Ten years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and Kevin Feige has been calling Avengers: Infinity War the culmination of all their hard work. It isn’t difficult to read between the lines here. What Feige means is, the MCU – in its current form – can’t go on forever.
Why, you may ask? It’s simple. There’s no way that the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Evans want to do this for the rest of their acting careers. While we’re sure they enjoy making these kinds of movies, they’re actors at the end of the day and need challenging roles. Being part of an ongoing franchise creates numerous scheduling obstacles and they often have to pass on opportunities because of it. They’re also passing on money, which no actor likes to do.
What this means is there will be a new breed of heroes leading the MCU forward after this event ends. Feige has already mentioned that Spider-Man will play a big part in Phase 4’s plans, and we’d expect Black Panther to be in the mix, too, especially after the resounding success of his solo film. But who else will be around?
To be honest, we have a feeling that the MCU might actually struggle after Infinity War. It’s unlikely to end any time soon, of course, but will the films still be hitting the billion-dollar mark as often as they have? Our discussion begins on the next page.
