The Marvel Studios panel at Hall H is underway. Earlier the folks at Marvel and Disney took the opportunity to announce that Avengers: Endgame has finally beaten Avatar to become the highest-grossing film of all time at the global box office. Now, we’ve got even more exciting news. Kevin Feige has unveiled ten important dates between 2020 and 2021 that will make up phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man: Far From Home was the epilogue of the Infinity Saga (that saw the likes of Iron Man die and Captain America retire) and the final chapter of phase 3.
Kevin Feige announced a bunch of films that were previously already rumoured/reported to be in various stages of development and production but dropped a few huge surprises as well included a new Disney Plus series called Thor: Love and Thunder.
Here’s the full slate of MCU Phase 4 slate (per Marvel Studios’ Twitter).
Black Widow — 1 May 2020
Director: Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome, Lore)
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (Disney+ series) — Fall 2020
Writer: Malcolm Spellman (Empire)
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan
The Eternals — 6 November 2020
Director: Chloe Zhao (The Rider)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee
Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings — 12 February 2021
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12)
Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung
WandaVision (Disney+ series) — Spring 2021
Writer: Jac Schaeffer
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Loki (Disney+ series) — Spring 2021
Writer: Michael Waldron (Rick and Morty)
Starring: Tom Hiddleston
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — 7 May 2021
Director: Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange)
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen
What If…? (Disney+ ANIMATED series) — Summer 2021
*Many actors from the MCU will be reprising their role as voice talents.
Hawkeye (Disney+ series) — Fall 2021
Writer: Unknown
Starring: Jeremy Renner
Thor: Love and Thunder — 5 November 2021
Director: Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman
Blade (yes! You read that right. BLADE) – TBD
Starring Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali.
Apart from this already stacked and exciting slate, Kevin Feige also went on to mention that there’s also Black Panther 2 and Captain Marvel 2 currently in the works. The most shocking addition to the slate is definitely Blade! Holy cow does this get me all sorts of dizzy. Blade will, of course, be a reboot to the late 90s and early 2000s version played wonderfully by Wesley Snipes.
Another important thing that stands out is the lack of X-Men and Fantastic Four, which to be honest is quite expected. Kevin Feige has said that he already has a 5-year plan beyond Avengers: Endgame and that the introduction of X-Men, etc into the MCU will most likely only happen after that. Whatever the case, phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks to be a rocking good time.
