Friday, July 26, 2019

What We Know About the MCU Post-SDCC (Movies)


Last week at San Diego Comic Con we learned a lot of information about what will become Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including movies and TV shows. Here's what we know about the movies of Phase 4 so far (I'll cover shows another day).

Black Widow (May 1, 2020)
We've known for a while now that were getting a Black Widow solo film. After her death in "Endgame" it became obvious that it'd be a prequel. I had assumed it would take place in full before "Iron Man 2", but it's reported (I couldn't find a good source for it) that it'll take place between "Civil War" and "Infinity War". Perhaps this'll show us how she teamed up with Falcon and Cap? I'm skeptical of that because Chris Evans seems to be done with the movies, but you never know if a cameo could happen.

As far as potential plot, we've had teases of maybe getting backstory for Natasha. There was mention of Budapest and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of the Red Room (seen previously in "Agent Carter" and in Black Widow's "Age of Ultron" nightmare). The potential problem is that anything with her story would be past tense. We do know that the Taskmaster has been teased. I don't know much about the Taskmaster (just what I researched for this post), but he has the power of photographic reflexes, matching fighting patterns. So will he have a legit power in the movie or will he just be a hugely skill super spy?

Thoughts: I'm really skeptical of this movie for one reason. Urgency. We know Natasha won't die until 2023, so (even if the movie gets intense) we don't have to fear for Black Widow's life. So why should I care about this movie? Is the Taskmaster going to come back in a later movie/series? Or will one of Black Widow's friends become relevant later on? It kind of reminds me of the Nikki/Paulo episode of LOST. Just filler. I hope I'm proven wrong.

The Eternals (November 6, 2020)
We don't know much about the Eternals yet, especially the movie versions. The comics put them as a version of super-powered humans created by the Celestials. We've had a taste of the Celestials in "Guardians of the Galaxy" with Ego and Star-Lord (who's half-Celestial), but we don't know much about them yet. From the little I've read so far, it sounds almost like the Eternals are the Celestials' version of the Kree's inhumans. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens here.

Thoughts: Because I know so little about the Eternals, it's hard to give an opinion. Other than a series of character names (which mean nothing to me since I haven't read the comics). I don't feel like we've been sent into the dark like this since Guardians of the Galaxy introduced a talking raccoon.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (February 12, 2021)
I don't know much about Shang-Chi yet, but we've seen the Ten Rings around before. They were featured prominently in "Iron Man" when they kidnapped Tony Stark (the first MCU villain, if you think about it). They also had a small role in "Ant-Man" when one of their representatives tried to get the copy-cat Pym Particles. We've also heard that we'll see the real Mandarin. A version of the Mandarin appeared in "Iron Man 3" and it upset fans, but in one of their "Marvel One-Shots" it was revealed he was a fake and that the Ten Rings were upset about it.

As far as Shang-Chi himself, I don't know much. Based on the comics, he's a kung-fu master who has been a member of the Avengers at certain times. He's beaten super-powered enemies before even though he's not powered himself. I guess we'll have to see how that plays out on screen.

Thoughts: Like "The Eternals", I'm going in blind, but this time it's more like with "Doctor Strange". I wonder if there'll be an overlap in mythology with "Iron Fist", another MCU martial artist. It would be an interesting way to re-use Iron Fist, since his Netflix show wasn't popular.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
We had a sequel confirmed a while back for "Doctor Strange". It was hinted back then that Mordo would be coming back as a villain, stealing others' magic (per credit scene). In addition to Mordo, we have confirmation of Doctor Strange (duh), Wong, Dr. Christine Palmer, and (the surprise) Scarlet Witch. Especially since Phase 4 will overlap with TV series more, it'll be interesting to see how WandaVision plays into this movie.

Thoughts: I'm excited to see this one. I was very impressed by "Doctor Strange" and how he appeared in "Infinity War" and "Endgame". I know it wasn't the most popular MCU movie, but I really liked it. And especially since the movie will include even more crossover of MCU characters, I'm excited for it.

Thor: Love and Thunder
I was surprised to hear that a fourth Thor movie was coming out. With fat Thor off with the Guardians and Valkyrie back on Earth, it's unclear how this movie will play out. Will we see Star-Lord and Rocket again? Or will Thor have abandoned them before the movie begins. In addition to Thor and Valkyrie returning, we were surprised to have it revealed that Jane Foster is coming back and teased to replace Thor. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Last we'd heard, Jane and Thor had broken up and Mjolnir was destroyed. It was through Mjolnir that Jane got her Thor powers in the comics, so I wonder how it'll happen this time.

Thoughts: I'm skeptical of this, just because there have been three Thor movies already. I kind of feel like it's time to move on to something new. Then again, maybe having Natalie Portman take over as Thor will accomplish that. I'll definitely give it a chance, but we'll see what happens.

Anything I missed from San Diego Comic Con? Which movie are you looking forward to the most?

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