Marvel Cinematic Universe: How Phase 4 changed the MCU

It seems that with the onslaught of phase 4, the MCU has had something of a bumpy ride. There was something of a post-Endgame problem that plagued the series, almost as if the franchise had run its course. In some respects, it has.

Moon Knight and WandaVision were pretty solid. Loki was great and Eternals was a lot better than people give it credit for. Don’t ask me about She-Hulk because I haven’t seen it.

This phase of the MCU has gotten a lot of criticism for its flawed character development and bombastic nature. However, that doesn’t mean the phase hasn’t left its mark on the franchise. It certainly has and with a bang, for better or worse.

Marvel and multiversal entanglements

No matter how subpar the execution of Phase four’s content was, it brought about a shift in the MCU which was the onslaught of the Multiverse. Since the snap of Endgame, the Marvel Universe has seen a number of crossovers and franchise integrations.

No Way Home was a feat in achieving a perfect crossover with Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire uniting as the iconic hero Spider-Man to take down their previous enemies. Multiverse of Madness did something like this but it didn’t yield the same reception as its predecessor and honestly felt overstuffed with too many new characters.

Despite all of that, Dr. Strange’s sequel film opened up the doors to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, which will already have fans salivating over the notion.

Marvel is warming up for Secret Wars

More than just Multiversal mishaps, it’s obvious that the Phase is a warm-up and precursor to Secret Wars. The film is set to be released in May of 2026 and is rumored to be bigger than Endgame.

Of course, bigger is not always better. If Secret Wars gets the same less-than-stellar reception of Phase Four or worse, it could spell trouble for the MCU. However, with so many palpable characters, it would be impossible for the film to be anything adjacent to a flop.

With that being said, the fourth phase was something like a science experiment to get the ball rolling with the franchise’s newest villain Kang. Obviously, Jonathan Majors is going to kill the role but how will the heroes introduced in Phase Four fare against him? I guess we have to wait until 2026.