In an interview with MTV News at Comic-Con, Kevin Feige teased that he and the team at Marvel had mapped out the whole of Phase 5. They know all the movies that are coming in the next half a decade and they know what the next Thanos-sized threat will be and what the next Avengers roster will look like.
However, they’ve only announced the Phase 4 slate and remain tight-lipped about the details of Phase 5, leaving fans to try to piece it together themselves. So, here are 5 Projects Confirmed For The MCU’s Phase 5 (And 5 That Are Rumored).
10. Confirmed: Black Panther II
The sequel to 2018’s Black Panther – a cultural monument that destroyed box office expectations and received an unprecedented Best Picture nomination at the Oscars – is the only movie announced for Phase 5 that actually has a release date. It won’t hit theaters until May 6, 2022, and it’s been suggested that even though it’s the only Phase 5 movie on the release schedule, it might not be the first entry in Phase 5.
Ryan Coogler, the director of the first movie, is returning to helm the script and will also provide the script. The plot is rumored to involve Namor and Atlantis going to war with T’Challa and Wakanda, while Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger might come back via the Ancestral Plane.
9. Rumored: Deadpool 3
It’s been reported that, since Marvel Studios acquired the rights to the X-Men characters, the only property they’re not planning to totally reboot from Fox’s initial franchise is Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds has done a fine job of translating the character to the silver screen in a pair of hilarious solo outings, and it would be great to see his faithful incarnation of the Merc with a Mouth rubbing shoulders with the likes of Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
As some fans have pointed out, Deadpool 2 contradicts the time travel rules established in Avengers: Endgame, so maybe there’s a meta way to get Deadpool into the franchise without making those films canon since he is self-aware.
8. Confirmed: Blade
One of the most surprising announcements at Marvel Studios’ Comic-Con panel this year was that vampire hunter Blade would be joining the MCU in Phase 5. Rather than bringing back original actor Wesley Snipes, as had been suggested, Marvel has cast two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali to play the character.
Ali is by far one of the finest actors working today and there’s a rich bank of storylines to draw from in Blade’s comic book history, so this is certainly an exciting prospect. Korg introduced the notion of vampires into the MCU in Thor: Ragnarok. It seemed like a throwaway joke, but now, it’s taken on new meaning.
7. Rumored: Silver Surfer
A Silver Surfer movie has been in and out of development for years. Once upon a time, Quentin Tarantino was tapped to direct one. After years in development hell, the Silver Surfer made an appearance in Fox’s Fantastic Four sequel, but this reduced the character to a dull, somber, boring piece of work that no one wanted to see spun off into his own film.
A Silver Surfer solo movie has been reported to be in development at Marvel Studios following the company’s reacquisition of the character’s film rights. The MCU has a long history of giving solo movies to superheroes that have been in development hell for years – Ant-Man, Thor, Black Panther, etc. – so this could be the Silver Surfer’s chance.
6. Confirmed: Captain Marvel 2
Brie Larson has said recently that she’s interested in giving Kamala Khan, the Carol Danvers-obsessed superhero Ms. Marvel who’s about to get her own Disney+ series, a role in the Captain Marvel sequel, as a sort of protégé. This would be an interesting dynamic, a lot like Tony Stark and Peter Parker’s surrogate father-son relationship.
Whether or not Kamala makes it into Captain Marvel 2, the sequel is definitely in development. It might revolve around Carol’s quest to find the Skrulls a new home, her burgeoning relationship with War Machine, or a new story entirely. Kevin Feige has teased that Marvel has some “pretty amazing” concepts for the sequel.
5. Rumored: A-Force
The A-Force is an all-female Avengers team in the Marvel Comics universe. This was teased in Avengers: Endgame with the “girl power” moment, teaming up the MCU’s female heroes for an epic showdown with Thanos’ armies, but this divided fans. Some called it pandering to female viewers (but really, is that so bad? Don’t they deserve some pandering after years of pandering to male viewers?), while others called it empowering.
Although it was controversial among misogynists for obvious reasons, the fan response to the scene has been mostly positive, with some fans calling for an A-Force movie. Most of the actors involved – including Brie Larson and Evangeline Lilly – are up for an A-Force movie, so with any luck, one is on the way for Phase 5.
4. Confirmed: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
There’s a good chance that the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie was intended to be released in Phase 4, possibly before Thor: Love and Thunder with Thor joining them on their next adventure. However, with writer-director James Gunn getting fired and then rehired by Disney, it’s been pushed back to Phase 5.
The rumor mill has come out with a ton of story possibilities: Rocket coming face-to-face with his creator, Drax finding out his daughter is still alive, Quill and Nebula striking up a romance, Lady Gaga voicing a love interest for Rocket, etc. A lot of them are very outlandish. What we do know is that Gunn is excited to finish Rocket’s character arc and it’ll likely revolve around the search for 2014 Gamora.
3. Rumored: Avengers 5
Until this year’s Phase 4 announcement, every Phase of the MCU had included an Avengers movie. They were the big crossover events that pulled together all the ongoing storylines from the solo movies. However, at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Earth’s mightiest heroes disbanded.
Phase 4 is revolving around the core six Avengers from Phase 1 passing on their superhero mantles to their successors (Steve Rogers to Sam Wilson, Thor to Jane Foster, Clint Barton to Kate Bishop, etc.), and Kevin Feige has promised that the next Avengers roster “will be a very different team than we’ve seen before.” Phase 4 is likely setting them up to unite in a new Avengers movie in Phase 5.
2. Confirmed: Fantastic Four
A huge part of the Fox/Disney merger involved the film rights to the Fantastic Four reverting back to Marvel Studios. Fox’s two previous attempts to bring the team to the big screen failed miserably: one, because it wasn’t serious enough, and another, because it was way too serious.
Undoubtedly, Marvel itself will be able to do the characters justice on the big screen, and Kevin Feige promised as much while taking a subtle dig at the previous movies: “I’m extremely excited about those characters and about bringing Marvel’s first family up sort of to the platform and the level that they deserve.”
1. Rumored: X-Men
Kevin Feige has stated that the MCU’s X-Men reboot will be an entirely different beast than the Fox franchise, even saying that the team might not be called the X-Men and might just be called “mutants.” Ever since Marvel reacquired the rights to the X-Men characters in the Fox/Disney merger, fans have been going crazy with their casting choices (and this writer is among them) for Wolverine, Xavier, Magneto, Storm, and all the other comics icons who are awaiting their MCU debuts.
However, since the X-Men lore is so vast and there are so many characters, their introduction may take a while.
