Hi! Before we begin, we would like to stress that this will be a spoiler-ridden post so if you are yet to watch Avengers: Infinity War, we strongly suggest you look away. This post was intended for those who have watched the movie and are looking for additional theories and thoughts following the ending of Infinity War.

Want to share your two cents? Awesome. Comments section is right down below. But before we head any further, we have to say this:

SPOILERS IMMINENT BEYOND THIS POINT

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LET’S GO

Like most of you who have watched Infinity War, we came out of the cinema hall with tons of questions and theories as of the direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the multiple deaths and shift in status quo. While our first guess was that the remaining heroes to reverse the deaths of their friends in Avengers 4, we cannot help but imagine the direction Marvel intend to take with their heroes beyond that point. So today we are presenting six theories on the MCU direction post-Avengers 4.

1. Replacing the Legacy Heroes with Someone ‘New’ to Take Over their Mantle 

We know that the contracts for Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans is set to end with Avengers 4 and while it does not necessitate that they leave the roles they are best known for, we feel that Marvel might take a clean slate approach by introducing new characters to carry the roles of Iron Man and Captain America respectively. They’ve done it in the comics, so why not do the same for the movies? While I personally cannot see anyone else donning the Iron Man suit or carrying the Captain America shield aside from the above-mentioned actors, a breath of fresh air with new faces may be what Marvel need.

In the comics, Sam Wilson a.k.a Falcon and Bucky Barnes both carried the shield in Steve’s absence while Riri Williams assumed Iron Man (as Iron Heart) duties while Stark was in comatose following Civil War II. While I doubt that they would cast another actress to assume the Riri Williams role, I’m gonna go out on a limb here to claim that Shuri will be the next person to don the Iron Man suit.

2. Launch All New Avengers 

Still on the theme of replacing the legacy heroes with more youthful and modern counterparts, we have the All New Avengers. While it will indeed be a bold move that may rub some quarters the wrong way, Marvel have always been on the path of preaching that a hero is more than just the suit, shield or hammer. Don’t believe me? It has always been the theme in the following movies:

• Captain America: First Avenger – Dr Erskine to Steve – “You will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.”
• Thor Ragnarok – Odin to Thor – “What are you, Thor, god of hammers?”
• Spider-Man: Homecoming – Stark to Peter – “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.”

There are many more examples peppered throughout the 18 movies preceding Infinity War that essentially says ‘anyone can be a hero’. It also opens endless possibilities on the direction of the MCU. The current heroes live in parameters we are well accustomed with. Normal is boring. Perhaps it is time for a massive shake-up.

3. Focus More on Individual Hero Arcs e.g Standalones 

Aside from the earlier movies within MCU’s Phase 1 and selected movies in Phase 3, most of the MCU movies are significant pieces of the larger arc leading to Infinity War. Perhaps Marvel will tackle stories with isolated issues as they take a break from grand-scale events following Avengers 4. Perfect examples of such movies include Ant-Man, Spider-man: Homecoming and Iron Man 2.

I would personally like to watch a stand-alone Hawkeye movie (The Bourne Legacy does not count) or even a focus on Hulk’s time in Sakaar prior to Thor: Ragnarok. Perhaps it’s high time for a Black Widow movie even focusing on her years between the KGB and SHIELD even.

Such movies allow viewers to better understand these characters and in a way, shifts focus on character development rather than an over-arching plot advancement.

4. Integrate their Netflix Superheroes Into the MCU 

Who wouldn’t want to see a Daredevil & Spider-Man movie going against the likes of Kingpin and his goons in the streets of New York? To date, our Netflix Marvel heroes, while living in the same city as Spider-man, Doctor Strange and Tony Stark, haven’t come in direct contact with the Major League players and the time is nigh.

Spider-man has always been the scrappy sort and wouldn’t it be awesome to see him sharing screen time with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and (ugh) Iron Fist as well? This could be a standalone arc which opens room for even Spider-Man’s appearances on the smaller screen. There’s almost unlimited potential in shifting Peter’s focus to issues closer to the ground and it would be such a waste for Netflix to pass this opportunity up.

5. Return of the Fantastic Four to the Silver Screen – Under the MCU Banner

Now we are putting on our tinfoil hats for this theory but hear us out aye. In 2015, Marvel Comics cancelled the run of their Fantastic Four comic. This was just around the time the reboot version of the movie, which starred Erik Killmonger Michael B Jordan was released by Fox. Jonathan Hickman, the writer of Fantastic Four at the time, said that the series was cancelled due to movie rights issues. Of course we all know – the movie tanked big time. Now back to present day.

While it is a well known fact that arcs and stories in the comic books rarely gets reflected in the movies save for some broad themes (e.g Civil War, Infinity War), these comics’ releases were timed to serve as additional reading material for the Marvel world as a whole and sometimes even riding on the wave of the movies. For example, about the same time of the release of Captain America: Civil War in theaters, Marvel Comics released Civil War II. Coincidence? We think not.

Mistakes were made

The recent Disney/ Fox deal not only opened up so many possibilities and the reason we are confident that a F4 movie is around the corner was due to the fact that Marvel recently announced that a reboot of the Fantastic Four comic  which is due in August.

“The First Family is returning to Marvel on a monthly basis,” said Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski in Marvel’s announcement video.

Also, this would be a two-pronged move. Not only are Marvel introducing new (but familiar) heroes to the MCU, by shifting the focus on Reed Richards and his family, the core Avengers characters are allowed to take a break and avoid the dreaded superhero fatigue on the marketing standpoint.

Sidenote: We can’t wait to see Chris Evans as Steve Rogers introduce himself to Johnny Storm if this movie ever comes to fruition.

6. Crossover with X-Men and other Marvel IPs Deemed Impossible In the Past

If you told me in 2015 that Spider-Man would be starring in an MCU movie alongside Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Star-Lord kicking Thanos’ butt – I’d report you for #fakenews. But look at how far we’ve come.

Sony Pictures saw the light and they allowed Disney to use Spider-Man under their MCU wing. Fox would be wise to follow suit and we aren’t dismissing the chance of seeing the likes of Deadpool running amok alongside Hulk and Spider-Man or even an X-Men crossover.

The recent reveal of the Venom standalone movie was received with mixed reactions but we felt there’s more to it. Such setup sans Spider-Man, while is weird considering the back-story of Venom may be a buildup to a larger arc. We are counting on a big reveal at the end of this Venom movie starring Tom Hardy.

Even at the end of Infinity War we are yet to feel the full extent of what the Infinity Gauntlet is able to do and we won’t be surprised if Marvel decides to use it as basis to alter the reality of the MCU altogether. The idea of parallel universes can be easily ret-conned into the timeline allowing such crossovers to take place; and with Fox’s blessing, perhaps reboot the X-Men and fitting them into the MCU.

Of course all these theories mentioned above are just based on our assumptions of how Disney would steer the Marvel brand post Avengers 4. Surely you folks have your own ideas – perhaps even better than ours. As usual, comments section is right down below.