It would, in a perfect world, make total sense for a film called Endgame to mark the end of something.
But this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) we’re talking about, and so nothing is ever simple. Just ask Ant-Man.
Rather than the fourth Avengers film marking the end of the MCU’s phase three, as we’d all thought, it turns out the studio have got other ideas. Instead of the the usual post-credits teaser we’ll be getting a post-Avengers Spider-Man caper to tide us over until phase four begins.
Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, revealed recently that – contrary to popular belief – the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home will close out the third phase of the MCU, rather than Avengers: Endgame.
The producer let slip while talking to a reporter at an event in Shanghai, saying Far From Home is ‘the end of the third phase’, and adding ‘you’re the first one I’ve told that to’.
As if we were in any doubt, but this means, of course, that our young, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man should be returning in the next Avengers film, despite (spoiler alert!) ending up as nothing more than dust in the wind at the end of Infinity War.
Then again, who knows how Marvel are going to play the timelines in the next few films…
You can watch Feige give his response here:
While the hype builds incomparably towards Avengers: Endgame, it’s not a total surprise that there’ll be a film to loosely follow it up – after all, there’ll presumably be a whole heap of tying off any loose ends and cleaning up errant story lines. Endgame may be more than three hours long, but it’ll take more than that to tie up every little detail in the MCU.
As Screen Rant reports, the next Spider-Man film is set to explore the inevitably huge consequences of the Avengers (hopefully) defeating Thanos.
The news that Far From Home is part of phase three has got fans wondering what that means for phase four, as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was believed to be the superhero to helm the next phase.
However, with that seeming not be the case anymore, it leaves room for new franchises – like Black Widow or The Eternals films – to pick up the mantle.
Avengers: Endgame will be released in the UK on April 25 and in the US on April 26.
Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into cinemas on July 5.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.