If The Infinity Saga marked a steady progression towards a fixed endpoint – that being Avengers: Endgame, followed by a heartfelt epilogue in Spider-Man: Far From Home – then the MCU has since exploded into life, with numerous projects sprouting up across both film and television.
On the big screen, for instance, MCU Phase 4 begins in earnest with the standalone Black Widow movie, while Marvel also has Falcon and The Winter Soldier scheduled for fall 2020. And we’re merely scratching the surface. The next two-to-three years will see everyone from Shang-Chi to Hawkeye being ushered into the limelight, so it should come as no surprise that Marvel fans have been dreaming up their own scenarios and future MCU projects.
Chief among them being Endgame co-writer Christopher Markus, who identified Machine Man as the one hero he’d like to see enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point in the near future. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.
There’s a ton of really fascinating X-Men who have just entered the fray. They have announced a Moon Knight TV show, and I think there’s something great in there. But what I want to see is the MCU version of a lot of things – how do you make a real movie about Machine Man? Can it be done?
Having featured alongside the likes of Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Marvel Comics, the character of Machine Man is no stranger to superpowered ensembles, though whether he’d actually work as the centerpiece of a standalone story is another question entirely. Markus himself questioned the feasibility of said project without a moment’s hesitation, so perhaps it’s best to treat this one as a speculative pipe dream.
After a truly historic run at the global box office, Avengers: Endgame pulled into the station with more than $2.7 billion to its name – a feat that likely won’t be matched (let alone beaten) for many more years to come.
