Secret Wars Already Has The Perfect Fix For Infinity War’s Cast Size Problem

The source material gives Avengers: Secret Wars an easy way to avoid the same cast size problem that hindered Avengers: Infinity War. From all indications, Secret Wars has the potential to be yet another epic assembly of MCU heroes. Similar to Infinity War and Endgame and in contrast to the first two Avengers movies, the upcoming Phase 6 film could unite numerous superheroes from various corners of the MCU.

Multiple factors support the idea that Marvel’s Secret Wars movie won’t focus on a small lineup of characters akin to the first installment. After all, the name of the film alone is indicative of a large-scale event, as the comic story was known for its large gathering of heroes. Plus, it being set up as the ending of the Multiverse Saga increases the chances of Marvel putting together a large cast of characters for the movie. However, packing too many people can prove problematic.

Marvel Comics Explains How Secret Wars Can Work With A Smaller Cast

As a crossover that combined characters from Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man comics, Secret Wars was faced with the huge challenge of finding something meaningful to do for all of its characters. It accomplished this task by using a cosmic entity known as the Beyonder. Instead of sending the Beyonder to fight Marvel’s heroes on Earth, Marvel had the Beyonder bring them directly to him. Beyonder created a dimension called Battleworld and settled on several heroes and villains that he wanted to see fight each other. By taking this course, Marvel was able to choose representatives of each comic title.

For obvious reasons, this is a much more manageable approach than trying to fit the entire rosters of the Avengers and the X-Men into one storyline. As for whether or not the MCU’s Secret Wars can head in the same direction, that depends on how much the story has in common with the comic. If it at least shares the basic premise of the original crossover event, there should be a character – whether it’s the Beyonder or someone else – who pulls a collection of heroes into a fight. If that happens, Marvel can leave out whoever it pleases.

Why Avengers: Secret Wars Needs Less Heroes

In Infinity War, the cast was so huge that Captain America and Black Widow received extremely limited screen-time and key characters like Hawkeye were overlooked completely. There were simply too many heroes in Infinity War for Marvel to give each of them significant attention. From a narrative standpoint, it made sense for every MCU hero to show up for the fight with Thanos, but balancing them all was always going to be an impossible task. Repeating this situation would not be a good move for Marvel, hence why a smaller cast is a much better option. By utilizing a villain with a plan similar to the Beyonder’s, Marvel can easily justify certain heroes not taking part in the action. Only those invited have to be on hand.