RDJ makes a villainous return, the X-Men come home, and the Fantastic Four finally, maybe, get a good movie. Get ready Marvel fans: Phase 6 is coming sooner than you think.
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00:00RDJ makes a villainous return, the X-Men come home, and the Fantastic Four finally, maybe,
00:07get a good movie.
00:08Get ready, Marvel fans, Phase 6 is coming sooner than you think.
00:12The MCU had a remarkable run during its first three phases, pulling off the seemingly impossible-with-Avengers
00:17endgame by delivering a climax worthy of 21 movies and 11 years of build-up.
00:22Phase 4 had the unenviable task of following that blockbuster achievement, and several
00:34projects were absolute fails.
00:37Even bright spots like Spider-Man No Way Home and the inventive Disney Plus series WandaVision
00:42were offset by disappointments like Eternals and Thor Love and Thunder.
00:46He went from dead, bud, to good, bud, and after all that, he reclaimed his title.
00:55Phase 5 has fared even worse, both critically and commercially.
00:59Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did decently enough at the box office, but Ant-Man and
01:03the Wasp's Quantumania underperformed, and the Marvels is so far the lowest-grossing
01:08MCU movie ever.
01:09The abuse allegations and subsequent firing of actor Jonathan Majors dealt the studio
01:14a major blow, as his character Kang was being positioned as the MCU's next Thanos-level
01:19threat.
01:20It looks like the Kang storyline will be abandoned altogether, but it's worrisome that such important
01:24questions remain unanswered so close to Phase 6's official 2025 kickoff.
01:30So far, the Avengers have been the backbone of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and
01:35it doesn't look like that's going to change much in Phase 6, which includes two confirmed
01:39Avengers movies.
01:40Odds are that the MCU will continue to revolve around Earth's mightiest heroes for the foreseeable
01:45future.
01:46Of course, the Avengers are going to look very different in their next two cinematic
01:49offerings, given the death and or retirement of several of the original members.
01:53You know I'd make a lot of changes around here.
01:55I'm counting on it.
01:57The first film was announced as Avengers The Kang Dynasty, before the Jonathan Majors scandal
02:01shook things up.
02:02The company announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024 that the new title would be Avengers
02:08Doomsday.
02:09It's currently slated for a spring 2026 release, although the full cast remains unknown.
02:14That'll be followed in May 2027 by Avengers Secret Wars, which will likely adapt or at
02:19least draw inspiration from one, if not all, of the various comic events of the same name.
02:24Whether Secret Wars ends up being a huge, endgame-level climax or one of the yet-to-be-announced
02:29Phase 6 films serves that purpose remains to be seen.
02:33While some of the 20th century Fox Marvel movies have been, or soon will be, integrated
02:37into the MCU in some form, the 2005 Fantastic Four movie and its sequel have remained separate
02:43entities until recently.
02:44One likely reason for this is the fact that Chris Evans played Johnny Storm, slash the
02:48Human Torch in those films, before taking on the MCU's Captain America.
02:52You don't really want to walk around on fire for the rest of your life, do you?
02:55Is that a trick question?
02:57But Evans reprised the role of Johnny in 2024's Deadpool and Wolverine, so everything's back
03:02on track.
03:03Other than Evans' fiery encore and John Krasinski's cameo as an alternate-universe version of
03:07Reed Richards, slash Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel's
03:12first family has yet to be properly introduced in the MCU.
03:16That's set to change in the summer of 2025, when the Fantastic Four, First Steps, arrives
03:20in theaters.
03:21We want to do our research, we want to be authentic, we want to bring it to life in
03:25a very real way."
03:26The cast includes Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm,
03:31the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, and Eben Moss-Bachrach
03:36as Ben Grimm, The Thing.
03:38"...We've come a long way since The Garage."
03:39"...You gotta say, it's fantastic."
03:45Additional cast members include Julia Garner as Shao La Bal and Ralph Innocent as Galactus,
03:50with John Malkovich, Natasha Lyonne, and Paul Walter Hauser recruited for undisclosed roles.
03:55And while he may not be the film's primary villain, First Steps will introduce the Fantastic
03:59Four's biggest nemesis, Doctor Doom, whose surprise casting shocked the world.
04:05The crowd at July's San Diego Comic-Con erupted in cheers when it was revealed that Robert
04:09Downey Jr. would make his MCU return as Doctor Doom.
04:12"...New mask, same task."
04:19The franchise has presumed next big bad.
04:22We don't know whether he'll play Victor Von Doom, a somehow revived or multiverse variant,
04:26Tony Stark who becomes Doctor Doom, or someone else entirely.
04:29Either way, it looks like our DJ is once again going to be a central figure in what will
04:33be the MCU's next huge climactic event at the end of Phase 6.
04:38After likely making his debut in a post-credits sequence for the Fantastic Four First Steps,
04:42Downey will join directors Joe and Anthony Russo for both Avengers Doomsday and Avengers
04:47Secret Wars to close out Phase 6.
04:49It will mark the Russo brothers' first foray back into the MCU since 2019's Avengers Endgame,
04:55with the dream team getting back together to right the floundering MCU ship and return
04:59it to Phase 3 glory.
05:00"...Everything they said they were going to do, they delivered on.
05:03Their attitude kind of breeds this sort of lightness on set."
05:06The Russo brothers are set to make at least $80 million for directing the two movies,
05:11with Downey's paycheck climbing even higher.
05:13So let's hope the movies kill at the box office.
05:17Black Widow opened MCU Phase 4 with more of a whimper than a bang.
05:20Luckily, it was followed up by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which followed
05:24the tradition of Doctor Strange and Black Panther by taking the MCU in exciting new
05:29directions.
05:30Just three months after the movie's September 2021 release, it was already confirmed that
05:34a sequel was in the works.
05:36Unfortunately, updates about Shang-Chi 2 were almost non-existent for a few years, followed
05:40by word that the soonest it would come out would be after the next Avengers movie.
05:44After that, things went quiet yet again.
05:46Finally, in April 2024, star Simu Liu responded to some fans on Threads asking about the Shang-Chi
05:52sequel, posting,
05:53"...I promise it's happening."
05:55It's not a release date, but it's a confirmation that Shang-Chi is still slated for Phase 6,
06:00until we hear otherwise.
06:02Avengers villain-turned-ally Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, was first slated to appear
06:06in the MCU way back in 2017.
06:09In the comics, Simon Williams is an actor, and fictional movie posters of his work, with
06:13Nathan Fillion as Williams, was seen in the background of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.
06:172.
06:18All actual footage of Simon was cut from the film, but writer-director James Gunn said
06:22at the time that,
06:23"...Wonder Man might join the MCU in the future."
06:25That future is almost here.
06:27A Wonder Man miniseries for Disney Plus was listed in post-production as of June 2024.
06:32"...Simon Williams, reading for Wonder Man."
06:35Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has replaced Fillion as Simon.
06:39Fans may know him as Black Manta from the two Aquaman films, or as HBO's Watchmen's
06:43version of Doctor Manhattan.
06:45Ben Kingsley will reprise the role of Trevor Slattery, with Ed Harris rumored to be making
06:49his MCU debut as Simon Williams' agent.
06:52When we last left Wong, he was the MCU's Sorcerer Supreme.
06:55Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme.
06:57No, he got it on a technicality, because I blipped for five years.
07:01Oh.
07:02Played by actor Benedict Wong, Wong has been a fan-favorite side character with roles in
07:06six films, a comic turn in She-Hulk Attorney at Law, and several appearances in What If?
07:11He was last seen on the big screen in 2022's Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,
07:16but lately, all has been quiet on the Wong front.
07:19In March 2024, when ComicBook.com asked what's up, Wong responded with a mysterious,
07:24"...something's looming, something's looming."
07:26Sounds promising, and with Phase Six supposedly wrapping up the MCU's multiverse saga, it's
07:31pretty likely that we'll see the Sorcerer Supreme in the Avengers films as well as a
07:34possible Doctor Strange 3.
07:37We know for a fact that a project built around intergalactic police officer Richard Ryder
07:41Nova is in the works.
07:43It's being written by Sabia Pesada, who previously worked on both Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel.
07:48What we don't know is whether the project is a movie or series, only that it's headed
07:51to Disney+, and is being referred to as a, quote, "...special presentation."
07:56Could this be the MCU's first direct-to-TV movie?
07:59Nova himself has yet to show up in the MCU or be adapted to live action, though he previously
08:03appeared in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
08:08However, other members of the Nova Corps have played roles in the MCU, most notably Nova
08:13Prime Arani Rael in the first Guardians of the Galaxy.
08:16In the Phase Zero podcast, Marvel exec Brad Winderbaum described the project as an ensemble
08:21piece with a great cast of characters, in the vein of shows like Star Trek and Battlestar
08:26Galactica.
08:27Whether the upcoming project will be about more members of the Nova Corps or mostly Nova
08:31himself remains to be seen, but the group's intergalactic presence would intersect nicely
08:35with the upcoming MCU debut of characters like Silver Surfer and Galactus, which makes
08:40it more likely than not that Nova's introduction could also happen in Phase 6.
08:45The Disney Plus Ironheart series is currently slotted for Phase 5, set to focus on Dominique
08:50Thorne's Riri Williams, who first became the armored hero in Black Panther Wakanda Forever.
08:55The six-episode miniseries is set to hit Disney Plus in 2025.
08:58You don't know Ironheart?
09:00The teenage MIT student who flew in to fill Iron Man's armored shoes?
09:05Well, hold on to your helmet!
09:07It's not out of the realm of possibility for a project to change phases.
09:10Thunderbolts and the Fantastic Four First Steps swapped places after First Steps was
09:14delayed.
09:15While nothing has suggested that this is going to happen with Ironheart, the fact that Phase
09:196 as yet has no official presence on Disney Plus means it's possible for things to be
09:23moved around in order to fill out its thin lineup.
09:27The X-Men have been creeping into the MCU, mostly at cameos like Professor X in Doctor
09:32Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Hank McCoy Beast in the Marvels, but Deadpool and
09:36Wolverine finally fully integrated the X-Men into the MCU.
09:40Not only does Deadpool himself have a long history with the team, but Hugh Jackman reprising
09:44the role of Logan in the movie formally introduced Wolverine — or a variant of him, anyway
09:49— into the MCU, along with Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yukio, Cassandra Nova, and
09:55more X-Men and X-Men-adjacent characters.
09:57All of you could stand to act a little more like X-Men.
10:00Between Deadpool and Wolverine and the well-received X-Men 97 animated series, Marvel's mutant
10:05team are definitely having a moment.
10:07But when will a dedicated MCU X-Men movie finally happen?
10:11It could be a long way off, given that there's been no official announcement, and it might
10:15get a little crowded having three big teams — the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and
10:19the X-Men — each with their own movies in Phase 6.
10:22However, there are still a couple of planned but unnamed MCU movies slated for 2026, and
10:28it isn't impossible for one of those to star the X-Men, especially since Marvel officially
10:32hired screenwriter Michael Leslie to write the script in May 2024.
10:37Marvel's Disney Plus series Agatha All Along is the second in a trilogy of series that
10:41began with WandaVision and will conclude in Phase 6 with Vision Quest.
10:45Set to hit the service sometime in 2026, the series will obviously focus on Vision, with
10:50Paul Bettany slated to reprise his role, though it's not clear which version of Vision will
10:55head the show or what the overall story will be.
10:57"...but certainly you are the true Vision for you believe yourself to be."
11:01Given that Agatha reintroduced some Maximoff children to the MCU, it seems likely Vision's
11:05children will play a part in the new series.
11:08So far, Vision Quest looks to be in good creative hands, led by executive producer Terry Matalas
11:13who oversaw the highly acclaimed third and final season of Star Trek Picard.