No heroic saga is complete without a villain.
The MCU has suffered no lack of baddies thus far, and Phase Four promises to continue that
trend.
Today, we're taking a look at every new villain coming our way in Phase Four of the MCU.
One of the few Phase Four villains we've gotten a decent glimpse of is Black Widow's Taskmaster,
AKA Anthony Masters.
As a boy, Masters discovered that he could replicate any physical action once he has
observed it.
Empowered by these "photographic reflexes," Taskmaster turns to a life of crime and becomes
extremely wealthy.
Looking to expand his reach, he opens a school where he shapes other villains into lean,
mean, good-guy-busting machines.
Since he's able to replicate the fighting style of any hero, he provides his pupils
with uniquely individualized training.
Taskmaster's abilities prove enormously dangerous in the heat of battle, as he can predict his
foes' next moves and stay several steps ahead.
He should prove an interesting foe for Natasha in Black Widow, given her own skills with
subterfuge adaptation.
Admittedly, fans have sort of encountered the Mandarin already.
Marvel pulled the rug out from underneath us in Iron Man 3 by portraying Ben Kingsley
as the classic villain, only to reveal him as an actor named Trevor Slattery.
He was only ever hired to portray a made-up supervillain.
That wasn't the end for the Mandarin, however.
Fans will be getting the real deal in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with Tony
Leung Chiu-wai set to portray the actual, no-fooling Mandarin.
The Mandarin is both intellectually and physically formidable, but the biggest threat he poses
comes from the ten rings he wears.
Crafted from the remains of a crashed alien spaceship, each ring grants him a different
ability.
How Shang-Chi will handle such a formidable threat remains to be seen, but it's certain
to be an unmissable showdown.
Eternals was a bit of a surprise announcement - they're not exactly a high-profile super-team.
Then again, Guardians of the Galaxy was a massive success, and Iron Man used to be a
C-list hero before becoming the MCU's poster boy.
Why shouldn't a race of immortal, cosmic beings with fabulous taste in leotards become Marvel's
next big thing?
Who will menace the titular Eternals?
The Deviants.
Genetic offshoots of the Eternals, they were driven into hiding after an attempted rebellion
against the Celestials, the godlike alien creators of both groups.
We're not yet sure which specific characters will be villains in Eternals - many Deviants
have come and gone over the years.
Regardless of who ends up in the film, though, we're sure to be in for a wild ride.
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will allegedly take the MCU into the realm
of horror.
All signs point to one of the central villains of the film being Nightmare, a powerful demon
who has been one of Doctor Strange's most prominent foes for decades.
Nightmare is extraordinarily powerful.
He controls a terrifying part of the Dream Dimension called the Nightmare World, where
he feeds off human psychic energy.
He can completely incapacitate powerful heroes, and even use his influence to dominate and
control others.
Not only would he be a formidable foe for Doctor Strange, it's easy to imagine him stepping
into an ongoing antagonist role, similar to Loki.
We know that Druig will be part of The Eternals, and that Barry Keoghan is stepping into the
role.
We also know that Druig will likely be a villain, as he is one of the group's classic foes.
However, we're still calling it a rumor because we know so little about Eternals at this time.
If Druig does wind up being a villain, he will be a formidable one.
Druig is not actually a Deviant, but an Eternal, long-lived and enormously powerful.
His abilities are vast and varied: telekinesis, flight, telepathy, matter transformation,
and illusion are all within his wheelhouse.
On top of that, he is a ruthless, highly intelligent schemer, and the ruler of an entire country
in the comics.
The MCU will be expanding to include Disney+ television shows in phase 4, and the first
show to see release will be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
We know that Zemo will be a central villain of that series, but he might not be alone:
John Walker, aka U.S. Agent, might just join him.
Walker was created in the 1980s to serve as a dark reflection of Captain America's idealism.
Where Captain America personifies all the positive traits of being American, U.S. Agent
is patriotism taken to ugly, violent extremes of nationalism, xenophobia, and callousness.
Though Walker has changed his ways over the years, ending up a good guy, he certainly
didn't debut that way, and seems likely to serve as one of The Falcon and the Winter
Soldier's electrifying villains.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now slated for a February 2022 release.
Standing in Thor's way will be... someone.
We don't yet know the character, but we do know the villain will be played by Christian
Bale.
Most of the evidence indicates that Bale will play Gorr, the God Butcher.
Gorr is an alien from an impoverished planet.
After losing his loved ones, he arrives at the conclusion that there are no gods.
He is shocked, then, to discover that gods are entirely real.
They just did nothing as he and his family starved.
From that day on, he makes it his goal to destroy as many gods as he can find.
Gorr would be a great foe for Thor.
His weapon, All-Black the Necrosword, is arguably more powerful than Mjolnir, and his backstory
is enormously compelling.
In an era of the MCU bursting with Eternals, Sorcerers Supreme, and Asgardian gods, throwing
a nonbeliever like Gorr into the mix could make for an incredible movie.
"I don't know.
I never knew.
I swear to God, man."
"SWEAR TO ME!"
The Loki Disney+ series will most likely follow the rogue timeline Loki created by stealing
the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame.
However, some small details hint at who Loki will be up against in that series: the Time
Variance Authority.
The TVA is essentially a group of time-traveling police who seek to stop those who would screw
up the multiverse's timeline.
The Loki spot revealed during the Super Bowl showed Loki as a prisoner of the TVA, so we
know they'll at least be a part of the series.
This brings us to Owen Wilson.
Wilson has been cast as an unknown role in Loki, and the rumor mill has pegged him as
Justice Peace.
Though Peace takes himself very seriously, he is often played for laughs.
Wilson's comedic experience, paired with Hiddleston's charm, could work perfectly.
"Staying nimble.
Till I get the call from the mothership.
My raison d'etre.
Then I'll fight."
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