The fourth Avengers movie, Avengers: Endgame (2019) marked the end of Marvel‘s first saga. The much-loved Infinity Saga took a total of 11 years and 21 films to build and complete. Since then, the studio has focused its releases on creating its newest quest: the Multiverse Saga.
The Multiverse Saga: What have we seen so far?
Since the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), the studio has made clear its interest in opening up the Marvel multiverse. The movie shows Doctor Strange’s spell that goes wrong and ends up bringing back the villains from the old Spider-Man movies. Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker gets help from his predecessors, Andrew Garfield‘s Peter and Tobey Maguire‘s Peter, to fight the threat that is plaguing his world. To top it off, the movie also connects with Venom, the trilogy played by Tom Hardy, in the post-credits scene.
Although many fans were betting on WandaVision (2021) to continue to open the path towards the multiverse, it was Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2022) that best addressed the subject. In the movie we are introduced to the character América Chávez who can open portals and travel between these alternative universes. She and Doctor Strange end up traveling unintentionally through these worlds to try to escape the great villain who is after America. Meanwhile, Wanda Maximoff also travels between worlds, but the witch does it through magic by connecting her mind to the body of her double in these other universes.
In addition, both seasons of Loki (2021-2023) dove deep into the functioning of the timelines and its ramifications. We also meet the much-feared villain Kang for the first time, or as he’s called for much of the series “He Who Remains”, who was waiting at the end of time for Loki and Sylvie. Something that really shocked fans at the time, theories ran wild as no one expected him or understood exactly what his role in the saga would be. The second season saw its characters learning and figuring out ways to deal with the multiple branches that had opened up at the end of the previous season. Which ultimately led us to the creation of the famous Yggdrasil, The Tree of Life.
The last two films released by the studio that dealt with this subject were Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and The Marvels (2023). In Quantumania, the heroes travel to the Quantum Universe and meet the much feared Kang, who Marvel was building up to be the Thanos of this new saga, i.e. the great villain.
In The Marvels, at the end of the movie, a hole opens up in space-time and Monica Rambeau sacrifices herself to close it and ends up on the other side of the rift. In one of the post-credit scenes, the movie shows Monica waking up in a parallel reality and meeting one of the members of the X-Men team, Beast.
The Kang Dynasty: Why did plans have to change?
As mentioned before, Kang seemed to be the big villain of this new saga, after appearing in Loki and Quantumania. However, Jonathan Majors, the actor responsible for playing the character in the MCU was charged with domestic violence towards his ex-girlfriend. In response, Marvel cut ties with the actor and has made a pretty big change of plans.
All signs point to Doctor Doom, the classic Fantastic Four villain, as Kang’s replacement who will be played by none other than Robert Downey Jr., former Iron Man. So, it seems fair to say that Marvel no longer seems interested in continuing Kang’s story since they haven’t even mentioned a replacement for the character.
Marvel’s future
Right now, Marvel’s projects have to juggle advancing the multiverse saga and the crisis to come and the stories of the characters who remain in the 616 universe, which is the one we have been following since the beginning. While the series Loki and What If…? (2021), which is about to get its third and final season, expand Marvel’s multiverse and show us the infinite possibilities that exist. Meanwhile, the series Hawkeye (2021) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) showed some of the consequences of Thanos’ actions for the main universe. Other productions such as Agatha All Along (2024), Eternals (2021), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and others have brought in new characters who seem to be relevant in this new stage.
One of the Studios new strategies is to release shows on Disney+ that elaborate on the consequences of the Infinity Saga, introduce and deepen new characters who will play or are already playing important roles in this new saga. On the other hand, one character seems to be the most straight-foward path for fans when it comes to the multiverse.
Wanda Maximoff, since WandaVision, has gained prominence and seems to be a crucial point for the Multiverse Saga, since she was one of the few characters who had direct contact with other universes. And although she died in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, the ending of Agatha All Along could change her future. Kevin Feige has shown an interest in bringing the Scarlet Witch back to the screens and will most likely use Billy Maximoff, Wanda’s son, as a way of doing so.
Fans have also noticed that the Agatha All Along follows more or less the storyline of the comics, but it’s not yet clear whether the other productions will do the same or not. In addition, by adapting Billy and Tommy Maximoff, Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop, America Chavez and Riri Williams, the studio will be ready to carry on the Avengers legacy with the next group of heroes called the Young Avengers.
Marvel’s next releases seem to be the most important for this saga. The long-awaited Fantastic Four (2025) movie, it seems, will take place in one of Marvel’s alternative realities. Many fans are looking forward to it as we will probably be introduced to the villain Doctor Doom.
In addition, there’s the Thunderbolts (2025) movie which seems to hold a very important secret, for some fans at the end of this movie we’ll meet the new Avengers team. Marvel’s plans also show the release of Avengers: Secret Wars (2027), which will adapt the same saga from the comics but we don’t know how faithful it will be. So far some of the studio’s fans are still not seeing any connections between the releases and are anxious to see what’s to come.
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The article above was edited by Fernanda Miki Tsukase.
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