Pop Culture as Self-Indulgent Fantasy

I once wrote an extremely popular/useful comics gossip and speculation column for over a decade. I was also the news editor of the same magazine the gossip column was in. I prided myself on my, sometimes, uncanny ability to forecast the future. In reality, what I was doing was not a lot different than people who gamble on the stock market; experience is usually better than intuition, but the more experience you have makes it feel like intuition, especially if you read the tea leaves in the right way. It's a bit like insider trading without actually making any money.

The only reason I'm telling you this is because what follows is essentially a form of the thinking that went behind my Movers & Shakers column, that mixed with something I'd call 'logical wishful thinking' - not on my part, but, logically, on the part of the people this bit of whimsical fantasy is about.

Logical wishful thinking is one of the routes to experience and intuition, grasshopper.

I sat and watched Avengers: Endgame again, a few weeks back, and while I enjoyed it more this time around, I still picked more holes in it than I can remember, but this isn't about that, at least not entirely. It did make me think about how I used to foresee events in the comics' universes and how that 'insider knowledge' once allowed me to be more than accurate about the future...

Spoiler warning if you still haven't seen this film and know nothing about it then this will ruin it for you.

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe was held together with a glue called The Avengers; the three main players are no longer in the game. The other half of the original sextet that remain are - in the MCU version of things - not really suitable to lead the Avengers (or a box-office charge), even if they appear in them.

With Iron Man, Captain America and the Black Widow now all gone, what remains doesn't feel as 'box office' as you would expect from the franchise - like a top football team without three of their star players. Naturally there's the scheduled anachronistic flashback movie - Black Widow but that almost seems like an afterthought (a thank you, perhaps), unless something happens in it that has a bearing on what's to come

Looking at who's left of the major players in Earth's Mightiest Heroes; Captain Marvel is okay but far too new, wooden and arguably dis-likeable (and powerful) to become leader of a new Avengers and of the remaining 'original' team of Avengers, we're set to have a new Thor (Jane Foster) while the old one swans off across the galaxy with those pesky Guardians; there is no actual Hulk film planned and Hawkeye is going to be a TV series rather than a film - pretty much cementing his place as a non-box-office draw. Outside of the remaining Avengers 'mainstays' there's Spider-Man (after a fashion), Doctor Strange (both had never actually been Avengers in my day), Ant-Man and the Black Panther - otherwise, Marvel's Cinematic Universe'd future is all down to new (to film) characters...

What I'm trying to say is while there are no definite Avengers movies even planned at the moment, the franchise is far from dead - it makes too much money for starters - and more importantly Marvel now has just about all its own toys back in the same pram. We now have a Fantastic Four and an entire X-continuity to put (back) in to the MCU.

However, the problem is the MCU probably needs replacements for Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Natasha Romanov (who, as we all know, should be Romanova); maybe there's new characters, like the Thing, Human Torch and Wolverine who can captivate the audiences or lead the Avengers like their predecessors? 

Nah. The new additions will just add to (and complicate) the already rich tapestry of the MCU; they won't replace.

Looking at the proposed MCU schedule - after Black Widow there's The Eternals - which seems to be shrouded in mystery at present. It also, in my humble opinion, risks a lot with what has pretty much always been a marginal bunch of poorly thought-out characters (essentially a poor imitation of The Inhumans, which itself is already a failed MCU project) - that said, the Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't exactly iconic and look how that did. There's a Shang-Chi film (possibly set outside what we currently think of as 'our' MCU, but also might supply a hint of what's to come), another Spider-Man with Sony (which will concentrate mainly on the Marvel/Sony continuity), the fourth Thor film (with a female Thor) and then the film I believe could be pivotal to the future of a franchise - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Then there's Black Panther II and Captain Marvel II both, I expect will steer the new major story arc along further.

Disney now has at least 10 more years planned of milking this cash cow, if they do it right - post coronavirus, maybe more. I believe 'doing it right' pretty much requires including (or re-introducing) the three most prominent and important characters to the franchise so far. The main problem here is Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and Ms Johansson are all getting on a bit, even with the aid of stunt doubles. The thing is, Evans said he's open to do cameos, Downey Jr has not written off coming back (and may well be in a future movie if his cryptic comments are anything to go by) and Scarlett probably wants out, because I haven't heard anything to the contrary. They all now have limited shelf-lives regardless of what they do; as do many of the other, more middle-aged, actors like Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo. The coronavirus, other jobs, scheduling and life means we might not see another big 'Avengers' finale for 15 years, by which time Tom Holland will be a 40-year-old Spidey, Scarlett will be 50 and RDJr will be 70. Superhero films with geriatrics or incredibly old teenagers doesn't sound to me like a great ongoing idea for the MCU.

Now, entering into pure speculation (the above was based on common sense): the reason I believe the next Dr Strange film will be so pivotal is because I believe the title possibly gives away a lot of clues, the main one being the admittance of a multiverse - different universes that look similar to our own but are not. I believe The Eternals will sow a seed that will grow into the main plot for the second Strange film (which I've heard also has Scarlet Witch in it and possibly Bruce Banner, which would make sense given what I think they should do). That seed, I believe will be either what part the Celestials - godlike creatures and adversaries of the Eternals (who have been seen/mentioned in the Guardians film) - will play in it and what will we learn about what they can do or where they come from.

As things stand, mutants don't exist in the MCU, neither do the Fantastic Four or supporting characters. The films made by Fox might as well be tales from any number of multiverse realities or simply something to be forgotten about. If Marvel and Disney are able to wait at least another two years before even dropping hints on us about 'newcomers', I expect in the next Doc Strange film we'll be introduced to several new faces and maybe some old ones or probably some old ones with new faces...

Imagine a MCU with the myriad characters introduced in the FF? New heroes and a host of villains. Equally, imagine the MCU with Wolverine - because he's the kind of character who actually does (and has) transfer(ed) well to the screen. Personally, I don't think The X-Men will work as well, not because they're not great characters, but because visually they lack the visual 'brilliance' many of the heroes of the MCU have already got. They'd need to be done either as they were in the comics or re-imagined completely and we all know what happens when re-imaginings take place?

The most logical wishful thinking of Kevin Feige, the man behind the MCU, would be to be able to have Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow back, either in their own films or as co-stars in others. It makes sense, Iron Man kickstarted the MCU; Cap was the lynchpin and Natasha was the most present without her own film; she became as heroic as her two more elderly team mates and died helping save the universe. The future wouldn't be the same without them.

The thing is the MCU hasn't really been complete without the Fantastic Four; readers of the comics for many years would tell you the FF are pretty much one of the most important cogs in the Marvel universe wheel. I like to think Feige knows this and without three of his big hitters, he can replace them with four, except, he can do much better than that...

Imagine (in his next film) Doc Strange with Wanda (and the Hulk) manage to discover a way to jump between different multiverses, perhaps attempting to track something. On their way they bump into many familiar characters (and some not so). In world's where Wanda is believed to be a mutant; the Hulk is a menace in most places and Stephen Strange sometimes doesn't even exist or is completely different to how he actually is? Maybe their multi-universal adventures have them meet an FF, a bunch of mutants and maybe new threats that don't exist in the current MCU continuity?

Obviously, 'Our' heroes will win out and the day will be saved, except maybe in one of the credits sequences, we'll return to the world of the FF and something is wrong there. Then in the second credits sequence we'll return to one of the other worlds and they also have a problem - the multiverses are crumbling or maybe even merging...

Maybe something will happen in the 2nd Black Panther film; he could be leading the Avengers by then, so his next solo effort might be like Cap's 'solo' efforts, or maybe they might skip a film and the next Captain Marvel film will pick of the gauntlet - so to speak - of discovering why the multiverse is merging together?

Eventually, all the heroes unite to defeat whatever the new bad guy is - maybe the Beyonder, a god from another dimension (created in the crossover Marvel comic series Secret Wars) released by the same accident that started merging the universes. Yes, it's a bit Crisis on Infinite Earths (a DC reunification project and the first of its kind), but Avengers: Endgame was essentially Lord of the Rings, so why not?

Eventually, in what could be the next big 'Endgame' finale, the remaining universes merge together and all the heroes, whether played by the same or new actors, are in one reality again, allowing, if they want, for new Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man films as well as all the others to keep them going until 2035. Even if it sounds like fan fiction, it makes perfect (financial) sense; what better marketing tool than introducing the new/old new/same but different Captain America! Played by whichever one of the de rigueur mid-20s actors currently floating around who can safely take the mantle on for another 15 years; ditto Iron Man and Black Widow, maybe the Hulk, Hawkeye, possibly they're already starting with Thor - Marvel/Disney can do whatever they want to reflect whatever era they want to pilfer from Marvel's comicbook history?

Maybe the next big culmination will see the 'original' Avengers together (again), but with different actors playing the parts. You see, in the Marvel Comics Universe - nobody dies forever. It's not like we don't already have at least 3 different Spider-Mans existing in films from the last 20 years; obviously not in the same way, but that was before they could play with all their own toys. It's not like Marvel/Disney and Feige are just going to forget about these iconic characters; that would make any accountant baulk at the idea of discarding cash cows in the hope other characters will take their mantle.

In conclusion; the powers that be will want to milk as much from this franchise as they can until superhero movies no longer command the returns they currently enjoy. With the face of cinema changing because of the pandemic, the time scale might be even longer and the longer it goes on the ravages of time will affect the actors currently inhabiting the roles. If I was a betting man, I'd expect the clock to be reset, allowing a kickstart within an already successful franchise; they never have to just re-start it, because they can tinker, change and fiddle as much as they like while keeping everything on an apparent linear track.

It could be, for some, that Avengers: Endgame might be a great jumping off point, especially for people who really don't think they'll be alive (or compos mentis) by the time the next great conclusion is arrived at. One thing is for certain - while Marvel/Disney rule the cinematic box office, they're not going to lose their main characters for the sake of common sense, especially not in a 'universe' where anything is possible.