The big Comic-Con is this week and Marvel spent today announcing what they'll be using to pry open our wallets for the next couple of years, the beginning of "Phase 4" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Basically, they're picking up the pieces after they pretty much destroyed the MCU in Endgame.
They still have BIG properties to work with even if one Avenger is dead, one geriatric and one now almost as round as I am. There's still Black Panther, Black Widow, Falcon (should be Captain America, more on that in a bit), Winter Soldier, Hulk and Hawkeye. Plus there's a ship full of Guardians and AsGardians out there somewhere.
Black Widow, is slated for May 2020. It's awfully close in blockbuster movie calendar terms, so whatever direction they're going with it, it MUST be filming now. A smallish, less special effect laden spy movie could conceivably film under the radar AND be finished in the next 8 months of post-production. The lack of hype is a bit odd though. With it this close you'd expect at least a teaser trailer by now.
Interestingly, the other announced films include a bunch of familiar faces and some new characters but I was a bit surprised at what hasn't been announced yet.
First up is The Eternals. Don't feel bad if you are going "who?" at that. Most will be. Even less well known that The Guardians of the Galaxy who were a surprise hit or The Inhumans who were a non-surprise flop, The Eternals feels like Marvel saying "we're doing this, you're gonna love it even if you don't love it." Personally I think this one is the first serious flop from the MCU but I've been wrong before...
Next they've greenlit Falcon and The Winter Soldier as a tv series. They could film this in black and white with puppets and it will still be a hit. I'm disappointed they didn't go "Captain America and The Winter Soldier" and let Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson officially take the mantle that Cap passed to him at the end of Endgame, but I'm not surprised. While I'm sure Disney and Marvel could easily weather the racist troll backlash of calling an African American "Captain America" I'm sure they're in no hurry to do so. My bet is that by the end of first few episodes, Falcon is officially "Captain America" and that by easing him into the role the powers that be are hoping to see greater acceptance of the transition. We'll see.
Next up, another "who?" film. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Twelve Rings. I'm not at all familiar with Shang-Chi so my bet is that the average movie goer isn't either. The "twelve rings" seems odd since there's a "Ten Rings" organization in place in the MCU from way back in Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Not sure what that's all about. My understanding is that Shang-Chi is basically a Marvel creation intended to capitalize on the Kung-Fu/Bruce Lee craze of the 70's. Since they've already had a lukewarm reception to this type of material in the Netflix Iron Fist series, I'm thinking this might be a bit of diversity desperation from the MCU folks. Certainly Asian characters haven't had a big impact in the Marvel movies with Benedict Wong being the only Asian actor of note in 20+ movies over ten+ years. Marvel has gone on record as committing to increasing their films' diversity but when your source material doesn't include a lot of heroic Asian characters it limits options. I'm not sure that featuring an Asian martial arts master is really improving the diversity equation. It feels more like a tick in the "Stereotype" column than anything. I really hope I'm wrong and that they pull off an out of the box masterpiece.
They've also announced a Loki series. Apparently it'll be Loki from 2012ish, so is it really a Phase 4 thing? More importantly, do we really want or need a Loki show? I love Tom Hiddleston's portrayal but I'm not sure if I'm into a series of his smugness as the main character. I'm actually not even certain it will be Hiddleston as the horny god, so I'm really on the fence on this one...
Yes Tom, the helmet really does make you look horny.
There's a Doctor Strange sequel coming too. Not much about that yet but hopefully now that Benedict Cumberbach has saved the universe they can make a sequel to the first movie that is as magical as the character. Less nausea inducing moving skyscrapers for a start, please.
Marvel also announced two more live action tv series, WandaVision and Hawkeye. I bet WandaVision is a superhero romcom show with Scarlett Witch and the android Vision trying to balance their love affair with a crime fighting lifestyle. Could be good, might be a big "meh" series. Hawkeye is probably going to be awesome but with a "big" star like Jeremy Renner in the lead it's not likely to run a lot of seasons. He's got movie options galore and playing one character long term is often not appealing for actors in that position. Interestingly, the show will at least partly focus on Hawkeye training a successor, so perhaps Renner will slowly phase himself out and the show will continue without him...
Also on the tv schedule is the animated show, What If? The "What If?" comics are a mixed bag of serious and funny stories about imaginary events in the Marvel Comics. What if Peter Parker had become Iron Man, What If Aunt May had spider powers, that sort of thing. I assume the show will be similar and it looks like they've lined up about half of the movie actors to participate. Could be a ton of fun to be had in this one.
And last but most definitely not least a HUGE announcement that came in while I was putting this post together. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a post from last week where I said that Marvel needed to woo Natalie Portman back to become a female Thor for the next Thor film. It happened in the comics but I lamented that it would never happen on film. I've rarely been happier to find out I'm wrong! They're going girly-Thor and Portman is IN. I'd dance for joy but nobody wants to see that.
Out of all this, what really surprised me is the lack of presence of Black Panther and "A Force". Not announcing a Black Panther sequel hitting before the end of 2021 is truly a stunner. Given how HUGE the Black Panther phenomenon is, that Marvel hasn't locked down that sequel is almost unimaginable.
Equally stunning is that the studio isn't taking advantage of the girl power moment from Endgame and breaking out an all female team of heroines for the big screen. You've got Captain Marvel, Wasp, Black Widow, Valkerie, Black Panther's sister Shuri (seriously, they need to have her be the next Iron Man...er...Maiden) and his bodyguard Okoye, Scarlett Witch, the ladies from Guardians and now a female Thor. "A Force" is the name of an all female Avengers team in the comics. Set up a villain like the Sorceress with a magic virus that kills normal men and mind controls super powered males and put the ladies of the MCU front and center to save the day. I could write the script for a smash hit blockbuster in my sleep. There's more super powers and fan appeal in a girl powered Avengers movie than an Eternals movie, for sure. Why is this not in the pipeline already?
Seriously. How is this movie not already filming?
Of further note was a distinct lack of comment or even hint of comment on the inclusion of the recently re-Marvel-ed characters that are part of the big Disney purchase of Fox. No hint of dropping a Fantastic Four or X-Men reboot any time soon. My bet is that during Phase 4 we'll see X-Men/Fantastic Four Easter Eggs in pretty much every movie, leading to a huge expansion of the universe in Phase 5. Will fans be loyal enough to have that much patience? Time will tell.
Just to tally everything, that's 4 live action shows, however long they last, one cartoon show and 5 movies over the next two years. That's about what we've come to expect (a bit heavier on the tv side but with Disney jumping into the streaming service wars, to be expected) from the MCU. About 3 movies a year. Now, couple that with what we were used to getting from FOX and Warner Bros, we've grown accustomed to seeing 6 or 7 superhero films per year. Guess what, drop your expectations. Warner Bros is bringing us 2 or even less superheroes a year at the moment and FOX is gone entirely. Going forward, 3 or 4 superhero films or at most 5 will be the norm in any given year. This is what I predicted during the run up to the FOX acquisition and today's announcements make it clear that at least for the foreseeable future Disney/Marvel has no plans to make more than 3 big superhero films a year. Why would they? The FOX films often competed directly with their Marvel cousins for our money, so not only did Disney acquire the rights to the characters but they removed rival movies from the schedule as well.
Disney/Fox eventually will giveth, but first it shall taketh away...
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