The MCU Phase Four: An Experimental Transition
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last fourteen years, it is probably safe to say you’ve heard of The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Beginning with “Iron Man” in 2008, these 3 complete Phases, 29 films, and 6 direct-to-streaming shows have been able to accomplish something no other franchise has ever done by crafting a grand, interconnected narrative across multiple smaller film franchises. Under the guidance of Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, the MCU is now considered one of the most popular and most profitable franchises to exist in the history of the film industry, and last month at San Diego Comic-Con, Kevin Feige took to the stage in Hall H at the San Diego Convention Center to lay down the road map for where this media juggernaut is heading.
During the presentation, we learned about 12 of the upcoming projects in Phase Five of the MCU as well as 3 of the films coming in Phase Six, including “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” (2025) and “Avengers: Secret Wars” (2025). And, in one of the most interesting elements of the presentation, Kevin Feige drew the line as to when Phase Four (the current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) will end, and in doing so, forever cemented what this current set of films and shows will represent to the fandom going forward, a collection of pieces without coherent symbiotic direction.
Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe started with the film, “Black Widow” in 2021, and currently consists of the following films and streaming shows: “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021), “Eternals” (2021), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021), “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022), “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022), “WandaVision” (2021), “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (2021), “Loki” (2021), “Marvel Studios What IF...?'“ (2021), “Hawkeye” (2021), “Moon Knight” (2022), and “Ms. Marvel” (2022). That equates to six films and six streaming shows, with a seventh of each, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”, rounding out the set before the year is out.
While Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still considered a financial success overall, the franchise has had a rough go of it over the last three years. It’s had to contend with a pandemic, multiple production shutdowns, the death of one of its leading men, Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), the exit of two of the franchise’s most prominent actors (Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Chris Evans as Captain America) and mixed reception from both critics and fans alike, leading some to wonder if the MCU peaked with the 2019 film, “Avengers: Endgame” (the second highest grossing film of all time). Even so, this phase isn’t completely without merit. It’s had incredibly high highs with “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” currently standing at a 91% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, which sits at a 93% critic score on the popular rating site—not to mention the latter grossed over a billion dollars worldwide by the time it left theaters. Yet, Phase Four has also had terribly low lows with director Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals” sitting at a 47% critic score (the lowest score in the history of the franchise), and the most recent film, director Taika Waititi’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” finishing its run with a 65% critic score (the second-lowest score). Even the Sam Raimi directed, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, a film many fans
were anticipating, considering Doctor Strange’s involvement in “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, only received a 74% critic score (the 5th lowest in the franchise’s history).
So, what does all of this mean?
First, looking at the three lowest-rated films mentioned, all three had visionary directors behind the wheel, Sam Raimi, Chloe Zhou, and Taika Waititi, and those directors were seemingly given more freedom in regards to molding their films’ narratives and interweaving their own personal cinematic stylings into each picture, making all three films some of the most unique outings the MCU has seen in its 14-year run. To be fair, diversity in vision and storytelling is something incredibly important to the longevity of the film industry, and it is crucial if audiences don’t want every film to feel identical to the last. What these directors brought to this behemoth of a franchise is by no means a bad thing. The process of finding unique talent and allowing them to play in the Marvel sandbox is what has led to Marvel Studios’ success. That being said, there is a fragile balancing act that must occur between the studio and its creators, especially in a franchise that is known for weaving a gigantic tapestry of characters and plot lines. Because each film is connected within this wider fictional world, communication between the creators and the studio is key to making the magic trick work. When Kevin Feige hired James Gunn to direct the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” film in 2014, Gunn was brought on board to add some of his Gunn-ian elements to the story, however, the film still felt like it existed within the grander MCU. In Taika Waititi’s first outing in the MCU in 2018, “Thor Ragnarök”, his comedic predilections were tempered by the studio to achieve a stronger tonal balance than when he was given free rein with his sophomore project, “Thor: Love and Thunder”. The experimental nature of some of the films in Phase Four has led to the vast majority of them feeling stand-alone and disjointed, which leads to the second challenge this phase has faced.
When Samuel L. Jackson walked into the final scene of “Iron Man” in 2008 as Nick Fury, he brought with him a larger promise of assembling the Avengers for a film down the line, and from that point forward the audience knew where the story was heading. Each of the 4 following films introduced a new member of the Avengers team, and Phase One delivered on that promise with “Marvel’s The Avengers” in 2012. Then, at the end of the film, the audience once again was presented with a goal post, something to look forward to, with the appearance of the Mad Titan, Thanos. The following two phases built on this promise while simultaneously introducing new characters and players within the greater story until “Avengers: Infinity War” was released in 2018. This strategy has always been the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s model, however with the conclusion of The Infinity Saga in 2019, every successive film since has felt lost, detached from everything else. The Disney+ show “Loki”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, and even Marvel Studios’ first animated show, What IF...?, have laid the foundation for what Kevin Feige has dubbed The Multiverse Saga, the next saga within the MCU incorporating Phases Four, Five and Six. Yet, with only four projects referring to the multiverse, most of Phase Four feels more like an epilogue to The Infinity Saga than part of The Multiverse Saga to come.
It will be interesting to see how Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ages. A strange phenomenon occurs with all the Marvel films. With time and the additional context of future projects, the quality of some films retroactively improves. Who’s to say this won’t happen with the Phase Four films and shows as we reach the conclusion of The Multiverse Saga in 2025? Until that time, however, Phase Four remains an oddity, an experimental period, meant to transition the MCU from one saga to the next.