As both a moviegoer and a fan of superheroes, something I’ve long admired about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that while it’s yielded some pretty great individual flicks along the way, the creative minds behind it have also managed to tell this massive overarching story that will culminate with 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and its followup, the as-yet-untitled film that we’re currently referring to as Avengers 4 for all intents and purposes.
So, whenever Marvel Studios’ head honcho Kevin Feige makes his press rounds these days, he’s understandably grilled about the next step in this magnum opus, which will seem to have a finality to it:
“(Avengers 4 will) bring things you’ve never seen in superhero films: a finale… There will be two distinct periods. Everything before Avengers 4 and everything after. I know it will not be in ways people are expecting.”
Sure, the concept of the finale has been done before in the superhero genre (The Dark Knight Trilogy, anyone?), just not on this scale. Still, his comment about “two distinct periods” is one to ponder, especially when it looks like Avengers 4 may very well feature an element of time travel, which would undoubtedly give True Believers something else to geek out over.
Still, we can’t help but compound this information with some of Feige’s other recent comments implying that some of the MCU’s most recognizable heroes may be hanging it up after Avengers 4. Granted, the studio knows where they’re going, but the simple fact is that they’ll need to either have a few of their heaviest hitters stick around, or pass mantles to legacy characters (Bucky Barnes becoming Captain America is one solution) because they’ll need more than just Doctor Strange and Ant-Man shouldering the responsibility going forward.
