Where Next for Marvel?

SPOILERS. The film's been out for days though, if you haven't seen it by now you deserve to have it spoiled.

With the release of Endgame, Marvel topped off a near perfect ten year, 22 film saga the likes of which we have never seen before. And after Spiderman: Far From Home we have a whole year to wait until we get our superhero fix (Excluding DCEU films, but they don't quite have the same effect). So how can Marvel possibly top the first ten years of their cinematic universe? Is it even possible? Most signs point to yes, but it's going to be a slow road.

With the grand scale of Endgame fresh in our minds, it's almost certain that Spiderman: Far From Home is going to feel like an anti-climax. Think back to Ant-Man and the Wasp, the first Marvel film to follow Infinity War. How did you feel when you left the cinema? If you're like me, you probably left that cinema feeling underwhelmed and slightly disappointed. This wasn't just due to the fact that Ant-Man and the Wasp is not a great entry to the MCU (which it isn't), it's more to do with the fact that seeing every MCU hero teaming up to fight the greatest bad guy since Loki is so much more exciting than seeing Ant-Man teaming up with the Wasp to fight an entirely forgettable bad guy. In that sense, it seems that Spider-Man: Far From Home is already fighting a losing battle.

Following the sheer spectacle of Endgame though, we need to be brought back down to earth. After all, we have just said goodbye to the two main avengers, with another pivotal member of the team gone for good too. The Avengers have been disbanded, and the roster needs to be built back up once again. Looking to the future though, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about who will step into the shoes of our fallen Avengers.

Firstly, we have the newly formed Asguardians of the Galaxy, a film that looks to team Thor with the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy. A match made in heaven, or space. A match made in space. Although the plot is still largely unclear, it seems logical that Star Lord is going to go in search of the missing Gamora (although personally I hope she stays dead as otherwise the logic of time travel is shredded). We also have the post-credits scene from Guardians2 to consider, in which we are teased with Adam Warlock for the first time. I imagine he will fight the Guardians before seeing the value they bring, and agreeing to help defend the galaxy alongside them. Here we potentially have the first member of the New Avengers.

We also have the Disney-Fox Merger to consider. Surely Marvel won't waste any time on introducing their first family into the MCU. Not only would this provide a new and exciting team dynamic, all with powers that have not yet been seen in the MCU, but the introduction of Dr. Doom could be the first appearance of the MCU's next big bad. There's no doubt that the MCU will not waste any time in setting up its newest villain. After all, Thanos was teased since the first Avengers film, and was only defeated in 2019. The slow build of the Mad Titan is arguably what made his appearance so legendary. That and the time he threw a moon at Iron Man's face.

Speaking of the Disney-Fox merger, the X-men and Deadpool are in need of a new home. This seems like a stretch though, especially given that Dark Phoenix isn't even out in cinemas yet. The X-Men universe seems to be too well developed to be suddenly thrust into the MCU, and for that reason I feel that the two cinematic universes crossing over seems very unlikely. It seems much more plausible that one or two characters will be introduced into the MCU (A new Wolverine, quite possibly), with the X-Men assembling over a very long period of time. Deadpool on the other hand, will most likely be kept entirely separate as the tone and comedy within his films could not be further from the light banter of the MCU.

That's not to say the future is totally secure for the MCU. One major problem that the studio has is replacing the beloved characters with ones that have so far failed to impress. Big hitters such as Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange are going to become leading heroes in the next decade of the MCU, the main problem with this being the fact that so far neither character is particularly likeable. Both their origin films are fine, they are two of the more average MCU films, and neither of them had enough screen time to improve their audience appeal in Endgame. Going from the immovable morals of Captain America and the charm of Iron Man to these two characters who both lack distinguishable personalities is a massive disappointment, and I hope that over the course of the next few years these characters become more entertaining.

Finally, the recently announced Disney+ streaming service is set to shake things up even more, with the introduction of Marvel shows. Unlike the Netflix shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones etc), the shows on Disney+ will link to the MCU directly. So far shows for Loki, Scarlet Witch and Vision, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye have all been confirmed. Whilst the prospect of these characters finally getting their turn in the spotlight is very exciting, it also casts doubt as to the future of the characters within the MCU. For example, with Sam Wilson picking up the Captain America persona at the end of Endgame, it seems more than likely that he will become the leader of the earthbound Avengers. However, if he is off galavanting with the Winter Soldier it makes me wonder whether or not the shield will actually improve his standing within the Avengers.

All in all the future of the MCU is still up in the air for the moment. And we will all be scouring the news sites for any pieces of information we can find. The recently announced Black Widow movie and the rumoured Eternals movie should be our main source of news for the time being, and I will write an article detailing these when we have more information on the films. For now, all that's left to do is re-watch Endgame, and the near perfect ten years of cinema that we have been treated to.