Marvel Studios finally revealed the “Phase 4” slate for the MCU during their panel at this year’s Comic-Con, including some new characters being introduced via solo movies, a couple of unexpected turns in sequels to existing movies, and a handful of steaming series that will have direct links to the events of the movies. Fans have varying levels of excitement for these projects, so here is Every Confirmed Upcoming MCU Project, Ranked By Fans’ Excitement.
Movies that have been confirmed to be in development by Marvel, like solo sequels for Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man, don’t count as fully “confirmed,” since they don’t have titles or release dates and remain mere possibilities as far as anything official is concerned.
WandaVision
MCU fans have been basically unanimous in the opinion that Scarlet Witch and Vision are the most boring couple in the franchise (aside from maybe Thor and Jane Foster), so the prospect of them getting a whole streaming series on Disney+ dedicated to their relationship hasn’t exactly piqued their interest.
However, the mystery of how Vision comes back to life following his death and the destruction of the Mind Stone, as well as Marvel’s promise that the show will tie in directly with the next Doctor Strange movie, have made it a slightly more intriguing project. Still, the excitement level for WandaVision is pretty low.
Hawkeye
Ever since he first joined the MCU, fans have been joking that Hawkeye is useless, because the team has a god, a practically indestructible green monster, and a genetically enhanced super soldier, and Hawkeye just has a bow and arrow. But he has proven time and time again that he’s not completely useless.
Clint Barton has dipped in and out of retirement ever since Age of Ultron, and admittedly, a show about Clint hanging out with his family and occasionally fighting crime with a bow and arrow wouldn’t be very exciting, but this isn’t a show about Clint Barton’s Hawkeye. It’ll follow his quest to train the next Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, a fan favorite from the comics. So, there’s slightly more reason to care.
The Eternals
The Eternals movie will undoubtedly be an awesome affair, with a story spanning eons of life and a cast of characters that are tantamount to gods, but as it stands, they’re a pretty obscure property. Just like the Guardians of the Galaxy were relatively little-known characters before James Gunn’s movie came along and saw to that, the Eternals will almost certainly become just as popular as soon as their movie is released and it blows audiences away.
But since they’re unknown to most moviegoers and very little has been revealed about the movie itself, The Eternals hasn’t gotten fans as excited as some of the other upcoming projects in the MCU.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
It seems unusual that the title of this upcoming Disney+ series wasn’t changed after new details came to light in Avengers: Endgame. Sam Wilson isn’t the Falcon anymore; he’s the new Captain America. And Bucky Barnes would surely want to distance himself from his brainwashed assassin name; he goes by “White Wolf” now.
Whether the title changes or not, this show will be a fun homage to the buddy cop genre (one of the major genres that the MCU has yet to explore), as well as an interesting follow-up to the events of Captain America: Civil War, with Sam adjusting to life as Cap and Bucky continuing to move on from his checkered past as they take on Zemo again.
What If...?
This animated streaming series will take pivotal moments in the MCU and imagine how things might have played out if they’d gone a little differently. There are plenty of exciting prospects – the Russo brothers once said that if Tony and Steve had been on speaking terms between Civil War and Infinity War, the Avengers would’ve been able to beat Thanos – and even more exciting is the fact that the producers have managed to sign on pretty much every single star from the movies to reprise their roles in animated form.
Premiering on Disney+, it’ll be like Love, Death + Robots if it were set in the MCU. It’s shaping up to be a godsend for diehard followers of the franchise.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Fans were already excited for the Shang-Chi movie they were promised, but with Marvel’s Comic-Con panel bringing more details about the plot – and its full cast, including the great international star Tony Leung – that excitement has been kicked up a notch.
As well as the beloved Shang-Chi character making his big-screen debut, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings promises to introduce audiences to the Mandarin: not the embarrassment that was Trevor Slattery – an iconic and fearsome comic book villain reduced to a laughing-stock soccer hooligan – the real Mandarin. He’s been teased since long back in the short film All Hail the King and fans have been waiting to see the real Mandarin ever since – and finally, they will.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
After many fans were slightly disappointed that Spider-Man: Far From Home didn’t explore the multiverse like it promised to (although it was a great movie and the lie about the multiverse led to a satisfying villain role for Mysterio), Marvel announced a second Doctor Strange solo movie that will take the Sorcerer Supreme into said multiverse.
He’ll also be teaming up with Scarlet Witch, which is pretty exciting – maybe the MCU can finally make her mutant abilities more thrilling and her character more interesting. Plus, it’ll be the first MCU movie to directly link to a streaming series, which is quite momentous for this franchise.
Thor: Love and Thunder
Despite the critical acclaim and the unanimous opinion that it improved the Thor character, Thor: Ragnarok was a pretty divisive movie. While a lot of fans just went for its unique tone and fell in love with it, others felt that Taika Waititi made it too comedic. Waititi has been hired back to direct (and write, this time) the fourth Thor solo movie, Love and Thunder.
Its unexpected premise has gotten most fans intrigued: Jane Foster, Thor’s long-forgotten romantic interest who most fans dismissed as boring, will take on the mantle of Thor, while Valkyrie will be confirmed as bi as she searches for a queen to help her rule New Asgard. It seems like, despite having his name in the title, Thor (Odinson, that is) will be taking a backseat in the movie. Whatever the case, these are great characters and Waititi surely knows what he’s doing.
Black Widow
The Black Widow prequel (we have to assume it’s a prequel, otherwise it’ll be a movie about a corpse on Vormir) is one of the most exciting upcoming MCU movies, since it’ll be the next one to be released – we’ll be treated to it sooner than the others. What makes this movie extra exciting is that its plot is vague, and the past events of the MCU are no help.
We got flashes of Natasha’s backstory in Age of Ultron and the set photos seem to suggest this movie won’t be an origin story. The most intriguing part is that the character just died irreversibly to acquire the Soul Stone in Endgame, so exactly how this movie will fit into the MCU timeline remains to be seen.
Loki
Kevin Feige has said that the character he’s been asked the most questions about since the release of Avengers: Endgame is Loki. MCU fans thought they’d seen the last of the Norse trickster god (although they didn’t really, since he’s pretended to die before) when Thanos killed him in Infinity War, but then he reappeared in Endgame when Earth’s mightiest heroes went back in time to 2012, when Loki nearly destroyed New York with a Chitarui invasion.
In one of the many new timelines created by the “Time Heist,” Loki nabbed the Space Stone and evaded capture. Naturally, fans are dying to see where he ended up, and this Disney+ series promises to explain that.
