Marvel is making it official: 2019's Avengers 4 will be the end of an era for the MCU.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe's signature thus far has been distinct Phases for its superhero blockbusters, designed to build up to the events of The Avengers, Age of Ultron and Avengers 4 respectively.
However, Marvel creative boss Kevin Feige recently dropped the bombshell that his studio will potentially ditch "Phase 4" entirely in favour of a "a new thing".
Feige told Collider: "We're not actively discussing anything past untitled Avengers, other than we've dated Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 — which, that would not be the title but that's what we would call it — because that's the agreement we made with Sony for the inclusion of Spidey in the Avengers films, and James Gunn doing a third Guardians of the Galaxy at some point.
"But really the whole focus of Marvel Studios is, counting Guardians 2, the next eight films that are gonna take up all of our time.
Feige added: "We have an idea [of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks like post-Avengers 4], and it's gonna be very, very different."
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To allow extra time for this potentially game-changing shift, Marvel Studios has decided not to film Avengers 4 simultaneously with Avengers: Infinity War as originally planned.
"We're doing them one right after another [now]," Feige clarified. "It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves — again, something would always pay the price.
"We wanted to be able to focus and shoot one movie, and then focus and shoot another movie."
Avengers 4 certainly seems like the culmination of every Marvel movie to come before it. There's even talk that Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr could bow out as Cap and Iron Man at that point.
Unfortunately, Feige also recently confirmed that Marvel doesn't have any plans yet to use Tom Holland's Spider-Man beyond his previously-announced Homecoming sequel since Sony is building its own Spidey movie universe. That may change down the line.
The stage will be set for this end of an era when Avengers: Infinity War arrives in cinemas on Friday, April 27, 2018 in the UK and on May 4, 2018 in the US.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
