10 Facts on What’s Next for MCU After Endgame (Spoilers)

I’m going to assume that if you’ve clicked into this article, chances are you’ve already watched Avengers: Endgame or you simply have decided to give up watching it and read the entire plot from Wikipedia.

I don’t blame you: with tickets still selling like hotcakes, you can’t get a pair of tickets even if you’re as wealthy as Tony Stark.

It doesn’t help that the directors are going to lift the “spoilers ban” tomorrow, which means your newsfeed would be filled with spoilers soon, just like how ashes were in every Facebook post last year.

So, what’s going to happen after Endgame?

No doubt this article would be peppered with major spoilers, so if you still haven’t watched it and intend to watch it in 2025, then come back in six years.

But if you’re one who’ve watched it and wondered why you’ve been reading about a Black Widow movie, read on because what’s next for MCU is going to very, very different.

Here goes.

What is MCU?

First thing first: What is MCU?

Bear with me if this is common sense to you, but there are some viewers who apparently wonder why Superman didn’t just appear to kill off Thanos in Endgame.

Simply put, MCU is Marvel Cinematic Universe, whereby individual superhero movies from Marvel, which are connected very subtly, occurred in a shared universe.

The movies are separated into phases: Phase One comprises six movies, starting with Iron Man in 2008 and ending with The Avengers in 2012.

Phase Two comprises another six movies, starting with Iron Man 3 in 2013 and ending with Ant-Man in 2015.

Phase Three is a superhero-fest, comprising eleven movies, starting with Captain America: Civil War and ending with Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Of course you’re wondering: where’s Endgame, and why it isn’t the last movie in Phase Three?

Well, read on because Endgame isn’t the finale to Phase Three after all.

What is the Infinity Saga?

You see, people see Endgame as the “last” Marvel movie for a few reasons, though it technically isn’t one.

For a start, it’s the second last movie in Phase Three; however, it’s the last movie in the Infinity Saga, which is a shared story about those colour, glowing stones. This Infinity Saga makes up all the Marvel movies so far, from the first Iron Man in 2008 to Endgame this year.

However, as the Infinity Saga ends after Thanos destroyed them all, a new story would emerge, though it’s unknown whether it’s going to be a shared theme or not.

Spider-Man: Far From Home, an upcoming movie that’s due to be released in July this year, is technically the last movie in Phase Three: whether it’s to explore the aftermath of the Infinity Saga or to introduce a new “saga” is up to anyone’s guess.

People Leaving the MCU

The MCU has been associated with a few old-time cast, namely Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans.

While it’s unknown about other MCU cast, these two actors have decided to leave the MCU.

Robert Downey Jr.’s contract has ended with Avengers: Endgame, and with his character”s death in Endgame, you can bet that he’s not extending his contract. For Chris Evans, his contract has ended as well and he has explicitly said that he won’t be extending his contract even before Endgame airs, so it’s not surprising to see him turn into an old man at the end of the movie.

Other stars still have contracts for more movies while some didn’t even have a contract to begin with, so the fate of the other characters is still unknown.

I hate to say this to you but let’s call spade a spade: you can see that the storyline in Endgame is very dependent on business in real life.

Movies That Are Confirmed After MCU

If you’ve been on Facebook regularly, you’d see many images about upcoming movies.

Unfortunately, all those are purely rumours. Or even #fakenews

The only confirmed movie so far is Spider-Man: Far From Home.

More confirmed titles, which are scheduled to be filmed but not yet filmed, are Black Partner 2 which is expected to start filming late this year or early 2020, Doctor Strange 2 which is pretty unclear so far but has been confirmed by the Marvel Studios boss and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is set to film in 2020.

Rumours of MCU movies that are not yet cast in stone are Black Widow (which would take place before Endgame), Shang-Chi and The Externals, which might star Angelina Jolie.

Rumours about those so-called Dark Avengers or X-Men?

Well, let’s just say that you should wait until July.

Why July?

July, When We’ll Know More

In July this year, the last movie of Phase Three would be released, and there’s also a Comic-Con from 18 July 2019 to 21 July 2019.

Now, don’t be fooled by its name: Comic-Con isn’t just an event about comic books. It’s a massive annual convention that draw hundreds of thousands of people to the event, and it’s rumoured that Marvel would release more info about their Phase Four movies during the event.

According to Marvel Studios head, they’re not going to reveal anything until the next Spider-Man movie is out, and that is the perfect timing.

But something’s more or less confirmed.

Crossover to the Small Screen

Lest you’re not aware, the MCU isn’t just limited to just the big screen.

There are minor characters who crossed over to the small screen, in particular Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which has been running for five seasons with a sixth coming soon.

There are more, like Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones and whatnot, which you can watch in Netflix, though I’d have to admit that they’re nothing close to the movies (at least, IMHO).

However, these are usually new characters in the MCU, in which you won’t see the main superheroes there.

And here’s the thing: for the first time, Marvel might be moving those movie characters to the small screen.

Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, is starting a new streaming service—obviously to compete with Netflix.

Called Disney+, it’s set to be launched in November this year in the US. Launch date, if any, in other countries like Singapore is still unknown.

And if rumours are true, we would be seeing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and even a Hawkeye series in Disney+.

Which makes perfect sense because if you’d have remembered, Loki changed his fate in the past during the last Avengers movie.

X-Men?

Like what I’ve said, the plot of the MCU is indirectly influenced by business decisions, and here’s one more to nail it: X-Men.

When MCU was created, X-Men’s rights belonged to 20th Century Fox, which is why there are independent X-Men movies that aren’t in the MCU movies, even though the characters are all published in Marvel comics and even met each other in the comics.

However, two months ago, Disney, which owns Marvel, bought over 20th Century Fox for a whopping USD$71.3 billion: and that means Disney owns both MCU & X-Men.

With X-Men being such a popular franchise, you’d expect the next MCU movie to feature Wolverine drinking bubble tea with Peter Parker.

But no: according to the Marvel Studios head, it’ll be “a while” before you see X-Men sharing the big screen with Captain Marvel. And that could mean five years later—which of course suggests that the cast of X-Men would most likely be new.

In July this year, an X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, would be out but do note that that’s under 20th Century Fox, so it’s not an MCU movie.

How About Captain Marvel?

Everyone’s somehow pretty certain that there’s going to be a Captain Marvel sequel, but here’s the bad news: there hasn’t been any confirmation about a Captain Marvel sequel.

Shocking, yes, especially for fans of the resting bitch face Brie Larson and Goose the cat.

While Larson has expressed interest for a new Captain Marvel movie and the Marvel Studios boss has ideas for the next film, Larson didn’t, as reported, sign a seven-film deal with Marvel. Her exact arrangement is unknown, and there hasn’t been any sequel scheduled.

While her future is uncertain, one thing’s certain: we’re going to see her with short hair.

Got More Avengers?

Without Captain America and Iron Man, the Avengers is like F4 without Jerry Yan and Vic Chou: it’s leaderless, broken and definitely not complete.

So, would there still be Avengers?

One thing’s for sure: S.H.I.E.L.D would still exist, given that the new season is coming out soon, but the fate of the Avengers is unclear: Disney CEO mentioned that they might create a new team of Avengers, but they haven’t announced anything yet.

In other words, the fate of the big A is still unclear.

Case in Point: Forget Every Rumour You’ve Read

You would have read a lot of rumours: from a Fantastic Four movie to Galactus being in the power stone to Spider-Man deciding to call Singapore his home (okay, the last one is a #fakenews by us).

Here’s a conclusion to all the rumours: except for Spider-Man: Far From Home, every rumour you’ve read online is merely…rumour.

So if you come across any images that show Dark Avengers, remember not to share it, for we’ll only know if Spider-Man is truly going to live in an HDB only after July.

And by the way, Dark Avengers is a real thing.

And yes, that’s Captain Marvel (or Ms Marvel in this case) who’s forgotten to wear her pants.