The dust had barely settled on Avengers: Endgame, or reconstituted itself into your favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe characters to use a more apt analogy, before Kevin Feige confirmed that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would be assembling again in the future. However, he did say that it wouldn’t happen in Phase Four.
Following the events of Loki‘s Season 1 finale, we’ve got a much better idea as to why Avengers 5 will be so far away. Multiple variants of Kang the Conqueror are on their way to the MCU, with a limitless number of realities now under threat from the time traveling warlord, and Jonathan Majors is set to comfortably slip into the role of the franchise’s latest Thanos-level threat.
The actor is already confirmed for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but we’re hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us Abomination was returning in She-Hulk long before Tim Roth was confirmed – that Kang will forge alliances with a number of other villains throughout Phase Four, culminating in the second multiversal war the TVA warned us would happen in Loki if the Sacred Timeline were to fracture.
As well as the third Ant-Man, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be pivotal in furthering the idea of alternate realities within the context of the MCU, but it could realistically impact the vast majority of Phase Four’s film and television slate in at least some capacity.
A big bad that never shows up in the same form twice is a novel, unique and exciting concept, and looking at how the MCU loves to adapt well-known comic book arcs and fold them into the established formula, we could potentially be looking at Avengers: Secret Wars, or something along those lines.
