The MCU has made it hard to predict what's coming next, and each phase has been getting more difficult. Marvel has been prolifically churning out content ever since Jon Favreau hit the reset button on the studio's movie endeavors with 2008's Iron Man. Since then, the franchise has become an unparalleled entity in the entertainment industry thanks to its interconnected stories and beloved characters.

With San Diego Comic-Con 2022 in the rearview, many questions have been answered about the next steps for Marvel. Phase 4 is wrapping up with She-Hulk season 1 and the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Attention is now on Phases 5 and 6, which will include major projects like the Fantastic Four reboot. Big questions linger still as it is unclear how some entries like Blade and Thunderbolts will fit into the overall story being told by the MCU.

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With no Avengers movie in Phase 5 and two announced for Phase 6, it's becoming clear that the MCU phases are less definitive separations between story arcs than once thought. With so much content being announced between movies and some equally intriguing Disney+ releases, Marvel's phases have become less important to how the stories tie in together. The increasingly complex path the studio has taken is nothing next to the vast catalog of source material the MCU can pull from, making it near impossible to know where the franchise is going to jump next.

What The MCU Phase Problems Mean For The Future

Phase 1 had a clear start and end, concluding with 2012's Avengers and The Battle of New York. However, subsequent phases have blurred the line between overall story arcs. Phase 2's finale, Ant-Man, set up story elements for Phase 3, while Spider-Man: Far From Home ended that phase teeing up major events of the Multiverse Saga, despite being conspicuously missing from Marvel's current Phase 5 lineup. Similarly, She-Hulk seems to be laying out potential storylines for Phase 5, while being one of the end-caps for Phase 4.

It would seem that the movies and shows wrapping up each phase have been designed to bridge the phases together, rather than close out the individual story. Going forward, this could mean that each phase's climax should be looked for in the second-to-last entry rather than its final film. The first Avengers movie may have ended Phase 1 with a bang, but it seems unlikely that sort of definitive conclusion will happen again. Since then, the MCU phases have essentially become irrelevant, making the placement of the first and last projects less important than they once were.