Captain America: Civil War is set to be released May 6th, and that's just the start of Marvel's Phase 3, but Kevin Feige is already talking directly about Phase 4 and just how different it might be from what we've seen so far.
The Marvel Studios president spoke to Entertainment Weekly while promoting Civil War:
“I think you look at comics as a guide,” Feige tells EW. Although certain titles may get relaunched or rebooted, the narrative exists on a never-ending continuum. “I think there will be a finality to moments of Phase Three, as well as new beginnings that will mark a different, a very different, a distinctively different chapter in what will someday be a complete first saga made up of three phases,” Feige said.
By “finality” Feige almost certainly means character deaths. Phase 4 can't be the same if the current main players aren't around to support it, right?
One-half of the Civil War directing duo, Joe Russo, also told EW “You build things up and people enjoy the experiences you”ve built up. But then you kind of reach an apex or you reach a climax, a moment where you go, ‘This structure is really going to start to be repetitious if we do this again, so what do we do now?” So now, you deconstruct it. We”re in the deconstruction phase with Civil War and leading into Infinity War, which are the culmination films.” The Russo's are also behind Marvel's 2018 and 2019″s Avengers: Infinity War which should not only wrap up current stories but start the road to Phase 4. But no one is saying specifically what that would mean.
Could we see a mirror universe to Phases 1, 2, and 3 which covers feature films with mostly female and POC characters from the Marvel Universe? That would certainly be very different.
Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and Captain Marvel will all have debuted prior to Phase 4 and would certainly make good candidates to take the MCU into a new direction but we might also consider Scarlet Witch, Vision, Falcon, War Machine, Bucky, and Black Widow (presuming they all survive the next several films).
Will Marvel try and push characters into legacy roles (Bucky or Falcon taking on the Captain America mantle, for example) or will they trust audiences will show up regardless of what character names are attached?
We also have to consider Marvel's Inhumans, which was recently revealed to have been pushed back due to Disney's big Indiana Jones 5 announcement, and who will show up there. It was originally set for release November 2, 2018, and then pushed back to July 12, 2019, but no official word on when we might see it as of yet.
How do you see Phase 4 playing out?