It took Marvel Studios over a decade to tell the full story of the Infinity Saga, starting with 2008’s Iron Man and climaxing this year with the elaborately plotted Avengers: Endgame, and judging by recent comments from producer Trinh Tran, it could be a similarly long wait before we see another MCU project on the scale of the Avengers: Infinity War sequel.
Speaking to CinemaBlend, the Endgame executive producer reflected on Marvel Studios’ journey so far, and suggested that the MCU’s next big crossover movie isn’t their top priority at the moment:
“Our focus right now is to make sure that the titles that we’ve released in Phase 4… obviously those stories are going to be new, exciting, different and can connect with the audience like the other movies have been. Over 10 years ago, it’s always been our dream to get to Infinity War and Endgame level. We didn’t know obviously where that was going to go at the start of the studio, but it’s incredible to know that we were able to accomplish that.”
Now that most of the main character arcs and plot threads from the MCU’s first three phases have been resolved, Marvel isn’t exactly back to square one, but they still have a lot more world-building to do if they intend to deliver another crossover movie on the level of Endgame or Infinity War. Still, Tran went on to imply that they’d like to give it a shot, potentially culminating in a new ensemble epic in ten years or so.
“Now it’d be amazing if we could get to that level 10 years later, so I think it’s a dream to continue doing that and build upon the MCU and the connective tissue that we have. And now with obviously our Disney+ side and the shows and how our characters are venturing into that world and how that’s gonna lead to the future and more franchises and more stories and more properties and their connective tissue to the rest of the MCU, it would be amazing to do something like this 10 years later.”
Like Tran said, Marvel now intends to incorporate a series of Disney Plus shows into their overarching vision, starting with the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier next year. After that, 2021 will see the premiere of WandaVision, which is already confirmed to somehow lead into the events of the subsequent Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Where exactly this is all leading remains to be seen, but we can probably assume that at the end of a long line of interconnected films and TV shows will be another movie on the scale of Avengers: Endgame. In the meantime, Black Widow is set to get the ball rolling when the flick hits theaters on May 1st, 2020.