Marvel Studios announces ‘Phase Four’ slate

What many would call, “The Main Event” of Comic-Con finally happened.

Marvel Studios’ head honcho, Kevin Feige, took the stage at massive Hall H, stood before a salivating packed house of fans and announced most of Marvel’s ‘Phase Four’ films.

From the crowd’s reaction, Feige did not disappoint. He also had a few bombshells.

‘Phase Three’ which ended with Spider-man: Homecoming, did a great job of setting up set the new films. From the announcements, Phase Four will be more cosmic and more diverse. The new Disney+ streaming service will also play more of a role than ABC ever did with Marvel’s Agents of Shield or the Netflix shows.

It will also be interesting to see how Marvel plans on replacing its big two guns, Iron Man (who started all of this) and Captain America.

 
2020

Black Widow

‘Phase Four’ will officially kick off next May 2020 with the release of Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson’s character finally gets her own solo adventure. It will be set after the events of Captain America: Civil War and Taskmaster is going to be the villain. Yelena Belova is also going to appear. Director Cate Shortland made an appearance as did Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour (Stranger Things), Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, and Rachel Weisz.

Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Or will it be the new Captain America and the Winter Soldier? Rumor has it that Anthony Mackie has been fitted for his Captain America costume. Whatever it is called, Phase Four will pick up steam in fall 2020 when this 6-episode series debuts on Disney+. Footage shown revealed that Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) will don his comic book purple mask and it looks like he’s out for revenge against these two.

Sadly, the new Captain America suit wasn’t revealed but Anthony Mackie did come out on stage with the shield.

The Eternals

Marvel said they were going cosmic and you don’t get much more cosmic than The Eternals, which will premiere on November 6, 2020. In the comics, The Eternals are a race of ancient humans with fantastic powers and very long lives. Among their ranks are beings who would later be worshipped as gods or regarded as legendary heroes.

The cast includes Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh and Don Lee. Chloé Zhao will direct a script penned by blacklist screenwriters Matthew and Ryan Firpo, .

 
2021

Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings

February has been very good for Marvel and diversity. 2018 saw Black Panther become the highest rated Marvel film on Rotten Tomatoes and the highest grossing solo adventure. 2019 saw Captain Marvel hit the billion mark. There is no reason why the first Asian hero to hit the big screen won’t either.

Simu Liu will play Shang-Chi and Tony Leung will play the Mandarin (the real Mandarin) in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, based on the martial arts hero who is half Chinese, half American. Awkwafina will also star in the film, which is set for a February 12, 2021 release.

The film opens on the first day of Chinese New Year, so it seems like Marvel will try to capitalize on that.

WandaVision

As expected, WandaVision, the adventures of Scarlet Witch and Vision, is coming to Disney+ but here’s a surprise: Teyonah Parris is playing an adult version of Monica Rambeau from Captain Marvel. It remains to be seen whether she’ll adopt her superhero persona from the comic books but it certainly sounds like that will be the case. The film is also supposed to lead right into the upcoming Dr. Strange sequel.

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

We finally get a sequel to the 2016 film. And it sounds like it will be Marvel’s first horror film. Bye, New Mutants. The Sorcerer Supreme will return to the big screen in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness where he will go to war with Nightmare! .

No word on whether side-kick Wong (Benedict Wong) or Rachel McAdams will be returning.

Loki

Spring of 2021 will also see Tom Hiddleston’s Loki come to Disney+. The series will follow the version of the Thor villain from 2012 who managed to escape with the Tesseract when The Avengers travelled back in time in Endgame!

What If…?

2021 will be shaping up to be a MARVELous year as the animated, non-canon What If…? will come to Disney+. Featuring the voices of all The Avengers (including Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans), the MCU actors will reprise their roles in this and The Watcher has finally been cast! He’ll be played by Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright.

The series, which imagines alternate timelines was first reported back in March, with The Wrap reporting that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige would be overseeing the series for Marvel.

The What If comic book series were stories that explored an alternate history from established comic book story lines and lore. For instance, What If Peggy Carter had been injected with the super soldier serum or Loki found Thor’s hammer?

Hawkeye

Yes Hawkeye fans, the archer is finally getting his own solo adventure. On Disney+

Starring Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye will launch fall 2021 on the upcoming streaming service. The series will feature not only Renner, but also the introduction of Kate Bishop, the second hero to use the Hawkeye moniker. No casting for the role was announced, but onstage in Hall H, a silhouette of a female archer appeared onscreen, and when asked if it was Kate Bishop, Renner joked, “Yeah, the superior Hawkeye.”

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Thor: Love and Thunder

2021 will finish up with Taika Waititi returning to the director’s chair to helm Thor: Love and Thunder. The fourth Thor film will hit theaters in November, Marvel Studios announced during the Marvel Comic-Con panel inside Hall H on Saturday.

The biggest surprise – Natalie Portman will return to play Thor’s love interest Jane Foster — and she’ll take up the mantle of Lady Thor during the film

The plot remains secret, but in Avengers: Endgame, as the film is wrapping up, Thor leaves New Asgard on earth and hitches a ride to parts unknown with the Guardians of the Galaxy. As they get ready to depart, Thor jokingly refers to the group as the “Asgardians of the Galaxy,” leading to a funny exchange with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) about who really leads the team. So, we know at least where Thor might be when he returns.

Thor: Ragnarok grossed $854 million at the worldwide box office since its debut in November of 2017, and scored rave reviews from critics, achieving a 93 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as an “A” CinemaScore.

Although there are no set dates yet, Feige also announced that Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.3 are also in development.

Bombshells

The biggest surprises however, were not the announcements of this slate of films and series. Kevin Feige announced that Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, who is no stranger to the MCU, as he played villain Cottonmouth on Luke Cage, will take on the mantle of Blade.

Finally, Marvel’s first family, The Fantastic Four, is in development.

That’s just fantastic.

Source: Multiple