All aboard phase 4
Now that the Infinity War style dust has settled on Kevin Feige unveiling Marvel's next batch of MCU projects, from big to small screen, lets look at the big takeaways from this colossal announcement, from surprise comebacks and ground-breaking projects, to the confirmation of some familiar faces joining everyone’s favourite cinematic universe, and more.
Black Widow Finally exists
Months of speculation and rumours were finally confirmed with the arrival of Scarlett Johansson onto the Hall H stage. Joined by now confirmed cast members, Florence Pugh (playing Widow's long-time friend and sometimes adversary Yelena Babkoff), Rachel Weisz (starring as Melina Vostokoff), O.T. Fagbennie, who may well be playing Black Widow's equivalent to Peter Parker's 'man in the chair' Ned, and David Harbour as Alexi (which a quick google search tells you may well be the Soviet answer to Captain America). As far as the much discussed plot and time frame of the Movie is concerned, Feige, and director Cate Shortland revealed that the story will explore past events in the life of Johansson's Romanov, whilst also confirming that some part of the film will take place just after the events of Captain America:Civil War. The Hall H crowd were treated to a few minutes of footage which appeared to show a face-off between Johansson and Pugh, whilst also opening with a title card reading 'Budapest'. Could this mean a cameo from Natasha's long-time friend and confidant, Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton (Hawkeye)?
Shang-Chi title and star confirmed
Marvel's first Asian superhero will leap onto screen Feburary 2021. As expected, Short Term 12's Destin Daniel Cretton walked onto stage as director, before himself then introducing Shang-Chi himself. Actor and (sometimes) stuntman Simu Liu, who, along with Awkwafina (in an unconfirmed role) and Tony Leung, playing the Mandarin (sorry Ben Kingsley fans) rounded out the announcements for a film Kevin Feige will hope has the cultural hitting power of Black Panther, when it hits screens.
Thor title, stars confirmed
One of the most anticipated panels of the day without question. News had already leaked that mercurial director Taika Waititi would be returning to write and direct Thor 4, but Feige (and Waititi) confirmed not only the title as Thor:Love and Thunder and release date, November 2021, but dropped some bombshell news as well. Confirmed, we had the return of (of course) Chris Hemsworth as the god of thunder himself, last seen ready to bounce round the universe with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, who herself appeared to confirm the new queen of Asgard as Marvel's first LGBTQ hero. However, the most shocking news came from the arrival on stage of Thor's 'old flame' to quote him in Endgame, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Having appeared to rule herself out of ever appearing in the MCU again, she is back, not only as renowned scientist, but also this time as a goddess of thunder herself, as Portman will be taking on the role of female Thor, inspired by a run of Marvel comics from 2014, in which Foster is revealed as worthy enough to wield Mjolnir. The announcement also came with a moment of hilarity as Taika Waititi took a knee to hand Portman a toy version of Thor's trusty hammer.
Disney+ to be far more crucial than many expected
Not to be cast to the wayside as the likes of Marvels's Agent's of SHIELD, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Iron Fist were, those character swapping the big screen fr small were revealed
to have a pivotal role to play in the future of MCU. Especially in its shorter than normal Phase. Beginning next year with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, following the events of Avengers:Endgame in which Mackie's Sam Wilson received Cap's shield and with it the mantel of Captain America, Disney's new streaming service and its shows will have consequences and storylines that lead into the the Movie universe as a whole. Following the former is Loki, which will again be inspired by events left behind in the now highest-grossing film of all time, as upon escaping New York with the Tesseract, Loki will embark on adventures throughout human history, no doubt lending his mischievous hand to events. Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye (although the most behind in production) was also confirmed, with Renner excited to 'teach someone without superpowers to be a superhero', referring to the yet to be cast Kate Bishop, whilst the final sow to be confirmed was the Jeremy Wright starring 'What If?' an animated show that follows Wright as a 'Watcher' someone who oversees the events of humanity and may time to time 'alter events'.
The most crucial however may in fact be the one which appears the least serious. 'WandaVision' starring Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlett Witch and Paul Bettany's (at the moment dead) Vision will apparently, according to Feige be the 'craziest' project the MCU has seen, and will lead into the events of one of the stand-out entries for Phase 4.
Doctor Strange to be a horror?
That stand-out entry is Scott Derickson's long time planned and hotly anticipated sequel to Doctor Strange, now titled Doctor Strange:In the Multiverse of Madness. Benedict Cumberbatch will return as the master of the mystic arts, whilst fan favourite Benedict Wong is also sure to reprise his role as Strange's friend and ally.
However the biggest takeaways were Derickson stating how he wants to make 'the MCU's first scary film' and how he plans to use the horror/gothic elements of the comics in this sequel, plus the news the Olsen's Scarlett Witch will be joining Strange on his latest adventure, and that the events of her show (mentioned above) will lead directly into the film.
Eternals cast confirmed
With rumours having swirled almost as long as those of Black Widow, Feige and director Chloe Zhao finally shed some light on what Feige will surely hope is as much as a hit as then unknown Guardians of the galaxy. Roles were confirmed, with Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Bryan Tyree Henry as Phasmos, Lauren Ridloff, playing the MCU's first deaf superhero as Makkari, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gigamesh, Kumail Nanjani as Kingo, and finally Selma Hayek as Ajak. Releasing November 2020, it remains to be seen if Marvel can conjure up a story human enough for the characters to be taken into hearts and minds the way James Gun did with Guardians back in 2014. (To find out more about The Eternals, read our piece on 'What to Expect from Comic-Con')
Feige teases 'Fantastic Four' and 'X-Men'
Right before he signed off and closed down the panel, Marvel's leader confirmed that they were working towards new versions of both franchises that have been tackled many times in the past. No concrete casting news or release dates, however Feige did say this version of the 'X-Men' would be 'unlike anything seen before on screen'. All in all it would appear that we will see these characters embedded into the MCU during its (as of now) completely stacked Phase 5, which due to their absences here would seem to include, Ryan Coogler's Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, Spider-
Man 3 (although Sony may announce this in their own time), and James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which would offer some clarity as to why this newly announced phase 4, runs much shorter than it's predecessor, sheduling to finish in November 2021 with Thor:Love and Thunder.
Thatcher shows up on-screen for, at most, 10 seconds. She looks remarkably like Thatcher and comes off as almost too polished, non-human like. Further clues are pointing at AI.