With the notable exception of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, the majority of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s marquee heroes have so far tended to follow the rule of three. It applied to Iron Man and Captain America, James Gunn already admitted that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will mark his last involvement with the band of cosmic misfits, and if you view Infinity War and Endgame as two halves of the same story, then the original lineup of the Avengers also embarked on a trilogy of adventures.
Of course, the upcoming Spider-Man 3 will definitely not be the last of Tom Holland’s solo outings, but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could well be a swansong of sorts for Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, especially if the Young Avengers end up factoring into the story as has been widely rumored. The MCU is always moving forward, though, with Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and Black Panther all getting their first sequels in 2022.
Ryan Coogler’s second visit to Wakanda was devastated by the loss of leading man Chadwick Boseman, but production has only been delayed by four months and cameras will start rolling in July of next year. Which is just a year ahead of the movie hitting theaters.
We know that before Boseman lost a four-year battle to colon cancer that only his closest confidants knew he was even fighting, the actor was gearing up to start training for his return as T’Challa, and a new report now claims that he was also negotiating a deal that would have seen him net a $20 million paycheck for Black Panther 3 before he was tragically taken long before his time. It’s unclear if that would’ve been the final solo outing for the character, but it seems that Marvel were at least planning to give him his own trilogy to match the aforementioned heroes.