Marvel Phase 4 Will Include At LEAST 3 Different Universes

There will at least be 3 universes in Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 4. Following the end of Infinity Saga with Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far from Home, Marvel Studios' phase 4 will feature the return of some familiar faces for new adventures and the introduction of fresh players. Fans are also looking forward to the franchise fully exploring the multiverse.

The MCU has been dabbling in the existence of the multiverse for a while now with films like Ant-Man and the Wasp and Doctor Strange. More recently, they incorporated the concept in Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Far From Home. While it turned out nothing but a ruse by Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to manipulate Peter Parker (Tom Holland), that doesn't mean that the multiverse is not real. In fact, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige confirmed that the multiverse will be the key to the franchise's future, and they're ready to fully dive into it starting in Phase 4.

Given the confirmed MCU slate, there will be at least three different universes in the franchise moving forward. There's the primary reality, which is where all Infinity Saga films take place and where it's currently 2023 following the five-year-jump in between Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) killing of Thanos (Josh Brolin) at the beginning of Endgame and the rest of the movie. Far From Home takes place not long after the death of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), so it's still in the same year. From there, the majority of Marvel's upcoming movies and TV shows like Black Widow, the untitled Spider-Man 3 film, Thor: Love & Thunder, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will also be set in that main timeline.

MCU Theory Loki is key to the Multiverse of Madness

A different universe, on the other hand, will be tackled in the Disney+ show, Loki. Endgame's time heist saw some of the heroes return to the Battle of New York to grab the Mind Stone/Scepter, Time Stone/Eye of Agamotto, and Space Stone/Tesseract. Captain America (Chris Evans) and Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) successfully acquired the first two, but Iron Man and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) faced some difficulties securing the Tesseract - ultimately failing to get it after 2012 Loki (Tom Hiddleston) teleported with the crystal in the middle of an unexpected commotion. As per the Ancient One's (Tilda Swinton) explanation, this effectively creates a branched timeline since Captain America is unable to fix the altered events in this particular time period with Loki gone. This alternate reality will be the setting of the God of Mischief's own TV series, allowing the character to go on more adventures despite his death in the primary MCU universe.

The third universe in MCU Phase 4 will be explored through the animated series, What If...? Based on the 1970s comic books of the same name, the TV show for Disney+ will imagine how the Infinity Saga films would've turned out if there are slight differences to some of its key details. For instance, one episode will revolve around Peggy Carter getting the Super Soldier serum to become Captain America rather than Steve Rogers; another will be about T'Challa becoming Star-Lord. For now, these stories do not have any connection to the main MCU timeline, but as Marvel Studios builds their multiverse, it's possible that they will eventually become linked to it.

Aside from these three confirmed universes in Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 4, there are also a string of other realities that could factor in the franchise moving forward. Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in itself will more likely feature several alternate timelines as suggested by its title, and WandaVision also has the potential to introduce more to the list.

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