The contents and direction of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are some of the most closely guarded secrets in Hollywood. Fans know a great deal: the list of slated releases has been available for some time, and Marvel hasn’t been the slightest bit shy about where things are headed. The stylized number “4” at the end of a sizzle reel was too obvious for any fan to miss.
That said, a number of bumps have arisen in the road that even the MCU had to contend with, most notably the disruption of production and release schedules created by the COVID-19 pandemic. That leaves a large number of previously settled issues suddenly up in the air and the release schedule undergoing multiple revisions in the wake of an ever-evolving reality. The bulk of the remaining Phase Four projects are in a mild state of flux as far as release schedules go. And with five theatrical films and six streaming series already released, it begs the question of when Phase Four will actually end.
Movie studios traditionally lock-in release dates years in advance. That allows the big blockbusters to claim the pole position while leaving less sure bets scrambling for alternate dates. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, for example, used to open on Memorial Day weekend as an unofficial start to the summer movie season. More recently, the MCU claimed the first week in May, a tradition upheld this year by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The rest of Phase Four has rolled out a little differently, however. It officially kicked off with Black Widow, which was originally slated for a May 1, 2020 release. The COVID pandemic changed all of that, and with movie theaters across the world unsafe at the time, the film's release was bumped a year. It ultimately opened on July 9, 2021, along with a concurrent release on Disney+ in a short-lived experiment with multi-platforming.
That had a ripple effect on the entire schedule, and when new dates were set to reflect the disruption of the pandemic, not all of them could be kept. The Multiverse of Madness and Black: Panther: Wakanda Forever both encountered delays and reshoots, further complicating the schedule. Meanwhile, the success of the MCU streaming series on Disney+ -- all of which are integral parts of the franchise story -- gave Phase Four an additional rafter of content that needed to be factored into the ever-evolving timeline. It's no surprise that the exact status of Phase Four has become more of an open question.
Officially, there are five more movies -- including Love and Thunder -- and six more streaming series on the way, along with an untitled Halloween special and the previously announced The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. All the movies have release dates locked in, though the streaming series are still up in the air. And as has already proven the case, those dates might change owing to production delays or similar concerns.
A few things can be inferred based on what’s come before. Intriguingly, there are no Avengers movies slated for Phase Four, nor does that look to change. Phases One-Three each concluded with one -- Phase Three with a double-bill -- but following the events of Avengers: Endgame, the team’s status is in significant doubt. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may serve as a substitute, as could The Marvels, which is the last film in the cycle as of this writing. Yet Guardians is a sufficiently far-flung corner of the MCU to make such an anchor position unlikely at best, while The Marvels looks more focused on three individuals rather than a team of the same sort the Avengers were.
In the end, however, it’s hard not to believe that the anchor project is what Marvel all but stated it would be from the start. The sheer serendipity of ending Phase Four with The Fantastic Four in 2024 is simply too big to let pass (it will be another decade before the year ends on the right number, for starters), and while the specifics may be in question, the MCU will likely deliver it with the same panache they did in Endgame. Marvel’s First Family can then anchor Phases Five and Six much the way the Avengers did, possibly before passing the torch on to the X-Men to start a new cycle sometime after that. It’s the smart play, and while the MCU isn’t always perfect, smart plays are still a big part of its brand.