Marvel Studios Should Fuse Phase 4 and 5 Together (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Readers, I’m not gonna lie; I wasn’t really expecting that much news to be coming out of the woodwork revolving superhero movies considering our...current situation

If anything, I just figured we’d get a few announcements regarding some studios pushing back their releases

Some studios realizing it would be best to just make some movies available to rent or own digitally

And others using the situation to take another look at some movies they were gonna release in theaters after seeing how the trailer was received, and realized that the current health and safety risks helped them dodge a very expensive bullet (Artemis Fowl)

I-I’m sorry; I haven’t read any of the books. I do have friends that are fans of the book series though, and even THEY said this looks terrible.

Of course, no one movie studio is immune to what’s currently going on in the world, and that includes Disney’s most favorite purchase they made in the last ten years, Marvel comics; specifically, Marvel Studios

/Who, because of the current health and safety crisis, is doing what a lot of other studios are doing with their initial slate of movies scheduled to be released during the spring and summer of 2020 and are being pushed back./

The initial movies in question were the two Phase 4 films that were initially scheduled to come out this year; Black Widow and the Eternals.

Instead of premiering on May 1st, Black Widow will now be taking The Eternals November 6th release date, while The Eternals will be released February 12, 2021, taking that release date from Shang-Chi.

It seems that the adjustments to the release schedule for their upcoming Phase 4 films in response to the current health and safety crisis, is pretty much the “New Cup Move Down” rule from Alice in Wonderland

/Black Widow is taking the Eternals original release date, causing Eternals to take Shang-Chi’s original release date, causing Shang-Chi to take Doctor Strange’s original release date, causing Doctor Strange to take Thor: Love and Thunder’s original release date/ New Phase 4 Slate

And that’s where we run into a bit of a dilemma

Because with everyone simultaneously moving to the chair to their immediate right, Phase 4 will now be crossing over into the release timeline of Marvel’s Phase 5 with Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder; now having a new release date of February 18, 2022

Now I say “crossing over,” because as of right now Marvel Studios’ Phase 5 only has 4 confirmed films, and 2 with release dates:

Black Panther 2, which currently still has its previously announced May 6th 2022 date,

Captain Marvel 2, which was recently given a release date of July 8, 2022

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Blade; both of which have no set release dates at the time of this recording.

Now Phase 4 bleeding into the Phase 5 wouldn’t necessarily be such a big deal if their announcement habits for their content blocks weren’t so stubbornly cemented over the years.

/After all, the way they announced Phase 3 after seeing the success with Phase 2 was what helped make it the status quo; the only time they decided to CHANGE anything was back when the Inhumans movie that was supposed to happen after Endgame was instead turned into a very poorly executed television show, and their deal with Sony allowing Spider-Man: Far From Home for it to be their new epilogue to its Infinity Saga/

Even the Disney+ shows follow the same regimen, despite the current crisis causing them to have to alter a few things with Loki and Hawkeye. Both the shows that were announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2019 AND at the D23 expo are, in fact, Phase 4 projects.

/And because neither Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, were announced that they are officially part of Phase 4 upon them receiving their release dates -- unlike the new Disney+ shows She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight that WERE -- them being declared Phase 5 films instead was the safest best./

Especially when -- as I stated before -- both Guardians Vol. 3 and Blade have only been announced at this point in time with no release dates set in stone, even BEFORE the current crisis occurred. 

So with Thor Love and Thunder -- the last Phase 4 film as of right now -- having no choice but to shift its release date to the year that has pretty much already been claimed by Phase 5 films because of the current crisis, it’s looking more and more like the two Phases are slowly shifting into one. And that might not be a bad idea.

Yes, I’m the type of individual that looks at the plans the studio displays and thinks they subconsciously try to count their chickens before they hatch knowing any and EVERYthing can happen between the day they announce it and the day it’s being worked on. But that’s only PART of the reason.

Like I said before, Readers; because we’ve never seen Black Panther 2 added to the film timeline of Phase 4 like we saw She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel added to the Disney+ timeline of Phase 4, we can’t assume that Black Panther 2, or any of the other films that were announced but weren’t on the timeline, are in fact Phase 4 films

We can only go by what Marvel Studios has shown us thus far. And what they’ve shown us is that Thor: Love and Thunder is in fact the final film in Phase 4.

Which probably means that like Ant-Man 1 and Spider-Man: Far From Home before it, Love and Thunder was more than likely meant to be the epilogue for the Phase after moviegoers recuperate from the “game-changer” Marvel Studios keeps telling us Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is going to be for the MCU moving forward

Not only do I think that would be extremely unfair to Waititi given what he’s recently proven he’s capable of, but Marvel Studios as a whole should honestly take this situation as a learning experience. Not even Tried and True methods can stay tried and true forever.

By doing what they’ve been doing since Phase 2 and cherry-picking things from what they’ve been doing that better fit their bottom line and whatnot, they tend to subconsciously limit themselves

No, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be allowed to plan ahead; it’s clearly worked out for them before

But when you have situations like this where you’re being forced to toss what once was a solid guideline you’ve been using for years out the window, it’s a good indicator that it’s time to do some reflection in order to see if you need to do some things differently going forward

/And if the rumors are true that Kevin Feige and the rest of Marvel Studios are going to halt all production on pretty much everything they haven’t already finished until September of 2020, there’s a chance they could be doing just that./

Then again, I’ve been disappointed before...