The upcoming Avengers: Endgame serves as the culmination point for over a decade of superhero cinema, bringing closure to the so-called “Infinity Saga,” while finishing the arcs of some of the MCU’s biggest stars. Indeed, it’s an endgame in more ways than one, making it only natural that somewhere down the line we all started assuming that it would be the final entry in Marvel’s Phase 3. But in the week before Endgame’s release, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige took it upon himself to dispel this myth.
During an interview at a Shanghai fan event, the producer clarified that Spider-Man: Far From Home will in fact be “the end of the third phase.” Perhaps we should’ve seen this coming, given that the final entry for each phase has always been the last MCU release of a given year. The concluding flick of Phase 2, for example, wasn’t Avengers: Age of Ultron, but the second of Marvel’s two 2015 features: Ant-Man.
Of course, the matter of which film is listed under which phase is pretty trivial for the most part, and Feige’s recent comment does little to take away from Endgame’s reputation as an era-closing work. In particular, it’s expected that the film will serve as the swan song for a few Phase 1 stars, including Captain America and Spidey’s mentor Iron Man. It’s also assumed that the Avengers: Infinity War sequel will bring about some universe-changing developments that will resonate heavily through Phase 4.
If so, then we’ll find out what kind of world Avengers: Endgame leaves for the next era when the film hits theaters on April 26th, before Spider-Man: Far From Home officially wraps up the third phase when it comes out on July 2nd.
