Phase One: The road to the Avengers.
The MCU kicked off with Ironman (2008) starring Robert Downey Jr as Ironman and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. It currently sits at a 7.9 on IMDB which is fairly high, a good starting point for a shared universe. Following Ironman, The Incredible Hulk took to the big screen starring Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. Despite Norton later being replaced by Mark Ruffalo, the universe wasn't knocked and moved ahead with IronMan 2, Thor, and, Captain America: The First Avenger. These movies introduced the four heroes along with small roles from Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. These six heroes would then go on to star in the first major blockbuster superhero team up movie, The Avengers. The avengers is a widely loved movie with and IMDB score of 8.1. The movies previously mentioned, along with the converging team up movie is known as 'Phase One' of the cinematic universe. Previous movies such as entries to the X-men franchise, a spider-man trilogy and two Fantastic four movies were not included as part of the MCU. After the conclusion and success of Phase One, Marvel proceeded to Phase Two.
Phase Two: Expansion.
Marvel upgraded Kevin Feige to president of Marvel studios due to a clear vision, structure and plan for the future. He was then set to produce any future movies the MCU releases. Phase Two saw the release of Ironman 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1, Avengers: Age of Ultron and finally Ant-man. The difference this time, was a clear over arching plot running through the movies with more inter-linking, cameos and references. More specifically, most movies referenced and even showed a big purple alien guy sitting on a chair! I won't spoil anything but for those who know who that is, it's pretty exciting. Guardians of The Galaxy was definitely a stand out in this phase and is considered by most to be the MCU's best movie ever. Age of Ultron concluded the phase by highlighting relationship strains between the members of the Avengers, a theme that would go on to be a huge part of Phase Three.
Phase Three: Full Throttle.
This is Marvel's current phase which kicked off with what is arguably their biggest movie to date, Captain America: Civil War. (**SPOILER ALERT** for civil war, skip to next paragraph to avoid!) The movie saw the climax of the relationship tensions between the Avengers. The government called into question the Avengers' control and accountability for damages. The movie introduced Tom Holland as Spider-man and Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, which sparked great excitement for the future of the MCU. The movie ultimately resulted in splitting the avengers and leaving them as two separate teams, Captain America's team and Ironman's team. This is sure to play a huge part in movies throughout this phase.
After Civil War, Marvel expanded the universe by introducing a new character and a new magical side of their universe in Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch, did well to keep consistent with the universes humorous action movie formula but also expand it with mystical elements and mind bending visual effects.
Releasing next, is possibly the most exciting movie of Phase Three. Spider-Man: Homecoming! Scheduled for July 7th this year. After the eventual cancelling of the the original Spider-Man 4 with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and Sony's reboot, The Amazing Spider-man, with Andrew Garfield as the hero, Sony made a deal with Marvel which allows Marvel to use the character in the MCU. He was first seen in Civil War and was met with high praise. He is now getting his own solo movie that won't rehash the same origin story and will be strengthened with a seemingly quite large role to be played by Robert Downey Jr's Ironman. Spider-Man is considered to be Marvels best or at least most well known comic book character meaning he is likely to have big involvement in the universe from now on.
After Homecoming, the MCU sees the return of two original characters, Thor and Hulk. Scheduled for a release november this year, Thor: Ragnorok will be another off earth adventure for the heroes possibly explaining their absences during Civil War. Post Ragnorok, another new fan favourite, also introduced in Civil War will get his own solo flick. Black Panther. Most of the movie will be contained to Black Panther, most likely to set up sets, characters and plots strong enough for sequels. Black Panther is scheduled for a February 2018 release. After a few more movies, phase three will conclude with Avengers: Infinity War, a movie set to be unbelievable. With the plan to include nearly every single hero or main character ever introduced in the MCU, it is sure to go down in the history books. It probably has something to with the purple guy in the chair *wink* *wink*.
So be excited! if you love the MCU, you're sure to love whats currently happening and what's to come with the release of movies such as Spider-Man, Black Panther, Thor and the biggest Avengers yet. The MCU isn't slowing down any time soon and at the rate its growing, characters perviously off limits, separate or not yet included could easily make an entrance. Maybe the Fantastic Four? We shall see. I can only imagine what Marvel has in store for Phase Four which i'll be labelling as; Phase Four: All out Marvel.
So that's the end of this weeks post! It's been a pretty long one but don't blame me, blame Marvel and their huge universe! If theres anything you want to give your opinion on or if you have a question about anything comic book or pop culture, comment below or tweet me at @Akash_Sond. See you next time!
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