We've long known that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 would mark the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 3, and that it would be a whole new world after that. Some of the biggest stars, like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, are expected to say their farewells, leaving the door open for new heroes to emerge. But that's only just the start.
Speaking with Joblo, Marvel's grand puba Kevin Feige was asked if we were nearing the end of the line for some of the MCU's top heroes, and he responded...
"Yes. We have another two years of hard work to even finish these movies, and they [the actors] have a lot of hard work to do, so that’s all we’re thinking about, is completing those and delivering on the promise of those. Where it goes beyond that, we’ll see.”
Of course Feige won't go further than that. We won't even know the fourth Avengers movie's title until after Infinity War because it would be too spoilery. But I expect more than Captain American and Iron Man will be retired, possibly Thor could join them. Anybody who has had a franchise of their own, basically.
As for what comes next, we know via Feige's comments to io9 that the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming will be the first movie of Phase 4, and that placement was intentional. The opening film always carries a big part of the narrative burden, which Feige elaborates on...
“So much happens in [the 3rd and 4th Avengers movies], as you can imagine, and so much is affected by it that we felt what better person to hold your hand and lead you into the next incarnation of the MCU, in a grounded, realistic manner, than Peter Parker? So, coming out two months after Untitled Avengers, [that’s what] much of what the next Spider-Man film will be about…It was purposefully done like this. Like how the events of Captain America: Civil War impacted Peter as he was dropped off by Tony and expected to go back to continue his sophomore year, how the hell are the events of Infinity War and Untitled [Avengers] going to affect him as he, yes, goes back to his junior year?”
Since we know Spidey will be teaming up with a different hero in his sequel, it will probably be a major character from Infinity War and Avengers 4, to help carry through some of the leftover plotlines.
But first he has to survive Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 7th. That will be followed by Thor: Ragnarok on November 3rd. Black Panther gets his first solo movie on February 16th 2018, followed by Infinity War on May 4th 2018. From there it's Ant-Man & The Wasp and Captain Marvel before Avengers 4 wraps everything up on May 3rd 2019.
