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6 Reasons Why Marvel’s Third Phase Will Be Its Best Yet

Captain America: Civil War marks the beginning of Marvel's third phase, which is looking to be the studio's most ambitious work yet. After all, Phase 3 will encompass an astounding 11 movies to be released between 2016 and 2019, almost double the number of films in Phase 2. Considering how elaborate the Jenga tower that is the MCU has become, can Marvel actually pull it off? Or is this whole thing about to collapse in front of our eyes?

6) Characters Will Appear In One Another’s Movies

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Thor and Hulk

One issue with Phase 2 was that after seeing the team form in The Avengers, it was disappointing going back to the solo movies and only spending time with one character. This group is so perfect together that it was no longer as satisfying to watch Thor by himself, for example.

Luckily, many Phase 3 movies will include more than one Avenger, which should make standalone adventures based around even the not-as-exciting protagonists feel significant. That was already the case with our first Phase 3 movie, Captain America: Civil War; it’s technically a Captain America film, but it might as well just be the third Avengers. Before that, Ant-Man managed to tie into the overall franchise with a brief Falcon fight.

Looking ahead, Thor: Ragnarok isn’t just another Thor film. The Hulk is set to appear as a major character, and it has been described as a road-trip movie featuring Thor and Bruce going on adventures together. Honestly, that sounds amazingThe Thor films have always been the weakest part of the MCU, but this addition instantly makes Ragnarok a must-watch, especially since it will answer the lingering question about what happened to Bruce following Age of Ultron.

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The same goes for Spider-Man: Homecoming, hitting theaters in 2017. In order to make it stand out from the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, we’ll be getting two for the price of one here. Iron Man will show up, and apparently not just in a cameo. You know what that means, right? Even more Aunt May flirting.

Based on the end credits of Civil War, some Avengers may pop up in Black Panther as well. And while Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Captain Marvel and Inhumans will likely stand on their own, there’s potential for some crossovers in Ant-Man and the Wasp. 

All in all, then, only four out of the 11 Phase 3 movies are likely to not feature at least two Avengers. After Phase 2, in which every sequel made us wonder why the heck the other Avengers weren’t helping out, this is an encouraging change.