s the case. There has to be some major reveal with each big Marvel film and FF sounds perfect for Infinity War. Besides, trading all X-Men television rights for just the Skrulls? That wouldn’t exactly be equitable and Marvel doesn’t exactly have a weak bargaining hand. X-Men television rights is essentially useless to Marvel at this point without movie rights and, especially since the success of Deadpool and Logan, Fox will never give up the property. And the multiple failures of Fox to launch FF make that property worthless to Fox except as a bargaining chip. I’m 99% sure FF got traded to Marvel - everyone wins in that exchange.

Fantastic four in the MCU would be, well... fantastic. And I'm definitely on board with the theory that they're the ones that bought Stark Tower. Which would put them in close proximity with Spider-Man, and the stories they can do with that are endless.