Will Phase 4 See Marvel Studios Up Its Output To Four Films Per Year?

Capping off a busy week for Marvel Studios, Daniel Miller of the L.A. Times has uncovered new intel (h/t CBM) that suggests the industry giant will begin pumping out four films per year in 2021 and beyond.

This particular morsel of information can be traced back to yesterday’s big announcement, after Disney staked out no less than six release dates for upcoming (and so-far untitled) Marvel movies. That’s exciting in and of itself, as it tells us that the MCU will continue long after Earth’s Mightiest Heroes topple Thanos in Avengers 4.

But as you’ll notice from the full schedule, Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 isn’t mentioned whatsoever, as it technically falls under Sony Pictures. Last we reported, Jon Watts’ standalone sequel was slated to arrive on July 5th, 2019, and as things stand, that primetime summer date is as far as our understanding of the MCU goes – for now, of course.

Now, let’s assume Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 and 3 meet their tentative deadlines – 2019 and 2021, respectively – it would mean that Marvel Studios is prepping no less than four films per annum. Perhaps this will become a trend as we move into Phase 4?

It’s certainly plausible. Remember, in the midst of Avengers: Infinity War and its back-to-back production with Avengers 4, Kevin Feige hinted that the next 20 Marvel movies will be vastly different to their predecessors, and the fact that the studio is in possession of more than 7,000 characters – a figure that will only continue to grow if the Disney-Fox merger closes – ensures that Feige and his team have plenty of material to work from.

And then there’s this Feige comment from 2014, when Marvel’s über-producer hinted at the possibility of upping the studio’s output to four projects per annum:

I think television is filling some of that now, in terms of bringing out more product. That’s certainly the idea with the Netflix shows. But I don’t know that we will necessarily say “Okay, we’re now moving strategically to three a year, now we’re moving to four a year.”

What I think is more likely – if [knocks on wood-like table] the next group of movies work and people want to see additional stories – we’ll have too many franchises and you can’t do one of each franchise every two or three years. We’d have to move to three a year, but that would have to be a natural move if it were to occur. We’d have a [script] draft, we’d have a filmmaker, we’d have a character the audience wants to see – let’s slot in a place for a third one. Or a fourth one.

So many Marvel-related questions, so few answers. What we do know is that the MCU will continue with the global release of Avengers: Infinity War on April 27th, which is one week earlier than initially expected for those in North America.