The next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is finally moving forward on the big screen. We've seen Black Widow, and the second of four MCU movies planned for this year, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is set to open in just a few weeks. Between the films and the Disney+ TV series the larger story of the universe is now progressing once again, but progressing towards what? While we would expect to get a new Avengers team up movie at some point, it's far from clear when that will be and Kevin Feige says that Marvel Studios is in no hurry.
The next couple of years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is already pretty well laid out in front of us, as many Disney+ series and big screen films have already been announced. And while we know that we'll see some characters cross over between one chapter and another, there is no big Avengers 5 currently on the horizon. Collider recently asked Kevin Feige when that might happen. And while he did not give any sort of timeline, it's clear that while there will certainly be some sort of Avengers 5 or equivalent film, it's not happening any time soon. According to Feige...
I think we want there to be a reasonable amount of time from the Endgame to start a new saga, which is already underway and already started. And then you need time, as you did in Phase 1, to build that saga before you start bringing everyone together.
The first Iron Man was released in 2008 and the first Avengers movie came in 2012, four years later. Phase 4 of the MCU started in 2021 so if we assume we're working with a similar timeline, we'll likely get out next Avengers movie in 2025 or so. At this point, we only have the MCU mapped out until some time in 2023, so it's not a shock that big team-up movie hasn't been announced yet. At the same time, in the next two years we're getting more shows and movies than we got in all of Marvel's first phase of the MCU, so it's not exactly an identical comparison.
Between existing characters and a host of new ones that we'll be meeting over the next few years, there will certainly be more than enough to fill out a new Avengers roster. But as much as people will want to see that next big team-up, Marvel doesn't want to over do it. The reason the Avengers movies are special is, in part, because they are rare. If we get a big "event" movie every two years they'll likely stop being event movies in the first place.
And as long as the movies and shows that we get along the way are good, nobody is going to mind waiting for a new Avengers. Whatever the movie will be about will still need to be set up in the other properties, so we need these films to set the stage. How Marvel will try to outdo itself after Endgame is anybody's guess, but it will hopefully be fun to watch them try.
