From now until 2022, Marvel fans will get heavy doses of heroism with nine currently untitled films.
On late Thursday, Exhibitor Relations, “an established leader in the field of entertainment research & data,” posted on Twitter a scheduled slate of Disney films through 2022. In addition to Marvel, the slate includes Star Wars, Pixar, and both live-action and animated Disney movies. All of them are untitled.
Exhibitor Relations’ latest information adds six new Marvel movies in addition to the previously confirmed three scheduled for 2020. This brings the total to a whopping nine new Marvel movies after Avengers 4 in May 2019.
Below are all the dates for the nine new Marvel movies:
- May 1, 2020
- July 21, 2020 (previously August 7)
- November 6, 2020
- May 7, 2021
- July 30, 2021
- November 5, 2021
- February 18, 2022
- May 6, 2022
- July 29, 2022
This is a lot of movies! This also creates a whole playground for Marvel fans to speculate over, at least until Disney formally reveals each film as it did for Phase Three back in 2014. That was when movies like Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Infinity War were announced, in addition to the surprise reveal of Captain America: Civil War, which originally had a fake-out title of Captain America: Serpent Society. (It was a good change.)
Based on what (little) we know about Marvel’s future slate, here is some calculated speculation regarding “Phase Four” of the MCU.
So long, Captain.
A New Captain America Trilogy
Chris Evans is finished with his contract until Avengers 4. But guess who has a ton of movies ahead of him? Sebastian Stan, who has something like six movies left in his contract. Sebastian Stan had originally signed on for nine entire movies.
Based on the comics, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky could replace Steve Rogers as the new Captain America after the Infinity War saga. In the comics, Bucky became Cap after he was assassinated by Crossbones in 2006’s Civil War.
Captain America is a bonafide Marvel franchise with a history of different characters inheriting the mantle (Falcon was Cap for a while in the comics, though Bucky seems like the more likely successor in the MCU). This makes it easy to produce a whole new set of movies without even needing someone like Chris Evans.
Jennifer Lawrence in 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix,' coming this November.
X-Men and Fantastic Four, Somewhere
Disney’s recent $52 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox means a lot of things in an increasingly monopolized culture. But, for Marvel fans, it means the return of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and more under the care of Marvel Studios.
Fox already has a ton of X-Men movies on the board, though. The X-Men have more legs than they’ve ever had at the moment, with big hit films like Logan and Deadpool (itself its own franchise) and TV shows like Legion and The Gifted. This year, fans will finally see the fabled Phoenix saga done right in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and there’s talk of a Silver Surfer movie, too.
There’s a lotta mutants around, a lot more than a simple reboot can make moviegoers forget about. But with Disney holding the keys, at least one or two massive movies will, presumably, find some way to get the X-Men and the troubled Fantastic Four into the MCU. At this point, it’s less work to speculate the title of a Disney X-Men movie than the logistics of cramming two franchises together.
Who wants to bet Disney’s X-Men will be titled Astonishing X-Men?
Scarlett Johansson in 'Captain America: Civil War.'
Black Widow
Chris Evans may have slipped in outright confirming a Scarlett Johansson-led Black Widow, but the movie has entered the writing process. The success of female-led action movies like Wonder Woman and Atomic Blonde have no doubt encouraged Marvel to finally get going on Black Widow.
'Agents of Atlas' #5
Agents of Atlas
I admit this one is fanboy wishing, but comedian Randall Park will be playing Agent Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp later this July. In the comics, Jimmy Woo has had a pretty important history, even if he’s a lot more obscure than most comic book characters.
If Randall Park can be as charming as he was as “Asian Jim” in The Office, then maybe Marvel could let Park shine in an Agents of Atlas movie. Basically another Guardians of the Galaxy-type of superhero team, Agent Jimmy Woo commands a ragtag group of FBI agents that includes a mer-woman, a Greek goddess, a talking ape, and a War of the Worlds-looking robot. Marvel has proved time and time again that weird concepts can not only be cool but make bank at the box office. Why can’t Agents of Atlas be the next unexpected hit?
Hail to the king.
Obvious Sequels
Black Panther made $700 million worldwide in two weeks. Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange were also hits, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is confirmed. And no doubt people will see Brie Larson in Marvel’s first female superhero movie, Captain Marvel, which can only guarantee a sequel. Needless to say, Marvel’s future will have some familiar faces.
Assemble.
The New Avengers
The Avengers as we know them may be no more, but that doesn’t mean a new generation can’t take over. As it happens so often in the comics, a new Avengers team could dominate the big screen. Throw in two or three familiar characters (hello, Spider-Man), and fans will have an easy time adjusting to each new status quo. Now wouldn’t it be interesting if Deadpool joined the Avengers…
Avengers: Infinity War will be released on April 27.
