THE FUTURE OF MARVEL

What does it all mean for the future of the MCU ?Well, first of all, the MCU has become interesting and exciting again!

Season 1 of Loki is such a pivotal moment in the MCU, the effects of episode 6 will probably be felt in all future MCU instalments.

Starting with Spiderman: No Way Home (December 2021). It has been (almost) confirmed that the different actors who used to play Spiderman will appear in this movie (possibily expect Tom Holland meeting Andrew Garfield, and the best Spiderman ever: Tobey Maguire?)

Then, there is Doctor Strange 2: Multiverse of Madness in March 2022. Kevin Feige has actually earmarked Michael Waldron for rewriting duties on Doctor Strange 2 after seeing the job he’s done with Loki.

Doctor Strange 2 has the potential to be an Avengers-level event in the MCU.We might finally see the Scarlet Witch as a crazy villain, who out of sadness and despair, alter the fabric of reality (the House of M comics storyline)

We have the official arrival of Kang the Conqueror in our world.

Interestingly this opens up possibilities for superheroes, from other timelines /alternate universes entering our world. There have been rumours of a Captain America variant played by John Krasinski, an actor who auditioned back in the day to play Captain America; other rumors heard mentioned were an Iron Man variant played by Tom Cruise, who was Marvel’s first choice to play Iron Man before Robert Downey Jr.)

Marvel Studios might use the multiversal war, and the consequences of Scarlet Witch actions to introduce other characters from the Marvel Comics : the Fantastic Four ( a movie has already been confirmed), Blade (the movie is already in production), and, who knows, maybe the Xmen will finally join the MCU

Back in December 2020, during a Disney press conference online, I doubted Kevin Feige. That was a mistake. This man knows what he’s doing. He hadn’t made one mistake in 13 years. That’s very impressive.

And now, we are at the start of a new journey, where we will follow characters, old and new, fighting a greater and more powerful supervillain than Thanos.

Kevin Feige’s plan looks great on the paper. But not perfect. Nothing ever is.

Like another contributor to this website said to me once, the MCU’s greatest strength between 2008 and 2019 was that both Marvel hardcore fans and casual moviegoers could both enjoy the MCU.

From now on, it looks like the MCU only exists for fans, for the ones who have been watching all the movies since 2008, and who will watch all the TV Shows on Disney +, and the all the future movies.

After watching the season 1 of Loki, one thing is clear: if you truly want to understand and enjoy the MCU, Kevin Feige is asking you to watch everything, to analyse everything.

It’s a dangerous bet. In the end, all that matters is money. So far, there have been 24 movies in the MCU (including Black Widow). And none of them (all things considered, since Black Widow was released in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic) are box-office failures.

Marvel Studios and Disney are betting that the MCU fandom will be strong enough to make any future TV Shows or movies branded ”part of the MCU” a box-office success as well.

It’s not impossible. If you have good writing, and great characters, like in season 1 of Loki, it might work.

But the superhero fatigue is coming (has it come already?). And it’s possible that a movie or a TV show, being part of the MCU will not be enough in the future to ensure success.

There is another franchise, from a galaxy far, far away… who, in recent years, made that kind of mistake. And put its franchise’s future in jeopardy.

I believe that the MCU will not suffer the same fate. But that’s the opinion of one guy. Let’s hope for Kevin Feige that there are millions/billions of MCU fans like me in this world…