Avengers: Endgame Is The Civil War Of Marvel’s Phase 4

2019’s Avengers: Endgame wrapped-up over a decade of MCU storylines but, like Captain America: Civil War did for Phase 3, it also setup the future storylines for Marvel’s Phase 4. Civil War, a major team-up event in its own right, despite being a Captain America film, kicked-off Marvel’s biggest and most ambitious phase of movies back in 2016. Three years later, and following on from Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame brought to a close the Infinity Saga and the journeys of some of the MCU’s biggest characters, including Iron Man and Captain America. Thanos was defeated, the heroes returned, and it was a triumphant celebration of what Marvel had done up to that point.

Avengers: Endgame, right down to its title, was defined by being the concluding act of the MCU. That’s what gave the film so much of its hype and expectation, and why it necessitated a 3-hour runtime, but is also what led it to being a surprisingly more poignant affair than most Marvel movies too. At the same time, though, there was plenty in Endgame that looked to the future, albeit one that, at that point, hadn’t been revealed yet.

Much like Captain America: Civil War before it, Avengers: Endgame not only delivered a massive Marvel movie (from the same writers and directors, with many of the same cast members), but ensured that it was laying much of the groundwork for the next few years of the MCU, and with strands that could be built upon for years to come.

Captain America: Civil War Setup & Defined Marvel Phase 3

Captain America: Civil War was in some ways The Avengers 2.5 (though it’s very much a Cap and Buck y story at heart), utilizing most of the major MCU characters who existed at that point – with Thor and Hulk as the notable exceptions – and introducing some new ones at the same time. Although the movie’s driving force came, at least in part, from actions in previous movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron, the use of Sokovia Accords, the new heroes, and the divisions between the team all helped to set things up for what came next in Marvel’s Phase 3, especially with regards to the solo movies.

The divisions between the heroes would loom over the MCU until Avengers: Infinity War, when Captain America finally re-entered the fray, and the rivalry was still a motivator for the characters into Avengers: Endgame too. The presence of Spider-Man, and hints of his backstory, was used as a launchpad for not only his solo film, but for the close relationship between Peter Parker and Tony Stark. The same goes for Black Panther, who was not only introduced, but witnessed his father die, serving as setup for his own film and character’s journey to truly become the Black Panther there, alongside Bucky on Wakanda, all of which helped set it up as an important location for Avengers: Infinity War. Hawkeye and Scott Lang were both placed under house arrest, which factored into Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp respectively. While not every Marvel Phase 3 film was directly setup here, Captain America: Civil War did a lot of heavy lifting for the solo movies, team-ups, character arcs, and plot developments that followed.

Marvel Phase 4 Doesn’t Have A Setup Movie

There’s no obvious Phase 4 equivalent of Captain America: Civil War in terms of setup. In terms of release dates, the first movie on the slate is Black Widow, which is a prequel that’s expected to take place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War (so if anything, is continuing some of Civil War‘s impact). The film will likely reveal some key information about Natasha Romanoff’s backstory, and could help link into some other future elements – a tie-in to Falcon & The Winter Soldier isn’t out of the question, while Yelena Belova could become Nat’s MCU replacement as Black Widow. At the same time, though, this is a smaller-scale movie, and its place in the timeline means it isn’t going to have a far-reaching impact over the entire Marvel Phase 4 slate. The same goes for the other movies: Doctor Strange 2 (with its multiverse) and Captain Marvel 2 (by expanding the cosmic branch) can both setup further movies, but both arrive much too late to define Phase 4 itself.

Part of the reason for this, of course, is the delay of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Originally expected to open in May 2020 in the spot that eventually went to Black Widow, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was going to setup Phase 4, and more than that the “next 10-20 years” of the MCU, as per James Gunn. That’s largely expected to be because of how it would’ve taken things in a more cosmic direction, setting up way more cosmic movies to follow. Without that, Phase 4 doesn’t really have a cosmic movie: both The Eternals and Thor 4 could deal with some of that stuff, but will also have large parts set on Earth too. Captain Marvel 2 can be largely cosmic, but again, it’s too late for Phase 4. That means there’s no immediate movie to setup what comes next.

Avengers: Endgame Already Setup Most Of Marvel Phase 4

While there’s no Phase 4 movie doing the comparable legwork of Captain America: Civil War, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As established, part of the reason is because Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was pushed back, but it’s also because Avengers: Endgame has already laid so much groundwork for what comes next. Most of the conversation around Endgame understandably focused on how it served as a conclusion to so many different character and story arcs, but it was also setting up a lot of what’s to come. That went for Spider-Man: Far From Home, which came after and dealt with some of the more immediate fallout, but it also goes for Marvel’s Phase 4.

The first movie, Black Widow, will better explore the character after her Endgame death, filling in some of the blanks to help make that a better moment. Falcon & The Winter Soldier will see Sam trying to reckon with becoming the new Captain America, and the U.S. government attempting to fill that void too. The Eternals will be set after Avengers: Endgame, and could see the group fill the gap left by the Avengers, show some of them were snapped out of existence, or deal with some aftermath of Thanos’ actions, since he’s linked to them. Avengers: Endgame saw Loki go into a new timeline with the Space Stone, which will be explored in his own Disney+ series; it helped bridge the gap between Captain Marvel’s movies; the fallout from it and Infinity War could motivate Doctor Strange’s exploration of the multiverse; Namor is teased for an appearance in Black Panther 2; Thor could work with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and will be continuing to find himself in Love & Thunder.

That’s perhaps even more heavy lifting than Captain America: Civil War did. Avengers: Endgame was the most important movie of the MCU’s Infinity Saga, since it served as the capstone of that story. At the same time, Endgame is key to Marvel’s Phase 4 as well, with the reverberations of it likely to be felt long into the MCU’s future.