‘WandaVision’ Series Launches Phase 4 of the Marvel Universe on Small and Big Screens – Marvel Studios
- Series WandaVision starts Friday on the Disney + platform
- It features two (secondary) heroes of the big screen on the small one, a strategy that Marvel will use for other characters.
- The future of Marvel will thus be at the same time multimedia, multi-heroes and… multiverse?
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If the health crisis continues and cinemas remain closed, it will be almost two years since no Marvel film has been released, since Avengers : Endgame, Spider-Man : Far from home and the end of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe). The series
Runaways, Agents of SHIELD and Helstrom have also ended, or have been canceled, but we remain confidential, even non-event. So today there is no Marvel anymore, on any screen, big or small – oh if the video game Avengers. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige once said that the next ten years of the MCU are in the works, and that he’s taking the time to kick off Phase 4. Now is the time. WandaVision, a Disney + series, the first in a long list, about Wanda the Scarlet Witch and Vision the Android.
The Marvel universe is growing. ???? #WandaVision, the first series from Marvel Studios, streaming from Friday on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/46N32SNwOU
— Disney+ FR (@DisneyPlusFR) January 12, 2021
A multimedia Marvel
WandaVision is symbolic of the new strategy, and possible renewal, of the Marvel universe. The MCU is therefore no longer exclusively “cinematic”, since the series features two heroes of the big screen, two Avengers, on the small one. They will soon be joined by other characters that have been secondary until now, and who will have the right to their own series: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, James Rhodes aka War Machine or Nick Fury in Secret Invasion.
Kevin Feige also advanced that the Disney + series would serve to introduce new superheroes and heroines, before finding them in the films. Hard not to believe it with the announcements of She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel or Ironheart on Riri Williams, spiritual successor to Tony Stark and Iron Man. Like Star Wars and its (very) many series projects, Disney intends to occupy space with its Marvel universe. Or its universes?
A Marvel multiverse
Well known to comic book readers, the multiverse was mentioned in Spider-Man : Far from home, but in fact turned out to be a false trail. Or a promise. Enter the title of the next one Doctor Strange, In the Multiverse of Madness, and the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Gardield alongside Tom Holland in the third Spider-Man, there is no longer any doubt that this path will be explored. With what consequences? Also, don’t imagine seeing Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man costume again in the long run, for an alternate franchise it should be a cameo for the duration of the movie.
Spider-Man should also leave the MCU, due to the complicated negotiations between Marvel and Sony, which owns the rights to the character and who wants to develop his own universe, also with Venom and Morbius. WandaVision could give keys to understanding the future multiverse of Marvel. Indeed, the concept of the series remains a mystery, even after the first episodes. Wanda and Vision, yet dead in Endgame, seem to live on sitcoms from different eras, unless they are manipulated. Meta… and multiverse?
A multi-hero Marvel
Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow… Spoilers, these superheroes and heroines have fallen in battle, and they must be replaced. Like in the comics, they shouldn’t go missing, but see new characters and actors donning their costume or armor: Riri Williams for Iron Man, the Falcon for Captain America (unless), and Natasha Romanoff’s sister, played by Florence Pugh, for Black Widow.
But Marvel also wants to diversify its heroes, and have more diversity and more heroines. Those are Shang-Chi, her first Asian superhero film, Angelina Jolie at the head of Eternals, the return of Captain Marvel, the superheroines of TV, and soon of cinema, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Ironheart. And of course Black Panther. With the death of Chadwick Boseman, the sequel will focus on the other characters. If Marvel was summed up, and limited, very often to the Avengers, it will now be necessary to count on the Fantastic Four, of which a new film has been announced, and the X-Men. Even Deadpool has just officially joined the MCU. Is it all right, is everyone there?
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