Ever since Bryan Singer’s X-Men kicked off the comic book boom two decades ago, audiences have become accustomed to seeing at least one Marvel superhero movie on their screens annually. In fact, 2020 marked the first time in a decade that an entire calendar year went past without a new feature film from the MCU hitting theaters.
Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe had been gradually increasing its release schedule from one or two movies per year to a consistent three in 2017, 2018 and 2019, before the Coronavirus pandemic reduced that number to a big fat zero. Eighteen months have now passed since we’ve seen any new content from the world’s biggest and most popular franchise, but that’s all set to change next week when WandaVision premieres on Disney Plus.
Spider-Man: Far From Home was the MCU’s last new offering back in July 2019, and the studio are doubling down by giving fans four movies and six TV shows in 2021. WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…?, Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel are all coming to Disney Plus by the end of the year, while Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals and Spider-Man 3 have the theatrical side more than well covered.
As well as launching Phase Four and marking the MCU‘s expansion into episodic television, WandaVision will introduce the multiverse in a mind and reality-bending tale that looks completely unlike anything the studio have ever created before. The wait is almost over now, and Kevin Feige’s roster of superheroes will soon come roaring back to the screen in suitably spectacular fashion with an onslaught of new projects arriving over the next several years.