Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige caused a major stir recently when he made some ambiguous comments about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He talked of wanting the MCU to have “a finite quality” and even teased that “all good things come to an end.” Of course, this got fans worried that the previously announced Phase Four might not happen, after all, and that the MCU as we know it would close up shop.
Thankfully, another prominent filmmaker at Marvel Studios has now come forward to offer some context to Feige’s remarks. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn took to Twitter to urge people to read the producer’s actual quotes and not the “static” that’s built up around them. He assured fans that, while Avengers 4 is “the end of one long story,” Phase Four will be “the beginning of another.”
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/919972005172142082
Gunn then reminded everyone that his next movie is set to, as he put it, “kickstart the new story.” Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is already in development, as we know, with the director having at least handed in the script treatment for the threequel. Where it’ll take the plot is currently a mystery, but it will apparently be instrumental in the post-Avengers 4 MCU.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/919972252116049920
The director’s comments here should come as a relief for fans worried over the future of the franchise. To sum things up: no, there will not be a reboot or a full stop in the next few years. The same continuity will last past Avengers 4, with the production of GotG Vol. 3 being proof of that. The other Phase Four movie that we know about is the currently untitled sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming. Unlike Vol. 3, which is expected to arrive in 2020, that film has already been nailed down for release on July 5th, 2019.
We should also note that unlike the MCU, Gunn was quick to clarify that the story of Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy will come to an end quite soon, as Vol. 3 is expected to be the final film in the series to star these characters.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/919974725195051008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fmarvel%2F2017%2F10%2F16%2Fguardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-marvel-phase-4%2F
We still have six MCU movies to go before Phase Four arrives – namely, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel and Avengers 4 – and while it’s still not exactly clear where things will go from there, it’s good to know that the franchise will most definitely continue on in its current form.