With the start of Marvel Studios' Phase III quickly approaching with next month's Captain America: Civil War, fans have been wondering what lies in store for the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The original plan for this optimistic project was to keep it at three "phases", sections of the films' storytelling that would create an overall anthology to the Marvel mythos. With the acquisition of Spider-Man, as well as the announcement of the Ant-Man sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Phase line-up has evolved to make way for new properties and delve into some new territory. The end of Phase III will conclude the underlying "Infinity Gauntlet" story that has been coalescing over the years with Avengers: Infinity War- Parts 1-2. After that, however, the door has officially been left open to continue the series for as long as possible. Marvel Studios excecutive producer, Kevin Feige, had this to say:
“I think there will be a finality to moments of Phase Three, as well as new beginnings, that will mark a different, a very different, a distinctively different, chapter in what will someday be a complete first saga made up of three phases.”
It's still uncertain which films will be featured in the fourth Phase. Both Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. have expressed some interest in returning as Captain America and Iron Man, but its more likely the studio will attempt to dig deeper into the worlds of some of the more recent additions to their intellectual properties. It's possible Phase IV will include a sequel to the recently titled, Spider-Man: Homecoming, especially considering how hard the studio fought to finally have the beloved web-slinger in their ranks, and its definitely possible that we'll see sequels to the upcoming films Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Captain Marvel. The only film that may be a certainty as of late would be the first movie featuring the superhero alien descendants, The Inhumans, which has officially been delayed thanks to Disney's newly announced projects and Phase IV may be the next available slot.
Captain America: Civil War releases May 6th!
Doctor Strange releases November 4th!
