Thor to Black Widow: Marvel's Phase 4 suits up to bring the action

Loki (Premiere date: June 11, 2021, 6 episodes): After stealing the Tesseract during the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019), an alternate version of Loki is brought to the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organisation that exists outside of time and space and monitors the timeline. They give Loki a choice: face being deleted from existence due to being a “time variant”, or help fix the timeline and stop a greater threat, with the help of one Mobius M Mobius, a TVA agent played by Owen Wilson.

Black Widow (Release date: July 9, 2021): Set after the events of ‘Captain America: Civil War’, ‘Black Widow’ sees Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) returning to the former Soviet Bloc to deal with some unresolved issues and face her spy “family” once again. The film also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, and Rachel Weisz. Director Cate Shortland has previously said that the film will serve as a passing of the Black Widow baton from Natasha to Yelena (Pugh), and a “last hurrah” for Johansson, who will leave the MCU after the project.

Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings (Release date September 3, 2021): Featuring the first Asian superhero to lead an MCU project, ‘Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings’ follows Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi as he faces off against the mysterious Ten Rings organisation and its true leader, the Mandarin (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), not to be confused with Ben Kingsley’s fake Mandarin from ‘Iron Man 3’). Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the all-Asian cast also features Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng.

Eternals (Release date November 5, 2021): After an unexpected tragedy, following the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, the Eternals — an immortal alien race created by the Celestials who have secretly lived on Earth for over 7000 years — reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. With Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao set to direct, ‘Eternals’ features a star-studded cast including Angelina Jolie as Athena, Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Kit harington as Dane Whitman and Lauren Ridloff as Makkari.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (Release date December 17, 2021): After some tussle between Sony and Marvel, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is all set to return in his third headlining movie. While no plot details have been revealed as yet, we know that two cast members from previous Spider-Man films (aka ones starring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in the lead role) are confirmed to return: Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus. Also confirmed to be reuniting with Holland is Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, which suggests a multiverse showdown is to be expected.

What If …? (Premiere date TBA 2021; Number of episodes 10): The animated series explores what would happen if major moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe occurred differently. As an example, Marvel president Kevin Fiege had revealed that the first episode features Peggy Carter taking the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. The show features Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher, who observes the multiverse and occasionally intervenes with events therein, and will narrate the series. The series will also feature late actor Chadwick Boseman’s final appearance in the MCU.

Hawkeye (Premiere date: TBA 2021 Number of episodes: TBA): Set after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, ‘Hawkeye’ sees Jeremy Renner reprise his role as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld joining him as Kate Bishop. Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James, and Alaqua Cox also star. Florence Pugh will also reprise her ‘Black Widow’ role as Yelena Belova in the series that wrapped filming late last month.

Ms. Marvel (Premiere date: Late 2021; Number of episodes: TBA): Led by a teenage Pakistani American superhero (Played by Imani Vellani), ‘Ms. Marvel’ features Inhuman Kamala Khan, who must deal with her new superpowers as a shapeshifter while keeping her identity secret from her somewhat traditional family. While we have no details as yet on ‘Ms. Marvel’ and what we can expect as far as a storyline for the series, we do suspect that its events will directly tie into ‘Captain Marvel 2’, as Vellani is slated to appear in the 2022 film alongside Brie Larson and ‘WandaVision’s’ Teyonah Parris. Bisha K. Ali is the showrunner, while directors include Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Meera Menon.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (Release date: March 25, 2022): After the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘WandaVision’, Dr. Stephen Strange’s continuing research for the Time Stone is hindered by a friend-turned-enemy, resulting in Strange unleashing unspeakable evil. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr Strange is joined in the movie by Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor are set to return from the original movie.

Moon Knight (Premiere date: Early-mid 2022 Number of episodes: 6): ‘Moon Knight’ will follow a former US Marine with dissociative identity disorder (DID) who becomes the conduit for the Egyptian moon deity Khonshu. Jeremy Slater (‘The Umbrella Academy’, ‘The Exorcist’) has been selected as showrunner and Oscar Isaac signed on to star as the titular hero and Ethan Hawke will play the villain. The series began filming in Budapest over the weekend (April 30) at the Museum of Fine Arts.

She-Hulk (Premiere date: 2022 TBA Number of episodes: 10): Based on fan favourite She-Hulk, the Disney+ series will focus on Bruce’s cousin Jennifer Walters. As the Marvel chief Fiege said previously, “She’s a Hulk and she’s a lawyer.” Taitana Maslany was confirmed as the title character (a lawyer catering primarily to superhero matters) in December 2020, with Marvel also revealing that Mark Ruffalo will appear as Bruce Banner and Tim Roth will reprise his The Incredible Hulk role as the Abomination.

Thor: Love and Thunder (Release date: May 6, 2022): Director Taika Waititi had previously revealed plans to adapt the ‘Mighty Thor ‘comic books in which Natalie Portman’s character Jane Foster takes on the mantle and powers of Thor after suffering from cancer. Co-writer Jennifer Kaityn Robinson joined the film in February 2020, with Waititi later describing it as a romance film. The film also features Chris Hemsworth as Thor, alongside Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Jaimie Alexander, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, and Jeff Goldblum.

Black Panther II (Release date: July 8, 2022): With ‘Black Panther’ star Chadwick Boseman’s sudden death in August 2020 from colon cancer, any plans to feature his character T’Challa in the sequel were immediately dropped with Feige and team refusing to recast the character in honour of the late actor. While Ryan Coogler is returning to direct thesequel, details on the plot are yet to be revealed. In November 2020, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett were confirmed to be reprising their roles in the sequel, Tenoch Huerta was in talks to appear as an antagonist, and Letitia Wright’s Shuri (T’Challa’s sister) was said to have a more prominent role.

Captain Marvel 2 (Release date: November 11, 2022): The film is a sequel to Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame and a crossover/sequel to Ms. Marvel. Brie Larson returns as Captain Marvel and will team up with Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel (Imani Vellani) and Monica Rambeau from ‘WandaVision’ (played by Teyonah Parris).

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Release date: 2022 TBA): In April of 2019, ‘Rick and Morty’ writer Jeff Loveness was announced as the film’s writer with director Peyton Reed set to return for his third film. Picking up after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, the film should follow Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), deal with life after returning from the Snap. But expect their new life to run into some kinks by the arrival of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Release date: 2023 TBA ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ is set after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, and while no details of the plot has been released, one can assume that it will involve Chris Pratt’s Star Lord’s search for Gamora. There is also some chatter as to Adam Warlock’s long-delayed introduction into the MCU. James Gunn is returning to direct with all main stars (Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Pom Klementieff) set to return,

Fantastic Four (Release date: TBA): At the July 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Feige announced Marvel Studios was developing a Fantastic Four film for the MCU, with Jon Watts announced as the director in December 2020. No further details are available on the project yet.

Secret Invasion (Premiere date: TBA Number of episodes: 6): Marvel announced in December 2020 that it is adapting one of its most famous comics arcs, ‘Secret Invasion’, as a limited series. Ben Mendelsohn reprises his Captain Marvel role as the Skrull Talos and Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as Nick Fury. The duo will deal with a group of ill-intentioned Skrulls hiding on Earth and infiltrating “every level of life on Earth.” In April 2021, news broke of ‘The Crown’s’ Olivia Colman and ‘Game of Thrones’ star Emilia Clarke joining the cast.

Ironheart (Premiere date: TBA Number of episodes: 6): Based on the character introduced into Marvel comics by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato, Riri Williams (to be played by Dominque Thorne) is a 15-year-old robotics genius who builds a suit of armour more advanced than anything Tony Stark cooked up in his lifetime. Both ‘Ironheart’ and ‘Secret Invasion’ will tie back into an upcoming MCU feature film.

Armor Wars (Premiere date: TBA Number of episodes: TBA): Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes finally gets to take centre stage in ‘Armour Wars’. In this story, War Machine will have to put on the suit, reclaim his title, and stop a technocratic, dystopian nightmare when Stark’s technology falls into the wrong hands.

Untitled Wakanda series (Premiere date: TBA Number of episodes: TBA): In February 2021, a drama series set in Wakanda was revealed to be in development from Ryan Coogler, writer and director of ‘Black Panther’ and its sequel, through his company Proximity Media.