Marvel Studios Phase 4 Reveal: 9 Major Takeaways

By Christian Thrailkill

After a five year absence and a historic run with their Phase 3 movies, Marvel is back at it again, revealing the first announcements for their much anticipated post Avengers slate of films. With 6 movies and 5 TV series announced, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studies displayed an ambitious plan for the future of the biggest studio in Hollywood. Here are 9 key takeaways from the event.

1: The Future is Female

Kevin Feige has stated that moving forward from Phase 3, Marvel would be pushing their female characters to the forefront. He’s asserted over half of Marvel’s future heroes would be women, and Saturday’s presentation showed their first steps toward this goal. Black Widow will be headlining her own movie. Natalie Portman is not only returning, but will be assuming the Thor mantle herself. Hawkeye will be introducing Kate Bishop as a successor to Clint Barton. The Scarlet Witch will not only be getting her own TV show, but will be co-leading Dr. Strange 2. These are exciting announcements, showing that Marvel is taking cues from some of the strongest stories told in the past decade of comics.

Of course, The Eternals and The Fantastic Four will be introducing more prominent heroines. This doesn’t even cover Captain Marvel 2, the introduction of an adult Monica Rambeau, and the pivotal introduction of The X-Men, where a significant portion of Marvel’s most prominent and well realized heroines reside. Characters such as Jean Grey, Storm, Emma Frost, Shadowcat, Rogue, Mystique, and Psylocke after getting secondary focus in the Fox movies, are finally ready to take their rightful place in the Marvel A-List.

2: Marvel is investing in Diversity, on and off screen

Marvel is arguably the largest international franchise in the world, and their future films are reflective of this cross demographic appeal. Marvel is introducing a truly international team in the Eternals, with members from all corners in the world. The Eternals famously includes numerous mythological figures from all over the world, including the Olympians, Ceresi, and Gilgamesh, among others, and Marvel choosing to bet on this team shows they continue to be focused on dominating the global consciousness.

Additionally, with the introduction of Shang-Chi as Marvel’s first Asian led franchise and the announcement that Asian film legend Tony Leung will be portraying the long-awaited Mandarin shows that Marvel understands the importance of China to their future successes. Also of note is the surprise revival of Blade, which adds another Black-led franchise to Marvel with a distinctly different tone to Black Panther, it’s own sequel in development and soon to be announced. This doesn’t even touch on The Falcon and Winter Soldier series, which will see Sam Wilson take up the mantle and legacy of Captain America.

On top of these franchise announcements, Marvel is making strides to improve their representation off the screen. The Eternals and Black Widow will be helmed by Chloe Zhao and Cate Shortland, Shang-Chi will be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and Taika Watiti is returning to Direct Thor: Love and Thunder. Joining them will be Ryan Coogler on Black Panther 2. Additionally, there are a multitude of projects with unannounced directors, including marquee franchises like X-Men and Fantastic Four. Don’t be surprised to see Marvel make more moves to hire unique filmmakers and continue their diversification.

3: Marvel is still introducing new franchises

In the slate of Disney+ shows and movies announced Saturday, we were treated to only two sequels in Doctor Strange and Thor. Instead, Marvel Studies opted to focus on characters previously introduced without a leading role, such as Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Loki, and Hawkeye. After making 22 Billion dollars in 23 films, Marvel could have easily rested on their laurels and continued to print money simply releasing sequels and series for characters already introduced. There’s plenty of engaging supporting characters who have yet to truly get the spotlight, such as Drax, Mantis, or War Machine.

Instead, Marvel introduced two wholly new to film franchises in The Eternals and Shang-Chi. This tells us Marvel isn’t done with taking lesser known properties and making movie magic out of them, as they did when they turned the Guardians of the Galaxy into household names. Even more alluring is the revival of the original Marvel hit movie, Blade, which took the Hall H audience completely by surprise. This tells us Marvel is ready and willing to introduce old franchises into the fold. With two of Marvel’s crown jewels, Spider-Man and The Avengers, already fully integrated into their cinematic universe, it won’t be long until the last two major pieces to the Marvel puzzle, the Fantastic Four and X-Men, join their brothers in their rightful place at the forefront of the studio, giving us the fully realized world Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee created all those years ago.

4: The Scope of the Marvel Universe is Expanding

One of the main goals of Marvel’s Phase 4 became crystal clear with the reveal of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Every one of Marvel’s movie and show announcements is an expansion of the creative space of their universe. WandaVision, Blade, and Doctor Strange all look to expand the supernatural space of the Marvel films. Thor, Loki, and The Eternals will continue to explore the space between mystic and cosmic dealing with gods and aliens equally. Black Widow, Shang Chi, Hawkeye, and Falcon and Winter Soldier are all ground level stories, expanding the world of the Avengers cast, as well as the mercenary underground of Marvel, introducing bounty hunters and crime lords such as Taskmaster and The Mandarin. Audiences will even be treated to different takes on previous events in the first animated MCU series, What If. The message is clear: There’s space for every kind of story at Marvel. No dimension, timeline, galaxy, or neighborhood is off limits.

5: Marvel is not afraid to fill in the gaps in their timeline

One of the boldest decisions made in Avengers: Endgame was to give the larger franchise a five year fast-forward. This left a significant chunk of time completely unexplored by the main franchises, and the Phase Four announcements showed that Marvel is ready and willing to explore not just that time gap, but to show other times as well. Black Widow will be set during Natasha’s time on the run between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame. Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings looks to be picking up plot threads from the Iron Man films, nearly a whole decade after the original introduction of the Ten Rings and The Mandarin. Falcon and The Winter Soldier seems to be giving us our first ever villain movie reprise as Daniel Bruhl returns as Zemo. Even WandaVision will be introducing us to an all grown up version of Monica Rambeau, after just having been introduced this year in Captain Marvel. This is proof that no throwaway plot point or minute detail from The Infinity Saga is ever truly forgotten, and if there’s a story to be told there, there’s a good chance Marvel will tell it.

6: Marvel TV is finally realizing its full potential

When Kevin Feige announced that a whopping seven Marvel projects would release in 2021, there was no way that all of them could be movies. As it turned out, half of the day’s announcements were for the much anticipated Marvel Disney+ series. The fact that Marvel is giving their TV series equal billing with their films signals that Marvel is making a serious commitment to making their TV shows matter to the overall franchise narrative in a way that just wasn’t the case in previous shows.

Falcon and Winter Soldier will directly deal with the legacy of Captain America. Hawkeye will most likely find Clint Barton’s character resolution finish in his series, as Kate Bishop, his successor, will be introduced. WandaVision was explicitly mentioned to lead directly into Dr. Strange 2, where Wanda will co-star. The previous continuity and plot ties between Marvel films and shows was very one way. Phase Four will start shifting the balance, so fans will truly have to follow the shows AND the films to get the payoffs for every single Marvel character, including fan favorites like Loki. This is a bold gamble that will test audience’s willingness to follow their favorite franchises.

7: Where does that leave the previous Marvel TV Shows?

The biggest question mark moving forward in the MCU is the status of previous Marvel TV Shows. Marvel has been very adamant about not recasting actors in major roles. With Mahershala Ali’s casting as Blade after previously having been a lead in Luke Cage, this rule has finally been broken. The introduction of the Mutiverse, the re acquisition of the Fox properties, and the terminating of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Defenders Universe over at Netflix all signal to the sweeping under the rug of the first batch of MCU shows.

When it comes to explanations, it’s easy enough to say that they took place in one of the Avengers: Endgame timelines. This would provide Marvel the opportunity to integrate key Marvel characters such as Daredevil, The Punisher, and Luke Cage properly into the MCU. I doubt Marvel would want to pass up the chance to have Peter Parker face off against the likes of Kingpin, or to refurbish damaged goods like The Inhumans and Iron Fist.

There are signs this won’t be the case, however. Marvel has announced a Hulu series for Ghost Rider to accompany their Son of Satan series, starring the same Robbie Reyes that was featured in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Additionally, Marvel has stated they aren’t done with the Defenders characters, and have insinuated interest in reviving the shows on Hulu once the Netflix contract has fully expired. This would allow Marvel to keep the acclaimed shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones intact and in house, affording them the possibility of integrating the already established versions of these characters into the MCU more fully, without giving the fan base MCU whiplash.

However it’s handled, the good news is that the original runs of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Runaways, Jessica Jones, and more will always exist for fans to revisit or discover for the first time.

8: Watch D23 For the rest of the announcements

Kevin Feige was clearly in his element at the end of Saturday’s showcase. After announcing ten Marvel projects and surprise dropping one more, he boasted that they hadn’t even finished announcing all of Phase 4’s projects. These include movies we already know are in development, such as Black Panther 2, Guardians of The Galaxy 3, and Captain Marvel 2. More tantalizingly, he also mentioned announcements regarding the much anticipated Fantastic Four and X-Men movies.

While San Diego Comic-Con is the traditional announcement zone for Marvel, Disney’s D23 Expo is where parent company Disney makes major announcements for all their flagship franchises, including Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, etc. With so many projects clearly in development, don’t be surprised if come August we get treated to round 2 of the Marvel Phase 4 slate announcements. Marvel’s Merry Mutants and First Family are back home where they belong, and there’s no way Marvel won’t be announcing these projects soon.

9: Disney is counting on Marvel

Watching Saturday’s announcements, it has never been clearer how key Marvel is to the future of Disney’s financial success. Marvel is being leaned on to provide box office dominance, streaming revenue for the fledgling Disney+, to justify the Fox merger, and keep Disney a profitable company. With Star Wars in a reset period following The Rise of Skywalker, many of Disney’s most recognizable films already plundered for their new Live Action Remake tent poles, and Disney struggling to create distinguishable brands for Disney Animation and Pixar, Marvel is surprisingly the most stable of their cash cows. Disney is about to enter one of the most competitive era’s of the companies history, going toe to toe with Amazon, Apple, Netflix, AT&T, and NBCUniversal for the future of the film industry as we know it. If the much heralded Marvel fatigue finally sets in, or audiences stop going to see Marvel movies in theaters, Disney will go from being the most powerful player in the modern box office to one among many. When Disney bought Marvel in 2009, they had high expectations for the legendary company. They never expected it to become the cornerstone of their film empire. Marvel is the biggest name in film; now it has to keep that title.

Christian Thrailkill is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, musician, and columnist. He lives in Dallas, Texas.