The MCU’s Multiverse Saga is still missing one major thing

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a long-standing complaint.Avengers: EndgameThe problem with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third year is its lack of direction. Fans can see the problem in hindsight, but it is not a complete solution. Iron ManPremiered in 2008 with the promise that the Avengers would one day appear in the film. Once they did, in 2012’s The Avengers, that film’s post-credits scene introduced a new apparent focus for the MCU: the arrival of Thanos, who was eventually revealed to be after the Infinity Stones. The road to Infinity WarAnd FinaleIt was complicated and long, but there was alwaysSomeThe audience should be clearly informed about the destination.

Current MCU projects don’t have these visible goal posts. The franchise’s focus has been on Finale cleanup, telling stories around and after what’s already happened, and mostly looking backward: What happened to Wanda Maximoff after she was forced to kill her husband? What’s Hawkeye been up to? Why did the Black Widow feel guilty?

The most recent projects include EternalAnd Shang-Chi have introduced new characters, those projects have largely been unconcerned with the big picture, the question of how the new arrivals will factor into the comic book world we’ve been getting to know. These characters are merely teased to the public. Will matter. The origins of Shang-Chi’s 10 rings are kept a mystery, but still teased as important. Or Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman in Eternal is set up for a larger role in a future film, thanks to a post-credits scene where he’s about to claim a magic sword.

Image: Marvel Studios

This aimlessness can be seen as part of the building process from a charitable perspective. Actors cannot commit to a continuous stream of movies, unlike comic book characters who can stay around for ever and continue appearing in cosmic traffic jams. The end of Marvel Studios’ 11-year Infinity Saga is the kind of soft reset the studio needs until it decides to risk a bigger one. Currently — and this is something the studio’s Comic-Con presentation made clear — it’s focused on introducing new characters to fill the void left by those who’ve moved on in one way or another. In this way, Phase 4 is about introducing new characters and places to people.

It is possible that all of this will be the basis for something more purposeful. But slightly more plot focus isn’t enough to carry the MCU forward, not when it’s built around a concept as diffuse and inherently unfocused as the idea of infinite multiverses. What the MCU needs right now is more of a human touch — and it’s the most bafflingly absent part of the Marvel Studios equation.

Multiverse Saga

If any one overriding purpose drove Marvel’s bevy of San Diego Comic-Con announcements, it was the need to address the MCU’s lack of direction. The studio’s Hall H presentation was largely about the MCU’s future structure, recasting a formless void of upcoming movies and shows as Phases and organizing those three Phases into a new Saga. The Multiverse Saga was born, with its accompanying Finale equivalent: Secret Wars with AvengersThe event is currently set for November 7, 2025.

Those two bits of info are enough to let informed comics fans grasp the shape of what’s in store over the next three years. These are just a few of the many facets being investigated in What If…?, Loki, Spider-Man: You can’t go home!And Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessThe importance of this story will grow as more TV and film shows come out. The ultimate stakes in this story were clearly laid out by Reed Richards’ (John Krasinski), version that appeared in Multiverse of Madness. Reed explained that universes are collapsing, wiping out whole alternate worlds. Eventually, the film implies, that cosmic disaster will come for the Marvel Cinematic Universe we’ve already come to know.

Image: Marvel Studios

This is a messy premise to build the next three years of movies around, only partly because audiences haven’t yet spent that much meaningful time in these alternate universes. They’ve been only suggestions so far. They are often seen in a short time, and few people would care about them surviving, especially if it was against the primary MCU.

And those are the kinds of ultimate stakes implied in Marvel Studios’ new lineup. Secret Wars with AvengersThe title comes directly from one the greatest Marvel Comics stories of recent memory. This epic pits the existing Marvel Universe against the newly created Ultimate Universe. There are a few favorite characters, such as Miles Morales.

As exciting as the idea of a multiverse is, there’s nothing multiversal in these movies to get excited About — nothing lasting or endearing or important. Many of the things that are created in the MCU through a fun romp through multiverses in the MCU end up being forgotten or wiped out by the credits. Multiverse of MadnessThis was then raised to comic relief, like President Loki’s group. LokiYou can either offer them as thought experiments or inconsequential (like the whole of What If…?). However, enthusiasm quickly turns to indifference when there are no clear paths to realize all of this potential.

The X factor

Given the dizzying cadence of its many movies and TV shows, it’s hard to remember how slowly the Marvel Cinematic Universe actually moves. To return to the goals of the first phases: Marvel Studios took four years to put together the Avengers and seven more to bring all the Infinity Stones to one location for the big finale. The overall story of the MCU, circa Infinity Saga, is quite simple despite the meticulous coordination of movie plots and careful wrangling to ensure these large events were set up properly. The good guys get to know each other, and they learn how to work together. While the bad guys gather magic rocks that challenge their unity. That’s the secret to a dozen years of box office success!

Image: Marvel Studios

The MCU’s current sprawling state of affairs invites a lot of speculation as to how that success will continue. The majority of the movies in the slate are part of established sub-franchises. Two films are being released as stand-alone.BladeAnd Fantastic FourThe MCU remakes () of characters that have been adapted from other studios are called ().Thunderbolts) It is the culmination of a slow-moving plot that follows Contessa Valeria Allegra De Fontaine (Julia Louis Dreyfus) and her gradual recruitment of violent characters for their own, mysterious purposes.

It isn’t a lot. New there, and a multiverse suggests the opposite — something Multiverse of MadnessIt is hard to imagine characters that aren’t globs or paint in this world, but it can be fun. For fans that love the guessing game of how Marvel will weave its many disparate threads together, this potential for forthcoming films to operate outside, or even break, the MCU’s established rules is the most compelling part of the next two MCU phases. These are the rules. a lot Of the available slots in the Phase 6 calendar there’s one piece missing. It is the X-Men. The last major Marvel property that does not have a home under the MCU banner.

Based on the events in Phase 4, clever fans can imagine many ways that these characters might enter the MCU. A subtle hint on Ms. Marvel It is advisable to take it slow and steady. Multiversal adventures of Loki, Multiverse of MadnessAnd Spider-Man has no way home This opens up to the possibility of something unexpected and dramatic. A universe in which new versions have been waiting for their audiences is an unexplored world. Expectations for the X-Men’s arrival are high, but time still feels short, if Marvel does in fact plan to introduce them sometime in their newly announced Phases 5 or 6.

Marvel is made of this. isn’t interested in talking about all the more troubling — namely, who’s going to be making all this stuff.

Secret identities

One of the reasons Comic-Con endures as an institution is that, for all its modern emphasis on corporate communication, it’s still a place where audiences can see and even interact with the people who make their favorite things. Marvel knows this, as do many other studios. The company weighs the need for public attention against its plans to roll out secretly and decides on what information it feels is appropriate. Tenoch Huerta appears as Namor. ChukwudiIwuji plays the role of High Evolutionary. It’s a good showbiz experience.

Photo: Austen Goslin/Polygon

Yet for the umpteenth time, Marvel has once more asked the world to get excited over what’s primarily just a list of film titles, sight unseen. And this comes at what’s probably Marvel Studios’ most unsteady moment. The Phase 4 films are a bit aimless. The filmic aspects of Phase 4 are still very good. Secret Wars brings a smart reset to the films the way the comic book version did, that’s still several years out, with many more shows and films accruing atop the already-overwhelming pile. Movie and show titles alone shouldn’t be enough to get fans excited anymore. Comic book references ought not be the end of Marvel’s pitch to its audiences. The pitch should be in who’s putting these stories on screen, and how they want to make them new and engaging.

Take into account Thor: Love and Thunder. While its critical reception isn’t as glowing as Thor: Ragnarok’s, there was still a palpable hope that returning director Taika Waititi would deliver another film that blended his idiosyncratic comedy with Marvel spectacle. Waititi, the cast and crew gathered for RagnarokAnd Love and Thunder helped reinvigorate audience enthusiasm for Thor, a character who wasn’t necessarily disliked, but certainly wasn’t the MCU cornerstone he became in Waititi’s hands.

Fourteen years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment, audiences are well aware of what they’re getting when they see the Marvel Studios logo. This is the strength and weakness of any established brand — regular customers feel they won’t be disappointed, and non-fans, having sampled the MCU’s wares, can feel confident that they aren’t missing anything important. It is therefore difficult to tell someone why they should care about “The Kang Dynasty” or the Fantastic Four when the studio won’t (or in many cases can’t yet) introduce the filmmakers on the same stage that introduces the titles they’re tackling.

Image: Marvel Studios

A personal touch has become more important in Marvel projects. Enthusiasm for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessThe trailer focuses mainly on Sam Raimi’s sensibilities. This trailer Wakanda for Ever: Black PantherThis trailer is unlike other Marvel trailers. Guardians of the Galaxy, stops to note the film is “from director Ryan Coogler,” because his name carries weight. But somehow, Marvel doesn’t seem eager to promote what its filmmakers will bring to its burgeoning multiverse.

That’s all the more noticeable when the studio quietly announces, mere days after Comic-Con, that Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton will also tackle Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. The Comic-Con titles were all about the title, but Marvel reduced the director-writer pairings to an aside confirmation by The Hollywood Reporter. Shang-Chi proves Cretton is a director who strives for visual splendor and achieves it, particularly in the film’s folktale-esque prologue and magical third act. Marvel isn’t concerned about this, at least not according to the general public. He’s just the guy they hired to do the job. There’s plenty of time to reverse course on this, but so far, in this phase of the MCU, people don’t seem that important.

It is becoming more obvious. Anonymous reports, allegedly from the visual effects artists on Marvel projects, keep decrying the studio’s penny-pinching and rush jobs. Marvel films are being scrutinized in the meantime for their effects work. Looks Cheap and quick. At the same time, the MCU’s most high-profile alumni, the Russo brothers, are beginning to show us what Marvel bombast is worth without beloved, recognizable IP, and the results are tepid.

Image: Marvel Studios

Marvel’s success was built on the unique talents and idiosyncrasies that filmmakers could use to work within Kevin Feige’s boundaries, yet still show their true colors: the inventiveness of Jon Favreau Jr. and Robert Downey Jr.; the dark and oddball sensibilities and warmth of Ryan Coogler. It’s a frustratingly narrow palette, but it’s one that built a universe.

There should be a multiplicity of universes to expand that scope and include more voices. In some ways, it has them: Bisha K. Ali’s work on Ms. MarvelThe MCU’s texture is enhanced in amazing ways by the Director of MarvelsNia DaCosta is a potential candidate to achieve the same. But it’s hard to know how much more of that expansion of voice, ambition, or individual flavor we have to look forward to. Marvel is reluctant to make another Taika Waititi, another Russo Brothers team. These creators can still leave Marvel and be mediocre creators. Until Marvel can find its way back to letting its creators do the talking, it’s just giving us a set of familiar titles and empty promises: a multiversal map to nowhere in particular.