These days, it can be tough keeping track of everything that's going on in the MCU.
But maybe that's not such a bad thing — after all, it just means more to look
forward to. Here are the most exciting Marvel projects coming over the horizon.
WandaVision is among the more intriguing of Marvel's Disney+ series. Overseen by Captain
Marvel and Black Widow screenwriter Jac Schaeffer, the show features the reunion of — you guessed it
— Wanda Maximoff and Vision. Of course, everyone's favorite robot boyfriend was looking just a tad
bit dead the last time he appeared, which begs the question: just how is he making his return?
Well, it seems almost certain at this point that WandaVision takes place at
least partly within an alternate reality, especially given that the series will tie
into the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The first trailer
for WandaVision seems to confirm that the show will venture to a number of different realities,
each set in a different decade and based around a different style of American sitcom.
The series will also bring back Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis,
as well as Randall Park as Jimmy Woo. MCU newcomer Kathryn Hahn is taking on
the role of Wanda and Vision's nosy neighbor Agnes, while Teyonah Parris will be playing
a grown-up version of Monica Rambeau , who was last seen as a child in Captain Marvel.
Thankfully, It won't be a terribly long wait to discover how all of these seemingly disparate
characters will come together — WandaVision was originally slated to debut on Disney+
sometime in the spring of next year, but the release date has been moved up to January 15th.
The so-called Sony Universe of Marvel Characters was born of Sony Pictures'
deal with Marvel Studios, which allowed Marvel to integrate Spider-Man into the MCU. In exchange,
Sony continues to produce the webhead's MCU-set solo outings, and also has free
rein to develop its own universe based on ancillary Spider-Man characters.
This universe's inaugural effort, 2018's Venom, cleaned up at the box office, while satisfying
fans of the character left cold by the last time the character appeared in a feature film.
"Do you remember? Do you remember what you did to me?"
After Venom's unexpected success, Sony was quick to fast-track another Spidey-related
property — one that has been gestating since 2017. This would be Morbius, based on the "living
vampire" and frequent Spider-Man nemesis who first appeared in the pages of Marvel comics in 1971.
The flick will star Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a brilliant biochemist whose attempts to
cure his own potentially fatal blood disease with an experimental treatment go predictably awry,
transforming him into a superpowered vampire. Daniel Espinosa directs from a script by Lost
in Space co-creators Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. Of course, whether Morbius can
match Venom's runaway success has yet to be seen — but we'll know for sure on March 19th, 2021.
Marvel has been promising a standalone movie for Natasha Romanoff for years,
and now, on May 7th 2021, it's finally happening — with Black Widow, in which Scarlett Johansson will
reprise the role of the superspy Avenger for what will likely be the last time.
The prequel is set in the period between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War,
but will likely also flash back to the time before Romanoff's recruitment by S.H.I.E.L.D. According
to director Cate Shortland, the movie will find Romanoff in a dark place. Shortland says:
"In this film we get to understand her past
and put the pieces of herself together and come out a whole person."
Much of the action will take place overseas, and yes, it seems fans will finally get to find out
just what went down in Budapest. Johansson's co-stars include Florence Pugh and Rachel
Weisz , who will appear as operatives who have undergone the same Red Room training that honed
Romanoff's deadly skills. Also starring is David Harbour, who will portray Alexei Shostakov ,
a.k.a. the Red Guardian, Russia's answer to Captain America. Rounding out the cast will be
O-T Fagbenle as Marcus, an underworld "fixer," and Ray Winstone, whose role is currently undisclosed.
The debut for the MCU's first Asian hero Shang-Chi was teased
in late 2018 — but until the full title was revealed in July 2019,
the particularly exciting involvement of the movie's iconic villain had only been rumored.
Yes, on July 9th 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will see the Master of Kung Fu
face off against the Mandarin — the classic Iron Man villain who notoriously didn't
feature in Iron Man 3. As the title suggests, the Ten Rings, the terrorist organization who
kidnapped Tony Stark in Iron Man, will also figure prominently into the on-screen origin
of Shang-Chi — who is arguably the finest unarmed combatant in the Marvel universe.
Destin Daniel Cretton has been tapped to direct, with Chinese-Canadian actor Simu
Liu holding down the title role. Also confirmed to be starring are Awkwafina in an undisclosed role,
as well as the legendary Chinese actor Tony Leung as the Mandarin himself.
Another long-rumored project to finally be confirmed at Comic-Con in 2019 was
the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will see Anthony
Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprising their roles of Steve Rogers' two best buddies.
It seems that Sam Wilson may have a bit of reconciling to do between his old heroic
identity and the new identity bequeathed to him by Rogers himself at the conclusion of Avengers:
Endgame. Exact plot details have so far been kept under wraps, but we do know one thing for sure:
the six-episode series will see the return of Zemo, the man who goaded the Avengers into
the titular conflict of Captain America: Civil War, and he'll even be sporting his distinctive
purple mask from the comics. The Handmaid's Tale director Kari Skogland will helm every episode,
with writing duties being handled by Empire's Malcolm Spellman and John Wick's Derek Kolstad .
Here's a project that should ring all kinds of nostalgia bells for longtime
Marvel Comics readers. What If? is an alternate universe anthology series
which has run in various formats since 1977, exploring how events may have
unfolded if crucial moments in the mainstream Marvel timeline had played out differently.
It allows readers to consider scenarios both intriguing and unthinkable, and what
it did for the comics, the Disney+ animated series What If? intends to do for the MCU.
Like its comic-book counterpart, What If? will have an anthology format,
with each episode tackling one specific moment in the MCU timeline. Disney's "Expanding the
Universe" featurette on Disney+ confirmed the premise of several of the series' episodes,
including "What if Peggy Carter had taken the super soldier serum?",
"What if T'Challa was Star Lord?", and "What if Captain America was a zombie?"
The Marvel Studios Comic-Con panel revealed an impressive line-up of MCU talent set to
lend their voices, with many of the films' biggest stars set to reprise their roles.
They will be joined by Jeffrey Wright in the central role of Uatu the Watcher, whose job is
to watch over the multiverse, and who will act as a sort of host, tying each episode together.
At the panel, Wright teased the practically limitless possibilities the series might offer.
"We'll see where we take it. We can take it anywhere."
Given the fact that it kicked off a universe of Spider-Man characters which
probably won't actually feature Spider-Man, the success of Sony's Venom was a bit of a shock.
Anchored by Tom Hardy's completely bonkers performance, the film cleaned up at the
worldwide box office to the tune of $855 million dollars, making a sequel pretty much obligatory.
Of course, having learned a few tricks from Marvel Studios, Sony made sure to go ahead and set one
up in advance, with a post-credits scene featuring Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady, the psychopathic
serial killer who will go on to become Carnage, the Venom symbiote's terrifying offspring.
One stumbling block the sequel faced was the departure of Venom director Ruben Fleischer,
who had his hands full with the long-awaited follow-up to his 2009 classic Zombieland. Now,
motion capture legend Andy Serkis has stepped up to the helm, with original scribe Kelly Marcel
already drafting a screenplay, and Hardy set to return along with co-star Michelle Williams.
Plot details are sketchy right now, but one thing is certain:
just as Kasady promised in that stinger, there's gonna be, well…
Carnage. Indeed, Variety confirmed what everyone expected in January 2019:
that Harrelson's homicidal symbiote will be the movie's main villain. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
was expected to hit theaters on October 2nd, 2020, but was later moved to a summer 2021 release.
Among the first batch of Marvel Disney+ series is Loki, which sees Tom Hiddleston returning to
portray the beloved trickster once more. While our version of the character met a grim end in
the brutal opening sequence of Avengers: Infinity War, the series will follow the 2012 version of
Loki who disappeared with the Tesseract during the bungled time heist in Avengers: Endgame.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will follow Loki as he "pops up throughout human
history as an unlikely influencer on historical events." The project has scored a showrunner who
should know his way around this kind of material, too: Michael Waldron , who has worked as a writer
on Adult Swim's Rick and Morty and will be credited as creator and executive producer,
in addition to writing the pilot. Meanwhile, Kate Herron mwill direct.
Joining Hiddleston will be fellow cast members Owen Wilson,
Sophia Di Martino , Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Richard E. Grant — all in undisclosed roles. That said,
Wilson is taking on the role of a man called Mr. Mobius,
while Richard E. Grant is thought to be playing an older, alternate version of Loki himself.
Rounding out the first round of Disney+ limited series will be Hawkeye,
which will see Jeremy Renner reprise his role as the legendary wisecracking archer.
During 2019's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel debuted the series' logo,
as well as the confirmation of a long-standing rumor: that the series will see the debut of
Kate Bishop, the young protege who eventually takes up the mantle of Hawkeye in the comics.
The series is confirmed to take place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, so it'll likely
see Clint Barton adjusting to a world in which his beloved family has returned from the Snap,
and his trusted ally Natasha Romanoff is no more. While no plot details were announced,
Renner did share one little tidbit with the Comic-Con crowd, which suggests that
Barton's mentorship of Bishop will be key to the series' narrative. Renner joked:
"I get to teach someone else how to be a superhero without superpowers."
"What I get to do in the show ultimately is shepherd an amazing
character to be ultimately probably a better version of me."
Fans have been clamoring for Kate Bishop's story to make its way to the screen for some time,
but they'll have to wait a bit longer to see it come to fruition:
Hawkeye is scheduled to debut on Disney+ in the fall of 2021.
In 2019, Marvel Studios opened their Comic-Con panel with Eternals,
an interesting if lesser-known property which should help anchor the cosmic side of the MCU.
The titular race of superpowered beings were created eons ago by the Celestials
in order to defend the Earth from their polar opposites, the Deviants.
The Eternals were the brainchild of the great Jack Kirby,
who created the comic in the mid-'70s after his run on New Gods at DC.
Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has teased that Eternals’ story may span "tens of thousands of
years," telling an epic story of the kind we haven't yet seen in the MCU. And the movie,
which will be directed by The Rider's Chloe Zhao, has assembled a suitably epic cast.
Eternals will star Richard Madden as Ikaris , a first-generation Eternal and leader of the
movie's team of heroes. Alongside him will be Angelina Jolie as Thena, Gemma Chan as Sersi,
and Barry Keoghan as the villainous Eternal, Druig.
Meanwhile, Kumail Nanjiani will appear as Kingo, a samurai and Bollywood movie star,
Lauren Ridloff will play a gender-swapped version of Makkari , a tinkerer and engineer, and Brian
Tyree Henry is Phastos , a master weapons maker who nevertheless prefers not to fight.
Salma Hayek will play Ajak , another gender-swapper character, while Lia
McHugh features as the trickster Sprite. It's a heck of a cast, and although the
Eternals may not be A-list Marvel characters, there's a good chance this will become one of
the studio's biggest properties. Eternals is due for release on February 12th, 2021.
For just over a month during the summer of 2019, Spider-Man fans were left broken-hearted
at the news that talks between Disney and Sony Pictures had broken down,
and their shared custody agreement over Spider-Man had come to an end.
But then, in late September, the news broke that the two studios had finally decided to play nice.
A new deal was struck which will allow Marvel Studios to co-produce at least
one more Spider-Man film, and also feature the character in an additional,
as-yet undisclosed Marvel Studios picture. It's been speculated that Marvel's third Spider-Man
movie will essentially be used to write the wall-crawler out of the MCU in preparation for
a move to Sony's own Spider-Verse, but the reality could be a lot more complex... and a lot weirder.
When J.K. Simmons reprised his role as J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy in the
end credits of Spider-Man: Far From Home, everyone suspected something strange was afoot in the MCU.
Now, things are set to get even odder, as Marvel revealed in October 2020 that Spider-Man 3 would
pull in yet another character from a previous unrelated Spider-film — with the announcement
that Jamie Foxx would be returning as Electro, his character from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Since then, the return of many classic villains and alternate Spider-Men have been confirmed.
While Far From Home teased at a multiverse that ultimately turned out to be a ruse perpetuated
by Mysterio, Simmons' and now Foxx's inclusion seem to suggest the real deal is on the way:
a fully-fledged multiverse that brings together all of the past iterations of Spider-Man.
We'll learn more about how Marvel's various Spider-Verses fit together when
Spider-Man 3 hits theaters on December 17th, 2021.
Given the fantastic character arc that unravelled over his last several appearances,
speculation had been running high for some time
that Thor would be the first Avenger to land himself a fourth solo film.
"Because that's what -" "Because that's what heroes do."
In July 2019, Marvel finally confirmed this was the case,
with Thor: Ragnarok's Taika Waititi returning to direct. But that wasn't all Marvel announced.
Hitting theatres on February 11th 2022, Thor: Love and Thunder will see the return of Natalie
Portman's Jane Foster, who will follow in her character's recent comic book footsteps by
picking up Mjolnir to become Thor herself. Tessa Thompson will also return as Valkyrie , and Kevin
Feige has confirmed that this time around, it will be made explicit that the character is bisexual,
a first for a major character in an MCU film. It has also been all-but-confirmed
that the Guardians of the Galaxy will be making an appearance in the movie,
and that the main villain will be played by none other than Dark Knight alumnus Christian Bale.
With all that in mind, it's hard not to believe that Marvel will be expecting Love and Thunder
to be one of their biggest and most popular Phase 4 releases. Frankly, who could argue otherwise?
The sequel to 2016's Doctor Strange has been in development since before that flick even hit
theaters, and last year Marvel announced some new details about the project. Namely, that it would
be titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, that it would co-star Elizabeth
Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, and that it would be directly influenced by the events of WandaVision.
The Marvel faithful were suitably psyched — but then disaster struck. In January 2020,
it was announced that the movie's director, Scott Derrickson, had left the picture due
to creative differences with Marvel Studios. Fortunately, fans didn't have to despair for
long — because Marvel promptly reached into its hat and pulled out one heck of a rabbit.
Taking over the picture will be none other than Sam Raimi, who not only gave us one
of the greatest horror-comedies of all time, but also helped set the entire template for the modern
superhero genre with his Spider-Man trilogy. The second film of that trilogy, 2004's Spider-Man 2,
is to this day widely considered to be among the very best comic book movies
ever made — and for the sheer insanity promised by the Strange sequel's title,
the director seems like an absolutely perfect fit for the role. Doctor Strange
in the Multiverse of Madness releases on March 25th, 2022.
After the tremendous success of 2018's Black Panther,
a sequel seemed like a foregone conclusion. And sure enough, in the fall of 2018,
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Black Panther 2 was officially happening,
with original writer-director Ryan Coogler returning to write and direct the sequel,
and celebrated star Chadwick Boseman expected to reprise his role as King T'Challa.
Tragically, however, in August 2020, Boseman passed away following a four-year struggle with
cancer. The news came as a shock to Boseman's fans and colleagues alike, as the actor had
kept his condition and treatment quiet, even as he continued to work. Following the news of Boseman's
passing, Marvel declined to speculate on the future of the Black Panther franchise, choosing
instead to grieve the heartbreaking and shocking loss of one of the world's brightest stars.
While it's safe to assume Black Panther 2 is still happening, there's no knowing right now when that
will be, or what form the story will take. While some have speculated that his on-screen sister
Shuri may take up the Black Panther mantle, as she does in the comics, the pain of Boseman's passing
is still too fresh for anyone to publicly commit to a direction for the franchise.
One thing that is certain, however, is that whenever Black Panther 2 does make its way to
the screen, both the story and its characters will find a suitable way to honor their king.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.