MCU Phase 6 Needs To Avoid Infinity War & Endgame's Missed Opportunity

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars must learn from one massive mistake made by their immediate predecessors. As the two-part culmination of the Multiverse Saga, the fifth and sixth Avengers movies will conclude the battle between Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) in a multiversal conflict unlike anything that has ever been put to screen before. While Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame raised the bar for future team-ups in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the two Infinity Saga films also missed a golden opportunity that their two successors can easily seize as they bring the second era of the franchise to an end.

While Kang and Thanos are often compared to one another, the true measure of the Multiverse Saga's success lies in how well it nails its two Avengers films. For all the beloved projects in the Infinity Saga, the first era of the MCU would not be as well-regarded as it is today if it had failed to pull off Thanos's crusade in Infinity War and Endgame. The third and fourth Avengers films will certainly be used as benchmarks for The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, which are currently set to hit theaters in 2025 and 2026, respectively. And, upon their release, these four films will inevitably be compared ad nauseum.

The MCU Wasted The Year Between Infinity War And Endgame

Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame posters side-by-side

As beloved as they were, Infinity War and Endgame wasted the year between their theatrical releases. Upon its release, Infinity War became infamous for leaving audiences on one of the greatest cliffhangers of all time, as Thanos snapped his fingers to erase half of all life from the universe. Key characters like Black Panther, Spider-Man, the Scarlet Witch, and more all vanished from existence in the film's final moments, with only a handful of the Avengers remaining. A full year separated Infinity War and Endgame's releases, forcing audiences to wait anxiously for a resolution to the Avengers' story. However, Marvel missed an opportunity to capitalize on these twelve key months.

Although Marvel released two movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel, between Infinity War and Endgame, neither of these projects added to the Infinity Saga finale in any meaningful way. Ant-Man and the Wasp took place largely before the events of Infinity War, with only its end-credits scenes tying into the Decimation. Captain Marvel was even less connected to the Avengers films, taking place in the 1990s, with only its post-credits scene including a tease for Captain Marvel's arrival in Endgame. Both of these films, while solid in their own respect, failed to expand on the fallout of Infinity War's cliffhanger ending.

How The Gap Between Avengers 3 And 4 Could Have Been Better

Thanos sitting on his throne, flanked by Avengers

The gap between Infinity War and Endgame could have been better with a simple fix. While both movies made over $2 billion at the box office, signifying their runaway success, the time in between the two films might have actually improved their reception. In the years following Endgame, a common complaint has contended that the franchise generally ignores the effects of Thanos's snap, which destroyed half of all life in the universe. A moment as monumental as this certainly deserves more attention than a few brief references in succeeding films and series. Nevertheless, because of Endgame's five-year time jump, Phase 4 projects all tend to ignore the Blip.

Marvel could have seized the opportunity to improve Infinity War's Blip by actually making a project entirely set within the five years preceding Endgame. The Blip was a terrifying time in the MCU, as the world desperately sought answers about why half of their loved ones had disappeared into dust. The world came to a standstill as the worst catastrophe in history befell humanity, yet very few projects, including Endgame itself, seemed interested in exploring this time period in any depth. This leaves the five years between the Decimation and the Battle of Earth quite mysterious and the year between Avengers 3 and 4 utterly wasted.

A single project designed to explore the consequences of the Decimation and five-year Blip could have vastly improved the year's time between Infinity War and Endgame while also filling out the MCU as a whole. A return to Marvel's one-shots set in the fallout of the Decimation would have been a perfect way for the MCU to expand on Infinity War's ending while building anticipation for Endgame's release. Furthermore, such a project would have also averted complaints that the MCU had ignored one of its most intriguing storylines. Indeed, the space between Infinity War and Endgame may be Marvel's biggest missed opportunity yet.

The Multiverse Saga Can Make The Gap Between Kang Dynasty & Secret Wars Matter

Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in front of the Avengers

Unlike Infinity War and Endgame, the Multiverse Saga can make its year-long gap between The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars actually matter. As the Multiverse Saga reaches its exciting conclusion, it makes sense that the MCU would want to ensure that The Kang Dynasty is bigger than Infinity War. While this doesn't necessarily mean that the film will end on a similar cliffhanger, it is certainly possible that the events therein will include a massive paradigm shift that will change the MCU forever while simultaneously setting up Secret Wars. It is here where the Multiverse Saga can capitalize on the building anticipation for the sixth Avengers film.

Given Marvel Studios' much more saturated release schedule in the Multiverse Saga, which now also includes Disney+ shows, it is reasonable to assume that there will be some projects that are released in between The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. These projects can build on The Kang Dynasty's potential cliffhanger ending rather than simply alluding to it, as was the case following Infinity War. This would allow the event time to breathe without rushing to its inevitable conclusion within the space of only two films while also adopting a structure similar to comic book events, which featured tie-ins, one-shots, and spinoffs that expanded the storyline in which they took place.

This expansion of the fifth and sixth Avengers films' stories would also serve to balance their massive cast size in a more palatable way. Although Infinity War and Endgame sported two of the biggest casts in cinematic history, the next two Avengers films will easily include even more characters, creating a challenge in ensuring that each hero therein gets enough screen time. By filling out the story between the two films, different characters can have their time to shine without stealing screen time from the main Avengers. In so doing, the MCU would create a true comics-style event out of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

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