MCU Speculation: What Phase 4 Sets Up
Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is officially in full swing now that we have had the chance to see Black Widow after a year of being pushed back. Not only that, but we have now reached the end of the first three Disney+ series, with season one of Loki wrapping up last week.
With this first collection of movies and series, there are a few patterns starting to pop up. I’ve already written about these patterns in one sense, talking about the theme that could be connecting the entire phase, but now I want to take some time looking at what hints are being dropped for future MCU projects going into Phase 5, or beyond.
Warning: spoilers for WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Black Widow.
Dark Avengers / Thunderbolts
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine has had two appearances in the MCU so far. First, she stops by in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to recruit John Walker (who she gives the codename US Agent to), and then she appears in the post-credits scene of Black Widow where she gives Yelena Belova (the new Black Widow) her next target.
What’s made obvious between these two appearances is that Valentina is forming a team of her own, one that is so far made up of people who aren’t afraid to kill and take on similar appearances to the original Avengers.
While no name, or even any details, have been given to this team yet, the most likely candidates are the Dark Avengers or the Thunderbolts.
Both teams have relatively similar purposes in the comics. They are both primarily built up from villains who are pretending to be good. The major difference between the two is that the Dark Avengers take on the names and similar costumes to the Avengers. Given the two character recruited so far, this could lean toward it being Dark Avengers we’re getting here.
But the question remains as to what Valentina’s end goal with this team is. So far, she has asked US Agent to hang out and wait for a mission, and she’s given Black Widow the mission to take out Hawkeye to avenge her sister. Is this her goal? To take out what’s left of the Avengers?
Valentina has been around in the comics for a long time. She first appears in the late ‘60s and soon becomes a SHIELD agent who ends up very close with Nick Fury. This continues until 2009, where she poses as Madame Hydra for a short period of time, before revealing herself as an agent for Leviathan, and eventually being imprisoned. Given all of this, her MCU counterpart seems like she could have equal chances of running a dark ops team for SHIELD, working with Hydra, with Leviathan, or even her own thing. I think that more than anything else it is her connection to Fury that could be important, because this MCU version seems to be being set up as a Nick Fury equivalent.
Given how Valentina has been recruiting Avengers-like characters so far, it wouldn’t be too surprising if she pops up in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, where Abomination will be next appearing, and possibly recruiting him to be her Hulk.
I’d bet we’ll be seeing either a Dark Avengers or Thunderbolts movie sometime in Phase 5. But the question remains, what is this team’s goal? Will they be against the Avengers? Or will they act as a dark ops team that takes on similar threats to the Avengers, but are willing to kill their targets?
Young Avengers / Champions
This one is interesting because it has been running through all of the Disney+ series so far, but in more subtle ways than the overt appearances of Valentina. Within the three Disney+ series, we have been introduced to four characters who have been Young Avengers, and by the third show, it feels safe to say that this has been with a purpose in mind.
This all began with WandaVision, where Wanda uses her powers to create her children, Billy and Tommy, who in the comics come back as the Young Avengers Wiccan and Speed, though they have no memory of being Wanda’s children at first.
In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we get our first appearance of Elijah Bradley, the grandson of Isaiah Bradley, one of the original super soldiers. In the comics, he is given a blood transfusion from his grandfather and gains super soldier powers. Or at least, he lies about this being his origin, only to later have it become true. The MCU is better of skipping a step for reasons of being narratively lame, and, well, incredibly problematic.
And then in Loki, we get Kid Loki. While not an original member, he is someone who joins later on.
On top of this, we know America Chavez (Ms. America) will be appearing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a new actress playing Cassie Lang (Stature) will be appearing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) will be appearing in Hawkeye.
Given all these charactering popping up in this phase, there are only two original members missing: Iron Lad, and Hulkling. But, Loki may have given us a glimpse into Iron Lad possibly appearing in the future. Iron Lad is Nathaniel Richards, a child from the future who grows into being Kang the Conqueror, a variant of whom is revealed to be behind the TVA in the season finale of Loki. Nathaniel becomes Iron Lad when he comes to the present from the future, after being shown the evil man he will become and looking to find the Avengers to defeat Kang.
Hulkling is a half Skrull, half Kree, and royalty on both sides. With Secret Invasion and The Marvels coming out in this phase, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see him pop up in either one of them. Secret Invasion is based off a comic where Skrulls have been infiltrating Earth (though, Kevin Feige has already said this will be a smaller take on the comic’s version), and The Marvels having the possibility of involving Skrulls and Kree, given how Captain Marvel was set up in her previous movie.
You might be wondering why I have titled this section with Champions as well, when so far there has only been Young Avengers talked about. Well, much like the Dark Avengers and the Thunderbolts, the two teams are incredibly similar. The Young Avengers get their name for originally posing as young versions of the Avengers (which only lasts about 6 issues of the comic). Champions are a newer team of teen heroes who are built more around wanting to create social change rather than just beat up villains. This is a team basically created by Ms. Marvel, who we will be seeing in her own series, Ms. Marvel, coming to Disney+ later this year.
We also saw Joaquin Torres (who becomes Falcon in the comics) in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and will be seeing Iron Heart in Iron Heart, both of whom have been Champions at one point. So, anything is possible.
Is this enough to say they might go the Champions route over Young Avengers? Probably not. Adding in Champions here is in part because the MCU could be potentially setting up a team that is an amalgamation of the two and tossing in both names hedges my bets.
As far as we know, the Avengers might not exist anymore after the events of Avengers: Endgame. If Valentina brings together a team that is morally grey at best, could the Young Avengers or Champions be a group of kids who come together to show the world what real heroes look like?
If they start with a similar story to the Young Avengers origin from the comics, it’ll be interesting to see how they change it to work within the MCU. As mentioned above, a young Nathaniel Richards comes from the future looking for Avengers, but when he can’t find them, he forms his own.
What’s interesting here, given the events of Endgame and everything we know about time from the TVA, is that the storyline in the comics concludes with Nathaniel needing to return to his time and eventually become the evil Kang, because if he doesn’t, all of history will change. That isn’t how time travel works in the MCU, so, could Iron Lad be sticking around? Hunted by the TVA? Not introduced at all, to avoid dealing with this problem?
Secret Wars
And then we reach the big one… Secret Wars. This is a comic book storyline that I brought up in the original MCU Speculation on how X-Men might eventually show up. In that article, I sighted it as at least possible, but not the way I particularly want the X-Men to join the universe.
There have been multiple versions of Secret Wars in the comics, but here I am referring to the 2015 one. In this, the Ultimate and 616 (main comic book universe) universes collide and by the end are reformed into a new version of the 616 universe that contains elements of both.
After having seen Loki, the possibility of this story happening in the MCU (whether it is to bring in the X-Men or not) seems not only likely, but probably where all of this is currenting racing toward.
When the purpose of the TVA is first explained in Loki, it brings up a massive war within the multiverse. By the time we get to the season finale, He Who Remains explains that this war was the variants of himself fighting for supremacy. He Who Remains is a variant of Kang, who has already been announced as the villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as well as showing up in statue form at the very end of Loki.
On top of this, other parts of the MCU seem to be building in similar concepts. With WandaVision, we got our first mention of a Nexus event through one of the commercials that play within the show. Wanda’s reality warping powers presumably being the Nexus event in question, but with nothing explicitly said confirming this, it is possible that this event is one that has yet to happen, which brings us to Doctor Strange…
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is going to have a lot going on. By the title, we already know it is going to be delving more into the multiverse stuff that has been set up by Loki. On top of this, we know Scarlet Witch will be involved in the movie to some extent. But is Scarlet Witch going to be helping bring the Multiverse problems under control, or part of the cause?
There is also the way What if…? is being set up as glimpses into other parts of the multiverse rather than entirely hypothetical situations. While this could just be just a difference of semantics with no real relevance going forward, it does give potential to maybe seeing people or places from this show carried into later multiverse stories.
On top of all of this are the rumors of Spider-Man: No Way Home. While they have been denied, it would be terrible to be writing about the multiverse shenanigans in the MCU without mentioning them, just in case. Supposedly, this movie will be bringing back past versions of Spider-Man, having a small live action Spider-Verse. My personal guess is that even if that does happen, they will be something like cameo roles, but we’ll see in a few months.
Basically, Phase 4 seems to be establishing the multiverse quite a bit, while setting it up almost simultaneously with the knowledge that its very existence could lead to a war.
For most of this, I have been pretty good about just laying out some facts with occasional guesses or references to comics, but here is where I am diving headfirst into very heavy speculation.
What if the Secret Wars is the climax of Phase 5, and where phases 1-3 were the Infinity Saga, phases 4-5 come together as something like the Multiverse Saga. Phase 4 establishes the multiverse, and then Phase 5 essentially destroys it, simplifying the world back to a single universe we really pay attention to.
This could be the answer to how they bring in the X-Men (though, still not my favourite idea). But, more importantly, this could be the answer to how they deal with how much the MCU is bloating as it goes on. With every new movie or Disney+ series, it adds to this giant list of things people often feel they need to watch to be caught up. Right now, there are 24 movies and 3 Disney+ series. And the longer this lit gets, the harder it is to get more people into it.
Comics have points where new readers can jump into a series without having to go back to read every single issue. If Secret Wars is used to reset what the MCU is, Phase 6 could potentially be that point for the movies. And given how Phase 4’s inclusion of Disney+ series makes this single phase longer than the first three phases put together, it would make sense for this current saga to be a little shorter than the previous one.
But even if that isn’t the end goal, it feels safe to safe that some version of a Secret Wars story (either as a movie or Disney+ series) is bound to come at some point.
Conclusion
We’re about seven months into Phase 4 of the MCU, and already they have set themselves up to bring in the Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts, the Young Avengers/Champions, and even eventually get to Secret Wars. Regardless of if they end up with their own titular movie or series, whether they end up in Phase 5 or further down the line, it would be shocking if all three of these don’t appear in the MCU at some point given the kind of attention that have been given so far.
But what do you think? Have you noticed anything that seems to be driving the MCU toward another major story or character(s)? Do you have any strong feelings toward how any of these might be done in the MCU? Did everything in the Secret Wars section get too conspiratorial? Let me know in the comments!
