Marvel Studios Planning “New Franchise Beyond Avengers”

Given the unique “serial” nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — in which all of the movies take place in a shared universe that progresses, for the most part, linearly through time — it was inevitable that we would one day see the last of our favorite heroes as they age out of roles or *gasp* get killed off by an evil tyrant. Even given this, it seemed like there would always be an Avengers franchise, where new actors would step in to fill familiar roles or the next generation of characters stepped up to fill the roster left vacant by the original team. Yes, there’s already an Avengers 4 filmed and in post-production and, yes, there are plans for more Avengers-related movies in the foreseeable future, but what about after that?

In a recent interview with THR, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the “popularity of the franchise” dictates that there will likely be more Avengers movies after the sequel to Infinity War, but that the future of Marvel Studios might be “a new franchise.”

We meet on a regular basis with our Marvel team, and we’ve plotted out Marvel movies that will take us well into the next decade. I’m guessing we will try our hand at what I’ll call a new franchise beyond ‘Avengers,’ but that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t see more ‘Avengers’ down the road. We just haven’t made any announcements about that.

What that franchise could be, is anyone’s guess, but the most likely candidates are the X-Men and Fantastic Four properties, which will return to Marvel when Disney completes its acquisition of 21st Century Fox movie assets for over $52 billion in stock.

Another property with franchise potential is the Eternals, which Marvel President Kevin Feige revealed in April is currently being developed as a possible feature. The Eternals are far less well known than the Avengers or X-Men but have a mythology that is no less epic in scale and scope: created over a million years ago by the mighty Celestials (Kurt Russell‘s Ego from Guardians vol. 2 is one of them), the Eternals are half of a twin race of super beings that exist on Earth in secret, waging a never-ending war against their even brothers, the hideous Deviants.

Next up…

Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th

Then…

Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.

And…

Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019.

And…

Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 on July 5, 2019.

There’s also a Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 4 and a Black Panther 2 somewhere down the line (likely in 2020), so Marvel has plenty in store for us for the next couple years.