Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has finally confirmed a detail about Phase 4 of the MCU.
More specifically, he has hinted that it will be a mess, agreeing with all the criticisms that have been leveled at the franchise in recent years.
This month, Marvel returned to San Diego Comic-Con for the first time since 2019 with the MCU’s Infinity saga.
As usual, Feige laid out the studio’s plans and announced a number of new entries leading up to the MCU’s Phase 6 films and series, including the Avengers sequels set for release in 2025.
The MCU’s presentation at San Diego Comic-C0n 2022 is forward-looking, it seems. While unveiling the entire Phase 5 roster makes sense as Phase 4 ends with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ends, Feige went even further this fall, revealing his plans for the multiverse saga with the announcement of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
The producer’s decision to talk about Phase 6 already was surprising, given Marvel Studios’ notoriously “secretive” nature.
When asked about this decision, Kevin Feige explained that Marvel revealed the plans for Phase 6 so early because they wanted fans to have a “point of reference,” meaning a sense that everything that has been done so far makes sense.
The fact that he felt compelled to make these announcements years before their release shows that Marvel is aware of how bad Phase 4 was at building cohesive stories.
By comparison, the last phase of the MCU was criticized for being disjointed and directionless. Feige announced Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars effectively dispels concerns that Marvel Studios is collapsing.
It should be remembered that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which conclude Phase 3 of the MCU, were not announced until midway through Phase 2.