You’d think we’d all be used to it by now. “Oh, Marvel Studios has made some major announcements and are going to dominate the box office for years to come,” we always seem to tell each other.
However, Kevin Feige and Marvel continue to amaze us.
At 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con—the Super Bowl for nerds—Feige anchored the panel that was full of announcements, teasers and surprises all about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future. The slate for the next two years of movies and shows was announced. While most, if not all, of the projects were already known to be in production, there were still some shockers.
As evidenced by the panel, Marvel has big plans for the next two years and is riding high on the fact that Avengers: Endgame is officially the highest-grossing movie of all time. Feige and the team at Marvel basically have a license to do almost whatever they want to do and, true to form, they are going to do what they want, when they want and how they want.
“Phase 4” of the MCU will take place over the course of the next two years, with five movies and five TV shows encapsulating the overall narrative, similar to previous phases. There was no announcement of an Avengers-type team movie at the end of this phase, confirming previous statements from Feige that the MCU would be changing things up.
Also, one of the biggest bombshells that came out of the San Diego Comic-Con, although it didn’t get a release date, was the reveal that Mahershala Ali would be portraying the legendary character of Blade in a future MCU movie. Fans have been clamoring for a new Blade movie and now it looks like they’re going to get one. Blade’s primary enemies are vampires, so this is another brand-new direction that Feige and Marvel are taking themselves.
We’ll be seeing new actors and characters joining the fray and plenty of familiar faces as well. So with that, let’s break down everything that happened and what it all might mean for the future.