Marvel Studios Head Kevin Feige On Where The MCU Goes After Phase Three

Marvel studio head Kevin Feige is on the publicity circuit again in support of Thor: Ragnarok, the 17th movie in the now gigantic Marvel Cinematic Universe. (We will have a full review next week.)

We covered plenty of topics with Feige, and the first one we want to get into is what happens after Phase Three of the MCU comes to an end in 2019 with the still untitled fourth Avengers movie. Feige has been teasing that the MCU will look very different after it’s over. Now, he’s said similar things after the end of Phase One and Phase Two to varying degrees – and, yes, there are differences – but with this one, it really feels like something is ending, so we asked Feige to expand on what he means by all of this.

“Well, all I’ll say is the films we are working on now – which take us through to the Avengers Untitled in May of 19 – that’s really all we are focusing on,” says Feige. “And we are focusing on bringing, by that point, an unprecedented, 22-movie, continuous shared fictional narrative to a conclusion in a satisfying way.”

Feige continues, “And where we go beyond that? Of course we will go places beyond that. And, of course, we have ideas of where we go beyond that. But, really, it is all good stories. And as the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation said, ‘All good things must come to an end.’ And part of what makes them special, there is a finite quality to the best of fictional stories through history. And we wanted to do that at the end of our first three phases and 22 movies. How we start anew and wherever we go beyond that is a story for another time. This is really about 10 years on, bringing something to a head in a satisfying and unexpected way.”

So is this why there haven’t been any new announcements recently – at least not any huge announcement since the big event that that revealed all the Phase Three titles back in 2014? It is starting to feel like we are overdue. Feige explains:

“I think it is. I also think that was a particular event to really announce and showcase Phase Three and I guess set up the expectation of doing something like that every few years. But the notion we are sitting here talking and we have, what, six films yet to be released? That’s more than almost any other single production entity in town has on the docket. That should be enough.”

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