San Diego Comic-Con 2022 popped off at Hall H as Marvel announced so many new projects and highly anticipated updates to existing projects. One big wide sweeping announcement is the marking of the end of Phase 4. Beginning with Wandavision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Black Widow in 2021, the phase will end with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and my most anticipated sequel across the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on November 11, 2022. Technically, two holiday specials (one for Halloween and a Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special) come out at the end of the phase, but there’s no indication these are more than just fun side projects.
This phase was the first phase to start with a canon television show (Wandavision). However, that only happened due to Covid-19-related delays to The Falcon and the Winter Solider, Black Widow, and a number of films. There’s been quite a bit of rumbling about how “aimless” and “incohesive” this phase has been despite the concept of building up to something that didn’t really come into until Phase 2. Back when we were just getting new characters and the (now standard) after-credits and/or mid-credits scene.
Also, unlike the first half of Marvel movies, the writers and directors have come from very different backgrounds. Not just in terms of gender and ethnicity but also in terms of styles and filmography. For example, Chloé Zhao gave us heavy science fiction and mythology when she tackled the Eternals and Sam Raimi gave us horror in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Most creative leads telling stories of already established characters are (in varying success) tackling grief after the events of the first three phases.
Phase 5
Officially titled The Multiverse Saga, this overarching story will cover phases four through six. The next phase will start with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February 2023 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May 2023. Sometime in the spring, a six-episode season of Secret Invasion is set to premiere with Samuel L. Jackson returning with many other leading agents. What If…? season two comes out before Secret Invasion, but that’s not supposed to be canon in the show. However, with the multiverse opened, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.
(images: Marvel Entertainment)
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