Marvel Phase 3 - What to Expect - Here's How the MCU is Shaping Up Going Forward

Marvel Phase 3 - What to expect

Here's How the MCU is Shaping Up Going Forward

By Steven Carter

In the wake of the successful Ant-Man film, it’s time to look forward to the next few years! We already know the dates of all 9 Phase 3 films, it’s time to figure out which will be awesome and which will be, well, less awesome. Lets face it. Marvel know how to make a decent superhero flick, even when the film is expected to be a flop, it ends up churning out all kinds of awesome! (In Kevin Feige we trust!) We will be focusing on the films that Marvel Studios have sole ownership over so I’m afraid Spiderman will be sitting this one out! Please bare in mind that these are purely OPINIONS and SPECULATION! Any aspects considered to be spoilers will be purely coincidental! We'll start with what I think will be the least successful...

This accolade goes to Captain Marvel. It may be the unfortunate timing as the film is set to be released right between the two Avengers films. It may end up being forgotten about amongst all the hype which doesn't seem right for Marvel’s first endeavour into a female lead, I would imagine there will be some big references to future films to keep fans interested. My guess is that due to Carol Danvers’ links with the alien race known as the Kree, she may have a run in with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Possibly leading them to come to Earth to join the fight against Thanos. Captain Marvel was originally a male character in the comics, Mar-Vell was a Kree Soldier sent to observe the Human race and it’s technologies. However this character died a number of years ago and the current iteration is indeed the former Ms. Marvel herself.

Next up is Black Panther. It’s always a risk introducing a fringe superhero, Marvel’s track record has been rather impressive so far so I may well be proved wrong here. We will have already seen the Wakandan King in Captain America: Civil War so chances are, this won’t be an origins story, but considering this film will be the last before Infinity War part 1, I can’t help the feeling that a vast majority of the film will be spent referring to this event to the point that I will have just spent £8 to watch a 2 hour trailer. Black Panther in the comics does have strong ties to Mutants however, for a long period T’Challa was married to Storm. Speaking of 2 hour trailers, this brings us on to the next film...

Thor: Ragnarok. This film is set for release 4 months before Black Panther. Ragnarok is a Norse prophecy about an epic battle resulting in the destruction of Asgard, and the deaths of several gods including Thor, Loki and Odin. Since details are still hazy on who will be in this film, my guess is that Thanos will be behind an attack on Asgard being as they were the last to see the Aether. We all know the Collector now has it but Thanos may not know this yet. We also know Loki is masquerading as Odin so that needs resolving too! My prediction is that Loki may well snuff it after possibly attempting to redeem his past actions, along with Odin. Thor may end up being presumed dead. Considering Chris Hemsworth still has 1 film left out of his 6 film contract after Ragnarok, we assume he will still be alive (just) in order to make a dramatic return in Infinity War part 2.

Next up is Guardians of the Galaxy 2. This film may be expected to top most people's lists because of how successful the original film was. But my argument is precisely the opposite due to the same reason. This is going to be the difficult second album. The introduction of this band of misfits was so successful, it’s going to be a hard one to top. Think Iron Man 2. Yeah… Chris Pratt and company are going to have to pull out their A games for this one, if they settle for a performance that is more or less the same as the previous film, the critics are going to have a field day harping on about unoriginality, no ambition etc etc. They set the standard high, and I’d very much like to see them beat it but it won't be easy!

On the halfway point between awesome and less awesome is Dr Strange. I was excited to hear that Benedict Cumberbatch was announced to play the sorcerer supreme and still believe this will be the strongest of the new arrivals. Hopefully, the gap will be filled between earth’s science and Asgard’s magic science and I for one am really interested in how they will go about achieving this.

Captain America’s third outing in Civil War is next! This was one of my favourite comic book series due to the huge impact the Superhero registration act had on the whole superhero community. I was surprised to see this as merely a Cap film though! It’ll be a tough one to pull off convincingly in just 2 hours and since we will also be seeing Superman throw down against Batman the same year. Not forgetting Suicide Squad and Deadpool too! It is up against stiff competition and needs to do something special in order to stand out from the crowd.

Finally, we have the two Avengers films. I’m inclined to put them in order too so part 1 coming 2nd and part 2 in 1st. (I realise I have left out Inhumans but fear not dear reader, we’ll get there!) considering we are being treated to 2 films for Infinity War, it’s fair to assume our gallant heroes face a galactic ass whooping in the first film, with Thor presumed dead (as mentioned previously) and possibly the Hulk missing, the Avengers as Nick Fury once said, will be hopelessly and hilariously out-gunned. They will eventually find said big guns in the 2nd outing and presume to kick back at the Mad Titan. I’m really looking forward to these films and even more interested in finding out how they are possibly going to take down this powerhouse of evil known as Thanos!

Finally we come to the Inhumans. I’m going to say this is going to be a wild card entry. It could go anywhere in this list quite easily. It’ll also be the final film before Avengers part 2. Could they be the integral part in taking down Thanos? With the likes of Blackbolt, it could be very possible! Thinking back to the Captain Marvel film, these two films could possibly be used to gather up reserves to aid in the fight against Thanos.

So what do you think? Do you agree or are you expecting something a little different? The Team at Cape and Cowl are definitely interested in hearing your views! All I can say is no matter what we all think, there's no denying that the next 3 years will be a very exciting time for superhero movies!