What 'Avengers: Endgame' reveals about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Avengers: Endgame might have brought closure to Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but that doesn’t mean it’s resolved every single storyline. If you watched it closely, you’ll have noticed that it left many opportunities for future series and stories to be told in the MCU. With the announcement of a whole slew of Marvel shows on Disney’s upcoming streaming service, Disney+, we can expect to see some new storylines spinning out of Endgame. It’s definitely not the end.
Warning: there are spoilers for Avengers: Endgame ahead.
A new Captain America
In the comics, Sam Wilson takes on the mantle of Captain America when Steve Rogers is put out of commission. We were introduced to the MCU version of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as superhero Falcon. But he’s always played a more supporting role, rather than being the sort of inspirational leader that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is.
However, now that Sam Wilson has the shield of Captain America, he may very well be the new Captain America. We know that Disney is planning a series called The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. But eagle-eyed observers may have remembered that the Winter Soldier was given a new codename in Avengers: Infinity War, as Black Panther christened him the White Wolf. It seems odd that they’d use an outdated codename for an upcoming television series, right?Well, now you have your answer. The title may very well be a red herring to throw us off the real, planned title — Captain America and the White Wolf.
Loki and the Tesseract
Thanks to some unforeseen hijinks in the Time Heist, we saw Loki abscond with the Tesseract in 2012 – which means he does not die at the hands of Thanos as we saw in Infinity War. We now know that the Tesseract is actually the Space Stone, so this means that Loki has command of a Space Stone. What does it mean for everyone’s favourite trickster god?
Well, we saw that the Space Stone could be used to open portals, like in The Avengers. So that means that Loki can travel to anywhere he wants to go, now that he has the Space Stone. That might possibly be the premise for the announced Loki television series by Marvel — he can’t very well be the antagonist of his own television series, so it might be about his adventures gallivanting across the universe.
The Asgardians of the Galaxy
The conclusion of Avengers: Endgame saw Thor joining up with his outer space buddies, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and calling them the “Asgardians of the Galaxy”. While Iron Man and Captain America had fairly definitive send-offs in the film, Thor’s fate seems rather open. And we know that Thor is perfectly capable of surviving on far flung planets and in exotic dimensions, thanks to his adventures in Thor: Ragnarok. We can expect to see Thor in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, and that means we might be able to get some fantasy mixed with science fiction in the film, just like Thor: Ragnarok.We’re pretty sure Thor will get back into shape by then.
WandaVision
When the title of the upcoming Scarlet Witch and Vision series was announced, it sounded a little strange. Why not just put both their character names? Why merge them together?
We all assumed that Vision would be returning in Avengers: Endgame, but we know now that didn’t happen. But since we’ve been told he’s going to be back on screen for his own television series, it sounds like the two characters will somehow become one character. Since both Vision and the Scarlet Witch derived their powers from Infinity Stones, they’re going to be a pretty powerful pair if they’re combined.
Black Widow’s return
With a Black Widow movie in the works and lots of announcements about the cast and crew, it doesn’t quite seem like her fate was sealed in Avengers: Endgame even though she sacrificed herself so the team could obtain the Soul Stone. Admittedly, the Black Widow film could take place in the past and sidestep the whole issue of her whereabouts. But with a rumoured $15 million paycheque, we doubt that’s going to be the case. Marvel’s definitely going to use the movie to explore other parts of the MCU. It’s likely that the film will focus on Black Widow’s escape from wherever the Soul Stone has sent her, and it might even be a little more fantastical than what we’d expect.
Alternate realities
Another show that has been announced is Marvel’s What If…? series, which will reimagine what could have happened if certain things in the Marvel universe had occurred differently. While it takes its cue from the popular comic series of the same name, there hasn’t been any in-universe reason for why such a series would exist. Well, now we have an explanation for why that series will be here.
Remember when Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) spoke to The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) about the Time Stone? It seemed a little odd that The Ancient One would have to explain the concept of alternate timelines to Hulk, especially since Hulk was the one explaining the ramifications (or lack thereof) of time travel earlier in the film. We even got an incredibly visual representation of how diverging timelines would work. It was almost as if this was going to be a scene used in the recap for a later movie or television series…
Well, now we know. The actions of the Avengers could be the reason for all the scenarios in Marvel’s What If…?.
The Infinity Quest
Didn’t Captain America’s off-screen time-travelling quest to return all the Infinity Stones at the end of Endgame strike you as a little odd? He’s the perfect human specimen and all, but to put all the Infinity Stones back when they were first taken sounds virtually impossible, even for Cap. There are so many things that could go wrong (although we wouldn’t know about it, thanks to the rules of time travel), and… it just seems like it could spin off into its own television series, doesn’t it?
Chris Evans’ departure from the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Endgame seemed very definite at one point, but now we’re getting some hints and teases that this might not be the case. It looks like Captain America could be back… in another way.
What other spin-offs and storylines do you think will emerge from Avengers: Endgame?
Read also:
Spoiler-free review: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ wraps up an era with strong closures for our superheroes
Review: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ delivers payoffs for a sprawling cast of characters
‘Captain Marvel’ review: Run-of-the-mill origin story saved by stellar cast and witty script
Marcus Goh is a scriptwriter, having written for popular shows like “Lion Mums”, “Crimewatch”, “Code of Law”, “Incredible Tales”, and “Police & Thief”. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find him on social media as Optimarcus and on his site. The views expressed are his own.
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