Kevin Feige confirms 'Avengers 4' is an MCU 'finale' with major characters exits
(image via Marvel Studios)
You knew it wouldn't last forever.
Nearly a decade after Marvel unleashed it's cinematic universe with 2008's "Iron Man," the grand scheme that led to the revival of the comic book movie is drawing to a close. To put things in perspective, it's not out of bounds to credit the MCU's success for saving the comic book industry at large.
In a cover story with Vanity Fair, President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige says the release of 2019's untitled "Avengers 4" film will be the end of an era.
After Avengers 4, an ambitious multi-franchise crossover movie slated for release in 2019, at least some of the original characters who sit at the center of the billion-dollar Avengers team will be hanging up their capes and shields. That’s partially because the Marvel contracts with the actors who play them—Evans (Captain America), Ruffalo (Hulk), Downey (Iron Man), Johansson (Black Widow), Hemsworth (Thor), and Renner (Hawkeye)—are coming to an end. Meanwhile, DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, one of the top-grossing films of 2017, proved that Marvel doesn’t have a monopoly on beloved superhero icons.
Disney promises that Marvel has at least another 20 years’ worth of characters and worlds to explore—for starters, the studio is finally delivering films with black and female heroes at the core—but declines to offer up any secrets of that ambitious slate.
With the core group of Avengers moving on, it will be interesting to see who picks up the mantle for Marvel.
Are Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange and Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther enough to carry the torch for now? Does Marvel try to embrace its collaboration with Sony over Tom Holland's Spider-Man? Regardless of the success of Brie Larson's upcoming "Captain Marvel," I wouldn't be shocked to see Tessa Thompson get her wish for a female-led project alongside Larson and Zoe Saldana.
While Feige refused to reveal any details about the characters and stories Marvel has yet to introduce, he did promise a definitive end to the franchise that built Marvel. Avengers 4, he said, will “bring things you’ve never seen in superhero films: a finale.” This may mean a lot of dead Avengers at the hands of the villain Thanos, who has appeared sporadically and tantalizingly since the first Avengers movie back in 2012. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe will live on. “There will be two distinct periods. Everything before Avengers 4 and everything after. I know it will not be in ways people are expecting,” Feige teased.
"Avengers: Infinity War" hits theaters on May 4, 2018.
