So Marvel is doing something drastic with the future state of The MCU. If you haven’t heard, the next Avengers outing, Infinity War, will no longer be a two-part saga. Instead, Marvel has taken the Part 2 off the fourth Avengers movie… leaving the premise of the plot in limbo.
This is something that shouldn’t shock Marvel movie fans. Kevin Feige and his brain trust are constantly swerving around the changing character landscape. Everything was pushed back when Spider-Man joined up. It took forever for Ant-Man to finally get his big movie. Captain Marvel has been pushed back to 2019. Heck, the Inhumans have apparently been scrapped altogether.
The future of The MCU is in a constant state of flux, so if something bigger and better comes into play, Marvel takes full advantage of it. Infinity War screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley talked to Yahoo Movies about the changes in their future Avengers’ story… both of them.
“We’re many drafts in. We’re on the third draft of movie one and the second draft of movie two. [We’re writing them in tandem] as much as we can. On any given day, you’re only working on one but that doesn’t mean that next week, you aren’t working on the other one. And certainly, notes are coming in and all sorts of production stuff is coming in, like for instance, ‘that thing over there is now a window not a door so adjust that.’ Or, ‘we’re not going to this town now, we’re going to this town.’ That kind of stuff happens constantly and will continue to happen for the next few months.”
Times must be hard for Markus and McFeeley. They’ve already worked on five MCU movies (not to mention a good chunk of Agent Carter), but Infinity War is their first full-blown Avengers team-up (but if you want to count Captain America: Civil War, go for it). The pressure is on the duo to not only create two more great Marvel movies, but wrap the first three phases together… all while establishing the future of the monstrous franchise. I don’t envy the position they are in.
Part of the dilemma is figuring out who is going to fit into these movies. Some characters will show up in Avengers: Infinity War, while others might have to wait until Untitled Avengers Movie (doesn’t that have a great ring to it). Figuring out who’s in and who’s out is a big part of the Avengers grand finale, and something that seems to constantly be on the mind of the screenwriters.
“When we lock ourselves in a room with the Russo brothers and a couple of execs from Marvel, one wall has cards for movie one and the other wall has cards for movie two and another wall has little baseball cards of every character still alive in the Marvel universe – down to Darcy’s boyfriend in Thor 2… literally, anybody who did not die and has been established as alive. And then we looked at that and began to shuffle the cards around. So basically, the big scene is when Darcy’s boyfriend and Galactus get together and….[laughs]. “
Wait, Galactus? (We’ll get into that later). As for the future of the Avengers movies… surely Marvel will release a new title soon that will clear everything up. Until then, it’s always fun to guess about how everything will play out. So, here are three directions I think Marvel should go with their new Untitled Avengers Movie.
-The Avengers: Rise of Thanos
Now, I know what you’re thinking. What would Thanos “rise from” in what will be Avengers 4? Would it be because the Mad Titan destroys everyone and creates his kingdom in the sequel, effectively “rising” to power? Nope. In fact… I don’t think Thanos should appear in Infinity War at all.
Instead, have him send a liaison to fight Earth’s mightiest heroes instead. An army controlled by Nebula, the good ol’ Loki, perhaps even Red Skull… anyone else to re-unite The Avengers who were disbanded following the events in Civil War. Once the band is back together, and Thanos’ emissary defeated, then the big bad purple guy can show up and lay waste to everyone in the fourth Avengers outing.
-The Avengers: Dawn of Magus
Ok… so let’s say Thanos does show up in Infinity War. That means a follow up movie is going to need someone else worthy of a greater threat than Thanos himself. Enter The Magus. He’s critical to the Infinity War comic story, so it’s worth bringing him as the true evil threat. I mean, even Thanos is scared of him, and teamed with The Avengers in the past to eliminate Magus. Plus, there’s the bonus of being able to introduce Adam Warlock.
We’ve seen his cocoon in Guardians of the Galaxy, so he already exists within the MCU. Once Magus claims the Infinity Gauntlet for himself, The Avengers (along with Thanos) need to track down Warlock to help recapture the Infinity Stones. If Warlock and Magus are in the plans, they shouldn’t be shoehorned into Infinity War. Save their introductions for the 2019 follow-up instead.
-The Avengers: The Cosmic Entity
Sometimes, you just have to go big or go home, nd it’s hard to get much bigger than Galactus. That’s right… the behemoth foe who can devour entire planets. If you’re going to move on from Thanos, bringing Galactus on board is the way to go. However, there is always that little issue where 20th Century Fox owns his rights.
However, let’s speak hypothetically here. There are the continuing rumors that Marvel and Fox are talking about shared custody of The Fantastic Four. Should this prove to be true, Galactus would fall under the shared rights of Marvel’s first family. Markus and McFeely even name-dropped Galactus; sure, it could have been by accident, but what if seeing his image on their collection of characters led to a Freudian slip?
Perhaps that Fantastic Four deal is a lot further along than Marvel would like us to believe? Maybe the new Untitled Avengers Movie will not only introduce us to a new villain like Galactus, but introduce us to The MCU Fantastic Four. That would mean they would show up in the “fourth” Avengers movie. Crazy conspiracy, r simple coincidence!?! You decide! But if my speculation is true, the Silver Surfer won’t be far behind. Now that’s how you one up Infinity War.
