Unlike The Infinity Saga, Marvel’s Phase 4 movies and streaming shows have yet to build towards an overarching event like the two-part throwdown with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. However, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness offered the first major clue of where the MCU might be heading: Secret Wars.
During the film’s end-credits scene, Charlize Theron’s Thea arrives and demands Doctor Strange help her stop an “Incursion” caused by his meddling with the Darkholm. As Marvel Comics fans know, Incursions are the colliding and destruction of alternate Earths that the Illuminati were unable to stop in the New Avengers books. Sensing no other alternative, Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom created a new Marvel Universe where Doom served as God Emperor in the epic Secret Wars comic event.
With both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men in the mix, the MCU now has the components to make Secret Wars its next epic event, and it’s heavily rumored to be the project that brings Joe and Anthony Russo back into the fold. Over the years, the filmmaking brothers have not been shy about wanting to adapt the sprawling comic storyline for Marvel, and they were at it again during this week’s premiere of their new movie The Gray Man.
Here’s what they told Deadline when asked why Secret Wars is their dream project:
“Our love for Marvel is based on the books that we read as kids, the books that we fell in love with,” Joe told Deadline. “The one series that we adored growing up was Secret Wars. It’s incredibly ambitious. It would be bigger than Infinity War and Endgame. But it’s a massive undertaking. Those two movies were very hard to make. So trying to imagine making another two movies even bigger than those two? We’re going to have to sleep on that.”
Despite Secret Wars being a top contender, Marvel has yet to confirm what its next Endgame-style event will be. Kevin Feige recently promised that it will become clear in the months ahead. Well, at least more than it is now.
“We’ll be a little more direct about that in the coming months, to set a plan, so audiences who want to see the bigger picture can see a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more of the roadmap,” Feige told Total Film last month.
(Via Deadline)