MARVEL Studios made a giant impact yesterday at the San Diego Comic-Con, with the unveiling of several unexpected titles for Phase 5 and 6 of the newly-rebranded Multiverse Saga and two emotion-filled panels for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.
Fans had been especially curious over how Marvel would continue with the Black Panther sequel following the untimely death of lead Chadwick Boseman in 2020. The first trailer immediately addressed the issue, showing the various characters grieving over the death of his character T’Challa, before coming together to face a newcomer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Namor (played by Tenoch Huerta) the King of Atlantis, who is shown leading his people in an invasion to the surface world.
A question lingers over the trailer: who will take on the mantle of the Black Panther? A figure is seen in the hero’s suit at the end of the trailer, though it isn’t clarified who is in the costume.
Director Ryan Coogler, who also helmed the first Black Panther, spoke of feeling the spirit of Boseman beside him as he put together the first footage of the film, adding that the sequel “goes to new places in Wakanda that we haven’t seen before and it goes to new places in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Audiences will be able to see the results on Nov 11.
Watch the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever below:
Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige also took to the stage of the legendary Hall H to show the crown what the studio had planned over the next four years.
Phase 5 will officially kick off next year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which saw the film’s first trailer revealing a cameo appearance by comedy legend Bill Murray as a character from the Quantum Realm. Director Peyton Reed also hinted that the audience may have “seen a shot of MODOK” in the trailer. The technologically-enhanced supervillain has long been among the list of characters that fans have wanted to see make an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, no announcement has been made about who will be playing him.
Later, an emotional James Gunn and his equally emotional cast – including Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Will Poulter and Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the Spacedog – debuted the first look at the final Guardians film, which hinted at revealing how Rocket became a sentient, walking raccoon. Chukwudi Iwuji (formerly of DC’s Peacemaker) made an appearance in costume as the High Evolutionary, implying that his role in the film is related to the story of Rocket’s transformation.
Other highly-anticipated Phase 5 films that fans are looking forward to include Blade, which will see Mahershala Ali taking on the mantle of the brooding anti-hero, Captain America: New World Order, a film continuation of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series, and Thunderbolts, a film which will see several MCU anti-heroes team up.
Also announced as part of Phase 5 were the Disney+ series Echo, Loki Season 2 and Agatha: Coven of Chaos, all spin-offs or continuations from previous series. However, there was one surprise announcement – Daredevil: Born Again, which brings back the vigilante lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in his own series. The character had a surprise cameo in last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, and will also be making appearances in Echo and She-Hulk before returning to lead his own standalone series, which will have 18 episodes.
What really had fans wondering were the three films announced as part of Phase 6 – a Fantastic 4 reboot set for November 2024 (which would make it the fourth attempt to bring Marvel’s First Family to the big screen) and a two-film conclusion for the Multiverse Saga. The Avengers-branded films have the titles Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
The latter titlepoints to a Marvel comics crossover miniseries from 2015 that involves an incursion between the main Marvel universe (Earth-616) and the Ultimate Marvel universe (Earth-1610) leading to the destruction of both. In its wake, many variants of Marvel characters find themselves living in a post-apocalyptic planet called Battleworld. However, it is unclear just how much the film will be inspired by the comics origins of the story.
Fiege and his team could very well be pursuing their own film-based narrative, as seen in how the MCU’s Phase 3 ended in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which took the story in a distinctly different direction in order to facilitate the future of the franchise.
Will the same take place for Phase 6? Only time will tell.
