We're In The Endgame Now

Marvel's problem for most movies of the past 4 years is that they have a character they want to sell you, but no script to do it with.

the mutliverse was handled terribly, they shouldve centred the mutliverse story around the heroes discovering the multiverse and having it be mysteroious. Instead they explained exactly how it worked and set out the rules and then every multiverse project after that completely ignored those rules

Early phase 4 was actually really promising, WandaVision, Loki, Shang-Chi, and No Way Home actually felt kinda fresh and interesting. I'm surprised they didn't double-down on those projects and cultivating that feel. Like it's insane to me that we haven't seen Shang-Chi again yet. At least to my memory, that movie was so well received and everyone fell in love with the rising star that is Simi Liu. It would have been a slam dunk to make him one your main stars going forward. I don't understand Marvel as a studio anymore or their decision-making.

The end of Loki was the first thing that felt like old mcu in a while

Loki season 2 is fantastic, and can honestly be watched as a satisfying end to the Kang arc and finale to the MCU as whole if you're ready to walk away.

Remember when phase 1 was 6 movies? One for each important character, an extra for Iron Man since he's the main character, and then a team up that was teased since day 1. Rather than a dozen separate shows that go nowhere with no clear direction for the future.

Almost everything after the Infinity saga has felt like a quick cash grab to squeeze what's left out of the superhero genre with as little effort as possible. It's the same plan (or lack thereof) as the Star Wars sequels: they just assumed we love the IP so much we would watch anything in the brand. Well, they were dead wrong. What a shame, because there's still a lot of great stories to tell.

Jackman and Maguire doing secret wars sounds fucking awful. Seriously people, take the nostalgia goggles off. Let these franchises progress beyond actors who did these roles over two decades ago.

Whoever directed Deadpool & John Wick need to handle Blade 😎

I'm going to be perfectly honest. I don't care about this, but I do care about the VFX artists. Have they unionized?

Marvel should have wrapped up the original Avenger stories after Endgame and then started building towards the new Avengers team by making good original standalone stories first, with some new big-bad in the background. Then team them up once everyone loves them. Same formula as the original Avengers, but new actors and stories to get behind.

Spiderman 4 with Tobey Maguire would be amazing. I'm surprised it hasn't happened after the reaction to Tobey Maguire's return in No Way Home. Except for the older Spiderman in Into The Spiderverse, we've never really got the older, tired Spiderman who has been doing it for decades. It could be like Ben Affleck's Batman. I was so disappointed that Ben Affleck's standalone Batman film was cancelled.

It seems clear to me they had no plan after Endgame other than build to A force. They crit the bed with this multiverse saga, Kang has taken too many L's at this point to be taken seriously.

I hate how much sense this man is making.

Aside from No Way Home, the two seasons of Loki is the best thing post End Game. No doubt Covid threw a wrench into things. I feel like Marvel might have been too eager to create the next big threat. Having a few lower budget, lower stake, and less interconnected movies early on post End Game might have been a good way to prevent the current catch up fatigue that many viewers feel. Then slowly build the big threat back up. Back to basic of Phase One. Only Thor and Captain American actually felt like required watching plot wise for the first Avenger movie, the Iron Man(s) and Hulk were more character introduction rather than contributing to the plot.

Does anyone else feel like Loki season 2's ending will be used as a convenient excuse to stop putting Jonothan Majors/Kang in the rest of the MCU after his legal/criminal allegations? Edit: I know people will ask - it's domestic violence charges against him

One thing the MCU did during the Infinity Saga was hold some kind of event, around the end of each phase to connect all, if not most, of the prior characters in the phase. Phase 1 had the Avengers, Phase 2 had Ultron and, let’s face it, Civil War, and 3 had Infinity War and Endgame. The new phases don’t really have that, they just sort of expect for all of it to come together in Kang’s Dynasty and Secret Wars with no prior development. Most characters in the MCU now seem like they don’t at all exist in the wider world. Characters like Shang-Chi, The Eternals, and Moon Knight are so unimportant to the overall world, and so little mentioned, that it makes you wonder why they were even made. Sure, the Infinity Saga had that with Guardians, but those films atleast had a reason and would also help to expand on Thanos and the Infinity Stones.

If only Kevin Feige and the other Marvel executives watched Full Fat Videos…

After Endgame, Marvel should have taken a small break and gone dark for a little bit. Really spend some time identifying who the core characters would be going forward, what their main themes would be, and a general starting location for everyone. It feels so much like they're just firing from the hip, and if they don't really care to have any real consistency, it's hard for me to care about what's happening.

The reason Marvel ain't bringing Wesley Snipes around for Blade again is probably obvious if you've ever heard any stories about Wesley Snipes working on Blade movies.