During July's Comic-Con International in San Diego, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige unveiled the full slate of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Four, which includes Loki, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and WandaVision for Disney+, as well as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Eternals.
Considering the studio has been known to seed its next crop of projects throughout previous movies, you'd be forgiven if you assumed the Phase Four plans had an effect on the ending of Avengers: Endgame. However, in an interview with Canada.com, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed the MCU's next phase had no effect whatsoever on the film's conclusion.
"Not really," McFeely answered when asked if they had to worry about Phase 4. "It’s one of the reasons I think this movie has done so well. Along with the directors, we were allowed to end a chapter. That means you can tell a very different kind of story than if you’re pulling your punches and you have to worry about what happens in another hero’s movie happening three years from now. That is absolutely a risk. Fifteen years ago, a studio is not going to let you kill Iron Man under any circumstances. But it’s great for storytelling."
"It’s also what keeps the MCU fresh," Markus added. "They’re willing to burn the forest down — periodically — to let new things grow. That is what has driven the creativity."
"My hope is that people understand this is serialized storytelling done on an epic scale," McFeely continued, "in a way that hasn’t been done before because Marvel is playing with house money and they can do that."
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira and Bradley Cooper, with Josh Brolin as Thanos. The film is now available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.