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Untangling all the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe happenings

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Photo: Disney+ / Courtesy

Warning: Lots and lots of spoilers here.

Nearly 13 years ago, Marvel Studios released Iron Man, the first independently produced film adaptation of one of its comic book properties. Before that, Marvel licensed its characters to other studios to produce films based on them, some of which were faithful to the source material (Sony’s Spider-Man, New Line Cinema’s Blade) and some less so (Universal’s Hulk, Sony’s Spider-Man 3). But Iron Man was different. Marvel Studios employed a director (Jon Favreau) who wanted to stick closely to the comics, and a star (Robert Downey Jr.) who actually read the comics; and in their own Kevin Feige, they had a producer who would protect the legacy set forth by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Marvel’s many other creators. The result was a grounded, entertaining action thriller that ended with an after-credits scene that set up a massive, overlapping series of films and television shows—a figurative universe of interconnected storytelling.

Currently, the Marvel Cinematic Universe—or MCU for short—comprises 23 films and a streaming television series. As you’d expect of something with so many moving parts, things are beginning to get a bit … complicated. Case in point: Three characters appearing in 2021 Marvel productions—Black Widow, Vision and Loki—were killed off in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War or 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. And now that Marvel has added television to the mix, you kinda need a scorecard to know who’s still playing and in what capacity. This, true believer, is that scorecard.

The present and future MCU

Marvel Studios is set to release a whopping eight movies and eight or more television shows over the next two years. The dates of the theatrical releases could be affected by COVID-19, and while Marvel president Feige says the studio hasn’t considered a streaming release like the one rival DC/Warner Bros. gave to Wonder Woman 1984, there’s no telling what could happen if the pandemic doesn’t recede. But the dates of the television shows should stand.

<em>WandaVision</em>

WandaVision

Now showing: WandaVision (Disney+). Immediately follows Avengers: Endgame. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) settle down in a suburban idyll based on classic sitcoms. Before long, Twilight Zone-like weirdness ensues. Two characters from other Marvel properties—Ant-Man’s Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and Thor’s Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings)—get caught up in the action, and additional characters and events from this show will reportedly influence the storylines of no fewer than three upcoming MCU movies.

March 19, 2021: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+). Immediately follows Avengers: Endgame. Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes team up to continue the fight begun by their retired friend, Captain America. (No word on whether Chris Evans will reprise that role.) Characters from previous Captain America movies—notably Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp)—will also return.

May 7, 2021: Black Widow (in theaters). Reportedly set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Scarlett Johansson returns as the assassin-turned-hero. She’s joined by Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who might end up stepping into the role Johansson’s Black Widow once served on the Avengers team.

May 2021: Loki (Disney+). Set after Avengers: Endgame. Tom Hiddleston returns as the fan-favorite trickster god from the Thor movies. This is a Loki from an alternate dimension created by the time-traveling escapades of the Avengers; he didn’t experience the events of Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Infinity War.

July 9, 2021: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (in theaters). Marvel’s superhuman martial arts master Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) makes his debut in a Destin Daniel Cretton film. He’ll likely be a next-generation Avenger.

Summer 2021: What If…? (Disney+) An animated show considers possible—not canonical—alternate realities. Most of the MCU’s stars, including the late Chadwick Boseman, reprise their roles.

November 5, 2021: Eternals (in theaters). Nomadland director Chloé Zhao gives this alien race of heroes—introduced in the Guardians of the Galaxy films—its first feature. Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington and Gemma Chan star.

Fall/winter 2021: Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye (Disney+). Iman Vellani stars as the former, Marvel’s first Pakistani-American hero. The latter sees Jeremy Renner reprising his role—his character is retired from the Avengers following the events of Avengers: Endgame—to train a young protégée, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld).

<em>Spider-Man: Homecoming</em>

Spider-Man: Homecoming

December 17, 2021: Spider-Man: No Way Home (in theaters). Follows Spider Man: Far From Home. Another Marvel/Sony co-production, this film (and also the next Doctor Strange) may change everything in the MCU: By casting actors who appeared in non-MCU Spider-Man movies, Marvel has fueled speculation that it’s about to embrace overlapping universes of storytelling. This could result in multiple Spider-Men sharing the screen with Tom Holland, and perhaps in characters from the 20th Century Fox X-Men series—the rights to which Marvel recently reacquired—joining the fray. (Hel-lo, Deadpool.) Marvel has already hinted as much by bringing Evan Peters’ Quicksilver into WandaVision from Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and the two sequels that followed, replacing the Aaron Taylor-Johnson version of the character from Avengers: Age of Ultron.

March 25, 2022: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (in theaters). Follows Doctor Strange and WandaVision. The good doctor (Benedict Cumberbatch) fights either alongside, or against, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff. (The ending of WandaVision will tell.) The Multiverse title might be telling: Director Sam Raimi, architect of Sony’s first Spider-Man trilogy, could be the one to weave decades of Marvel storytelling—MCU, Fox, Sony and other—into a semi-cohesive whole. Bring back Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider, is all we’re saying.

May 6, 2022: Thor: Love and Thunder (in theaters). Follows Avengers: Endgame. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and, why not, the Guardians of the Galaxy fight Gorr, the God Butcher (Christian Bale). Ragnarok’s Taiki Waititi returns to direct.

July 8, 2022: Black Panther 2 (in theaters). Chadwick Boseman is gone (and won’t be recast), but his memory endures, and so does Wakanda. Ryan Coogler directs, and is reportedly developing a Wakanda series for Disney+.

November 11, 2022: Captain Marvel 2 (in theaters). Follows Avengers: Endgame and WandaVision. Brie Larson returns as the title hero, alongside her friend Maria Rambeau’s grown-up daughter Monica (Teyonah Parris, now appearing in WandaVision) and the recently introduced Ms. Marvel (Vellani).

Likely December 2022: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+). James Gunn directs Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and the rest of the Guardians crew in a … well, who knows what it is, except that it’ll lead directly into 2023’s theatrical Guardians sequel, feature some 1970s deep musical cuts and probably warm the heart.

No approximate dates, but likely 2022: Moon Knight, She-Hulk (both Disney+). Ex Machina’s Oscar Isaac stars as the former, Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany as the latter.

Likely 2023: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Fantastic Four, Blade (all in theaters). We know next to nothing about these, except that Mahershala Ali plays Blade. Good choice.

What about all that other Marvel TV?

Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger? Hulu’s Helstrom and Runaways? ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and Inhumans? Netflix’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Punisher, Iron Fist and The Defenders? These shows, loosely based on the MCU but largely self-contained, were created while a schism existed between Marvel’s film and television arms, and aren’t strictly canonical. Feige has recently hinted that some of the Netflix characters might reappear in Marvel’s new, top-down regulated continuity, however. No more Inhumans, though; it was terrible.

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