Our journey through Marvel movie history treks on as Countdown to Doomsday returns! We’re covering the least number of films yet: a mere five in this era. And they are all Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) releases, with no outside studio competition.

We left our tale with one rival studio, Fox, at a high point. With Deadpool and Logan, Fox made a serious case that they were the best studio making Marvel films. They were the only Marvel competition remaining, with Sony having sent Spider-Man off to Disney. Perhaps Marvel Studios took things for granted because of that, but with the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) in full swing, one could hardly say there was no competition.

Era Seven, running from mid-2017 to mid-2018, would test whether reduced competition would lead to lesser quality. Would this be a high point for the MCU as it built toward an Avengers finale, or is this where its complex tower of cards would tumble?

Era Seven: Path to the MCU’s Finale

These five films are the core of Phase 3 in many ways, and they are widely cited (alongside Captain America: Civil War) as making this the MCU’s best era yet. Perhaps one can read that as Disney stepping up in response to Fox, but maybe it is just the payoff of good planning.

While Marvel Studios could never say everything went precisely according to plan, Phase 3 came the closest. As mentioned in the last article, Inhumans was the only Marvel film announced for Phase 3 that didn’t make it as a film, and there were relatively few calendar shifts. These five films more or less came on time, fulfilled their creative visions, and built on prior MCU movies to creating a sense of interconnected storytelling.

It would not be an overstatement to say multiple films were cultural events, with the likes of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War storming theaters. Not to mention the return of Spider-Man to undisputed success, and Thor suddenly finding rebirth with a new creative vision. In many ways, Phase 3 seemed to symbolize the power of creative freedom and studio filmmaking intertwining. It also began a trend of three annual MCU releases, showing that the MCU machine was firing on all cylinders. Era Seven also showed the MCU could do the same thing in the streaming world with its Netflix shows (even if they continued to be ignored by the movies) as they had a mini-Avengers crossover in Defenders.

Completing the Infinity Saga was the overriding mission. Part of the point of an interconnected cinematic universe is to build towards an overarching narrative and make it pay off. The MCU was a series of successful longshots, going from Iron Man to The Avengers to Guardians of the Galaxy, and these demonstrated that inter-film worldbuilding could work, could make absurd amounts of money, and could show off the zanier aspects of comic books without losing mainstream audiences. All the ingredients were there to make Avengers: Infinity War a triumph and conclude ten years of effort.

And what a triumph it would be. This era ended with a bang (or should we say a snap?) It showed the benefits of a long-term plan by comparison to DC, since the DCEU’s rushed products mostly bombed with critics. Infinity War was proof positive the MCU had worked, and it left audiences with some of the highest anticipation for a follow-up in cinema history.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Ironically, we start with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the most isolated and least interconnected of the Phase 3 films. While launching Guardians was a risk the MCU leveraged to formally introduce both Thanos and the Infinity Stones, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios didn’t seem to have any particular need to develop them before Infinity War and Endgame. Feige said Thanos’s next big-screen experience would be “grander.” Thus, they let James Gunn tell whatever story he wanted. It became the first MCU movie set entirely in the recent past, taking place just a few months after the end of the first movie.

As was typical at this point, Vol. 2. was announced before the first movie hit theaters. After Guardians‘ breakout success, Disney CEO Bob Iger felt there was particularly strong franchise potential and that it was potentially “another Avengers.” Feige, Guardians co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman, and Gunn all commented at the time that there were a myriad of options for a sequel.

With the official green light, Gunn launched into writing the second movie with the goal of bringing back the entire core team and adding at least one new Guardian from the comics. Gunn’s early work so enthused Marvel that the release date moved up, creating up the first instance of three MCU movies in one year. By late-2014, Gunn’s writing was in full throttle, and he publicly commented on his positive working relationship with Marvel. He was never forced to include any character or plot element, and he had freedom to add almost any character he wanted. Thus, Gunn did not include connections to other Phase 3 movies and focused entirely on his story.

Gunn deliberately wrote a different plot structure from the first movie to keep things fresh. He would set the movie only a few months after the ending of the first, since he felt exploring the group’s early dynamics made more sense than jumping ahead in time. He also aimed to amalgamate various elements of the comics rather than directly adapt a single story.

His focus involved further exploring Star-Lord’s father. After briefly considering delving into Rocket’s origins, Gunn decided it made more sense to focus on Peter Quill first, pushing Rocket’s story to a hopeful third movie. Gunn came up with much of Quill’s past during the writing of Guardians, and he threaded hints about it into the first film’s ending. Gunn refined those details, including ensuring that Yondu fit into the story as a father figure to Peter. While he didn’t publicly say who the father would be, Gunn ruled out Peter’s father from the comics, J’son, early in the writing process.

To make this tale of fathers work, Gunn decided to narrow the movie’s scope and not introduce many new characters. He easily ruled out inclusion of characters like Captain Marvel, Nova, or other earthlings, wanting to keep it as cosmic as possible without reference to Earth. He initially considered adding in Darkhawk and Adam Warlock (more on him later) but decided neither fit with the story he was creating. Gunn was truly committed to exploring the current characters more deeply (though removing planned material for Drax, Kraglin, and the Collector).

However, Gunn’s overall approach caused Marvel some concern. While they gave Gunn relative creative freedom, Marvel executives commented early in development that he was being risky by not adapting any specific comics. Marvel Studios and Feige knew how angry fans could get if a film strayed too far from authenticity, and they worried Gunn might be taking too many creative liberties with the source material. One area Gunn expected resistance on was Baby Groot, though the merchandising opportunities were clear and he received no pushback there.

Marvel ultimately did step in and request changes regarding Gamora. Gunn’s original story involved killing Gamora, creating a significant loss for Peter to deal with, since Zoe Saldana didn’t want to play the role for more than one movie. Feige and Louis D’Esposito wanted her to die in Infinity War instead and roped in the Russo Brothers to explain their plans to Gunn. This cross-collaboration between directors was fairly common in Phase 3, with some describing the Marvel Studios dynamic as similar to old Hollywood with directors and other creatives constantly running into each other on the studio lot and solving creative problems. Gunn ended up liking the changes, feeling the story led into Yondu’s death more naturally and that Gamora’s death in Infinity War cued up Vol. 3‘s story better.

Gunn finished the script in June 2015, confirmed the return of the main cast, and announced the title would be Vol. 2, a nod to cassette music’s role as a backbone of the franchise. Unfortunately, despite Gunn’s desires, several characters from the first film did not return, including John C. Reilly‘s Rhomann Day, Glenn Close‘s Nova Prime, and Benicio del Toro‘s The Collector, though Del Toro commented he wanted to come back.

Some new characters took their place. Introducing another female character, Pom Klementieff was cast as Mantis, officially revealing the next presumed Guardian. Other picks included Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha, with Gunn drawn to her height and beauty, and comedian Chris Sullivan as Taserface.

The film also briefly featured a cameo of the original Guardians team from the comics, achieved through casting celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Michelle Yeoh, Ving Rhames, Michael Rosenbaum, and Miley Cyrus (Gunn admired her voice tone on The Voice). Gunn had wanted to include David Bowie before his death. At the time, Stallone commented that this version of the Guardians would return, though that has never really happened.

There were also returning cameos in the form of Seth Green as Howard the Duck, and of course Stan Lee. As mentioned in our prior article, Gunn filmed three of Lee’s cameos at once so Lee would not have to travel as much in his advanced age. This movie’s cameo served to confirm a long-running fan theory that Lee was playing a Watcher, a race of extraterrestrial beings that observe important events, in every prior cameo. In this cameo, Lee even references being a FedEx man in Civil War. Finally, Jeff Goldblum appears dancing in the credits as his Thor: Ragnarok character, as a fun tease.

One of the bigger casting choices was of lead villain, Ego the Living Planet, who also happened to be Peter’s father. Ego’s inclusion was a near miss. When Gunn wrote Ego as the villain, he was unaware Ego belonged to Fox and not Marvel. Gunn panicked, given the essentialness of the character, but luckily Marvel was willing to cut a deal on his behalf. Marvel allowed Fox to change the powerset of Negasonic Teenage Warhead for Deadpool in exchange for Fox letting Marvel use Ego. Yes, this was indeed a real business deal between multibillion dollar corporations. There were apparently many other space characters Gunn wanted to use that belonged to Fox like Annihilius and Kang the Conquerer.

Matthew McConaughey was eyed for the role of Ego at one point, but he turned it down to be in The Dark Tower (oops). Instead, Chris Pratt suggested Kurt Russell, which immediately clicked for Gunn. After Russell watched the first film, he vibed with Pratt’s performance, saw how he could tackle Ego, and accepted the part.

Filming launched at last in early 2016. Gunn was unable to use much of his crew from the first flick because they’d all signed onto Doctor Strange. He needed talented people for this massive production, as he used all eighteen sound stages at Pinewood Atlanta due to the large and varied sets and wanting to minimize CGI, though there was still plenty of it. To that end, production continued to utilize stand-ins for CGI characters. Sean Gunn again stood in on set as Rocket in addition to his more expansive part as Kraglin, and a Baby Groot prop was made for filming.

Despite Gunn not having his old crew, they still managed to improve on the work from the first movie. This included cutting the makeup time for Drax and Nebula down from four hours each to ninety minutes for Drax and 180 minutes for Nebula. Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper got to expand their voicework for Groot and Rocket due to more leadup time and firmer planning, part of Phase 3’s overall solid structure.

Production wasn’t totally without hiccups. The tape decks from the first film vanished, and all of the Sony Walkman headsets broke. Ironically, Sony itself lacked any of the correct ones, and eBay offered only hyper-expensive ones that weren’t an exact match. Thus, prop master Russell Bobbitt had to create new ones from scratch.

Post-production was an extensive affair as always. In addition to some reshoots, the editors also removed Nathan Fillion‘s cameo as Wonder Man. There were over 1000 effects shots made by at least nine studios. Gunn was once again the performance model for dancing Baby Groot, in an even more extensive capture process. Meanwhile, Framestore chose to rebuild Rocket from the ground-up to enhance his visuals and make him more detailed. Many of the studios were dedicated to creating Ego’s planet, a largely CGI location, to give it a lived-in look.

Finally, came the music. Due to first film’s soundtrack being a smash success, Gunn felt more pressure in picking songs for Vol. 2. As with the first, he wrote the songs into the script. Though he was not able to include a few songs he wanted such as “She’s Gone” by Hall & Oates or “Teenage Lament ’74” by Alice Cooper, he opined he did a better job with this movie’s soundtrack. They also produced an original song, “Guardians Inferno,” which played over the credits. Tyler Bates wrote the score again as well. In reverse of what typically happens for movie, Gunn had Bates write the score first and filmed to match the music. Despite Gunn’s feelings, this soundtrack did not sell quite as much as the first film’s.

Marketing was already underway when production wrapped in summer 2016. While the only post-credits teases for the movie came with the first Guardians film, Gunn led a panel at 2016 ComicCon that revealed Ego as the villain, wanting to get ahead of possible leaks. To that end, Michael Rooker made some very public appearances on Infinity War’s set to combat rumors of Yondu dying. Gunn also ensured that female characters featured in marketing. The marketing teams at Disney aimed to turn Guardians into a tentpole franchise and launched intense merchandising options including Doritos bags, of all things.

Detailed trailer campaigns also played a big role, as was a growing trend. Vol. 2‘s teaser trailer reached 81 million views in a day, becoming the new biggest Marvel Studios trailer. The trailer song “Fox on the Run” hit #1 on iTunes Rock Charts immediately thereafter. There was later a Super Bowl trailer that performed exceptionally well and had audiences hyped for where the Guardians were going.

Vol. 2 finally debuted in May 2017 to open up the MCU’s first year of three releases. It had the largest IMAX launch in Chinese cinema history and rode huge presales to a strong debut weekend. Earning $17 million from Thursday previews alone, it went to a $146.5 million opening weekend in the US and Canada and earned $106 million from other international markets. It would be the largest opening of 2017 in some countries. Merely three weeks after release, Vol. 2 surpassed the first movie’s box office gross and finished its run at $863.8 million, one of the MCU’s top earners.

Critical response was good as well, if certainly more mixed than the first movie. While sitting at an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score, some found the plotting uneven and that it wasn’t quite as fresh as the original. There was still plenty of praise for the humor, visuals, music, characters, heart, and more, but a running theme was the diminished returns. One critic felt Russell was badly miscast.

While the comic-book authenticity conversation morphed over the years, the MCU that once received praise for it was certainly diverging from the source more and more. Vol. 2 didn’t directly adapt any story, and it wildly changed Star-Lord’s parent and Ego himself. To that end, Mantis’s creator Steve Englehart commented with disappointment on her adaptation. He felt she was basically a completely different character and wished she hadn’t been used.

Thus, while the MCU marched into more and more mainstream success, there was an increasing narrative that the MCU was just at bad at comic authenticity as Fox or Sony. This could be seen as the cost of success, or just the reality of being so many movies deep into its own continuity. But with this much money and positive critical reception, Disney likely did not feel it was doing anything wrong.

As far as what came next, Vol. 2 featured five different post-credits scenes, which remains an MCU record. Almost none of them tease anything immediate for Phase 3, though, and instead cued up elements for Vol. 3. Notable among the bevy of post-credits scenes was one teasing Adam Warlock, showcasing his egg with the Sovereign. Funnily, Marvel gave Gunn pushback on that scene because the studio felt it would mislead fans into thinking Warlock would appear in the next Avengers movie, since Warlock plays a key role in the Infinity Gauntlet comics. Gunn convinced Marvel to let him keep the scene by promising to use social media to clarify it was a tease for future Guardians movies. Such was the nature of modern movie marketing and Gunn’s heavier-than-usual (for blockbuster directors) social media presence. Other scenes included Kraglin taking over Yondu’s arrow and fin, the original Guardians reuniting, and the only one that does play into the Avengers movies: the arrival of teenage Groot.

With one movie down, the MCU was off to a hot start in 2017. The next movie was a mere two months away, and it looked inevitable that 2017 was to be one of Marvel Studios most successful years. Indeed, Marvel Studios moved offices in April 2017 to the Frank G. Wells building, one of Disney’s older office buildings on the lot, perhaps literally moving on up.

While there was no competition on the Marvel front, the DCEU was still trying to fire back. To that end, Wonder Woman released in June 2017. The first major blockbuster film for this iconic character, it was largely successful at the box office and received solid critical reviews. The DCEU was certainly rushing things, but perhaps there was more positive buzz at it geared up to release an Avengers equivalent.

The MCU was already ready to respond with a cinematic adaptation of its most popular character.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As we already discussed with the first Guardians, Vol. 3 seems to close a door on many of the characters ever returning outside of Star-Lord. We’ll do a detailed discussion of those send-offs in that entry. Regarding characters introduced here, Ego’s death seems quite final and unlikely to be undone. Some of the Ravagers introduced here return for Vol. 3, but they seem unlikely for Doomsday. The tease of the original Guardians lineup getting a story seems forgotten, and we doubt they come back again.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

To say an MCU Spidey film was long anticipated would be an understatement. We’ve repeatedly noted in this series that Spider-Man was the undisputed king of Marvel characters prior to the MCU, standing with Superman and Batman in popularity. It was 2002’s Spider-Man that launched the Marvel movie craze in earnest and likely made the MCU possible.

Even today, in the midst of the MCU’s post-Endgame struggles, it is the fourth MCU Spidey movie that has revitalized the studio and become the MCU’s second-biggest box-office hit.

As soon as the MCU exploded and The Avengers turned it into a true juggernaut, people were begging for Spidey to be part of the mosaic. This compounded with the uneven-to-poor response to Sony’s The Amazing Spiderman reboot series. Thus, Spidey’s journey home seems inevitable in retrospect. But it was a difficult road, and even now it exists on the precipice of unparalleled cooperation between rival movie studios.

Marvel Studios recognized the importance of having Spidey in their universe and launched active efforts in 2014 to work something out with Sony. There already had been inklings of desire on the production of prior Avengers movies, as we noted in past articles, but as Phase 3 was planned and announced, Kevin Feige was determined to add the Web-Head to the roster. Feige believed ample ground remained to explore a high-school-aged Spidey that would stand out from prior adaptations and other MCU characters.

Luckily, Sony was receptive. The infamous Sony email leaks indicated Amy Pascal was already in internal discussions with other Sony execs after The Amazing Spiderman 2‘s failure. Sony’s initial pitch was for Disney to produce MCU-set Spidey movies while Sony maintained “creative control, marketing, and distribution.”

This was a non-starter for Disney, and talks broke down. Reporting at the time got wind of these discussions, whether through accidental or intentional leaks, creating fan furor and debate over which studio was being greedy and preventing the dream crossover from happening.

Regardless of how it happened, enough fan anger sparked Pascal and Feige back into conversation and into a space where compromises were made. It was in February 2015 that Sony and Marvel announced a headline-breaking deal wherein Sony retained control over financing and distribution, as well as final creative say, but gave Disney overall reign on production and creation direction. The deal could be terminated at any time, though Marvel paid to obtain full control over merchandising rights. Sony and Marvel also worked out a precise revenue-sharing scheme which included bringing in Columbia Pictures as co-producer (the long-time production house of Spidey movies for Sony).

With this deal forged, next came implementation. While Feige and Marvel were prepared to trek ahead without Spidey, they’d already made detailed plans including him. Sony had plans of their own, with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach already onboard to produce. Sony also wanted to stay with Drew Goddard to write and direct, since he was on Sony’s radar for a Sinister Six movie. Goddard turned it down, however, as preplanning on Sinister Six burned him out.

While they were back to the drawing board on a director, the acting search was already underway. Sony was generally open to going younger, having Logan Lerman and Dylan O’Brien in mind. But Feige wanted a truly teenaged actor, which Sony had some qualms about. Still, the extensive casting process was the first big joint cooperation between Sony and Marvel, and they considered a multitude of notable young actors including Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Timothee Chalamet, Liam James, Zachary Gordon, Charlie Plummer, Matt Lintz, and more.

But the front-runners were Butterfield and Tom Holland. Holland garnered attention due to his performances in The Impossible and In the Heart of the Sea. These two screen-tested with Robert Downey Jr. to find the right chemistry.

As previously mentioned, the Russos had a sizable say in the matter, as Spider-Man’s debut MCU movie would be their Civil War. Finally, after considering over 1,500 actors, the Russos pushed hard for Holland and Holland won the job after screen-testing with Chris Evans. Jon Bernthal, one of Holland’s friends and in the MCU himself at this point (if only on Netflix), encouraged him to showcase his athletic prowess in the audition tape to help him win the role. On June 23, 2015, Marvel announced Holland as the winner, and he signed a six-movie deal.

While the casting search occurred, Marvel and Sony also searched for a director. Considerations included the writing duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, Jonathan Levine, Jason Moore, and Jared Hess. As the Spider-Man casting search finalized, the directing field narrowed down to Levine, Daley and Goldstein, and then Jon Watts entered consideration. Watts garnered attention for creating mood reels demonstrating Nick Fury as Peter’s mentor, and honing in on a John Hughes influence for Peter’s high school days. Watts finally won the job, and he started work immediately by reading the Civil War script and attending set for Spider-Man’s scenes.

With Holland and the creative team set, the work of finalizing the script kicked into high gear. Feige commented that the MCU would not retell the origin story again and would only sort of reference Uncle Ben, feeling audiences were quite familiar with that event. They also wanted to use a new rogue unused in prior movies.

Despite how hard it was to make the deal on the business side, Feige and Sony took a looser approach to creative implementation, never specifying which characters could and couldn’t cross over. Marvel acted in good faith with Sony, and Sony maintained final green light authority but ultimately deferred to whatever Marvel Studios wanted to do with the story.

Marvel hired Daley and Goldstein to write the script after they narrowly missed on directing. Their story pitch would be drastically different from all prior live-action depictions. They focused on the fear of becoming a new hero, including an ironic fear of heights, as well as a lower-stakes, street-level story which the MCU had avoided outside of the Netflix shows. Daley and Goldstein also wanted to avoid the familiar Manhattan setting, since that was well-trod ground. Marvel encouraged them to work their own comedic sensibilities into the script as well.

They were eventually joined by other writers including Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, and Eric Pearson from the Marvel Studios writing program who was quickly becoming a familiar Phase 3 creative voice. Watts and his friend Ford took Goldstein and Daley’s drafts and rewrote them fairly substantially to include the specific ideas and arcs they wanted. One entity they included was Damage Control, a more recent introduction in the comics, and one they felt would come as a natural response to the MCU’s events. Marvel even developed plans for a Damage Control TV show at one point, though that never materialized.

Watts cited Say Anything… and Almost Famous as his directing influences for tone. Marvel was still trying to diversify genres and prove the MCU was a varied entity. Watts reread the oldest Spider-Man comics and wanted to capture what made Spidey so appealing back in the ’60s when the character launched. To that end, he engaged in extensive pre-visualization work before filming to hone in on a different approach to web-slinging, emphasizing a grounded look.

Casting of other characters started even before the script finished, and continued even after filming started. Marisa Tomei quickly won the role of Aunt May in June 2015, and she was to appear in Civil War. Her casting signaled a younger approach to that character, which initially upset many fans due to the inaccuracy to the comics. But Civil War screenwriter Stephen McFeely felt it didn’t make sense to have an elderly woman as the sister of a teenager’s dead mother.

J.K. Simmons expressed interest in reprising as J. Jonah Jameson, thought that didn’t happen (yet). Zendaya also won a role in March 2016 as a character with seemingly no comic book roots (perhaps befitting her smaller stardom at the time), though she is eventually revealed as a version of MJ at the end of the movie. Likewise, Jacob Batalon was cast as Ned Leeds, who really functions as an amalgamation of Ned Leeds, Ganke Lee, and other Spider-Man supporting characters. He beat out Lewis Pullman, who also auditioned.

Continuing in the vein of a differing approach to comics accuracy, Tony Revolori, one of the failed auditions for Peter, won the role of Flash Thompson. Fans were also upset about this, with Flash now a rich smug kid instead of a jock, but the filmmakers felt this was a more accurate reflection of modern bullying. Laura Harrier won a part as Peter’s first love interest, Liz, and Angourie Rice played long-time comics supporting character Betty Brant. Downey Jr. was officially confirmed to play Stark, who was a key part of the story from the start. Jon Favreau also reprised as Happy Hogan, a role he’d played since the start of the MCU.

Marvel filled out the cast of Peter’s classmates with many diverse actors, aiming to reflect Queens as it existed in the modern day, including Zendaya’s casting as a different approach to MJ. Kenneth Choi was cast as the high school principal, playing a descendant of his character from Captain America: The First Avenger as a fun MCU nod.

Comedians such as Martin Starr, Donald Glover, Hannibal Buress, and Bokeem Woodbine also filled out the cast. Glover ended up playing Aaron Davis, uncle to Miles Morales, a character Glover had voiced and petitioned Marvel to include in the MCU. While Miles wasn’t included yet, the script included a nod to the idea, though Watts said that if Glover turned the part down they would have scrapped the character from the movie.

One of the final casting choices was the villain, the Vulture. Michael Keaton was an early frontrunner, but scheduling conflicts with The Founder initially knocked him out, with John Leguizamo seemingly about to take over the role. Mark Hamill expressed interest, and Feige also reached out to Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yet The Founder‘s filming schedule changed and Keaton was able to take the role. They wanted Keaton’s Vulture to be sympathetic and have an everyman quality, both as an explanation for why the Avengers don’t get involved and also to provide a dark mirror for both Peter and Tony Stark. Marvel tried to keep Leguizamo around, but he declined what he felt was a smaller part. Instead, Logan Marshall-Green stepped in as one of the Shockers, a minor antagonist.

Filming began in June 2016 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios and occurred throughout Atlanta. It was Marvel’s shooting home because of the tax credits, making it cheaper to build New York City sets in Atlanta than film in New York. Marvel even built a full replica of a Staten Island Ferry. That said, shooting did eventually move to NYC in part.

UFC fighter Tyron Woodley nearly joined as a villain, though ultimately he had conflicting obligations. All the same, filming finished in October 2016 and Keaton was officially confirmed as Vulture shortly thereafter.

As usual, there was quite a post-production process with tons of visual effects involved. Eight studios contributed, though Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso initially wanted to avoid using Imageworks, a studio that had worked on all previous Spider-Man movies. Phenomenal test material changed her mind. Thinking ahead, one of the studios created CGI work for future Spider-Man suits to be used in Avengers movies to aid in the cohesiveness of the MCU.

In a choice reflective of modern blockbuster filmmaking, one of the effects studios noted the difficulty of rendering the Staten Island sequence at a particular time of day, leading to the script changing the time of day of the battle. One studio worked on the Iron Man armor in the movie, merely recoloring the armor used in Civil War due to Sony lacking budget to make a new armor. Feige requested the new color match Ultimate Iron Man.

Marvel didn’t dictate too much, though, and let Watts create what he wanted. Watts, like Gunn, commented on the overall ease of directing under Marvel and Sony, and he never faced much pushback. Perhaps Marvel had learned their lessons from Phase 2.

The only moment Feige pushed to include was Peter freeing himself from under a ridiculous amount of rubble, an iconic moment from early Spider-Man comics. Feige also felt it was important to end the movie with Spider-Man’s identity revealed to Aunt May in order to move past the common tension of prior Spidey movies.

While Spidey’s initial appearance in Civil War acted as its own form of marketing for this movie, it was 2016’s ComicCon where the film had its first big panel, revealing much of the cast and showing a clip. The first full trailer debuted on Jimmy Kimmel in December 2016, with Marvel no longer trying to promote its TV shows by using trailer debuts. Aware of the importance of this marketing effort, Marvel created some scenes exclusively for trailers to raise hype. It also created a unique international trailer. These trailers received a combined 266 million-plus views in a week. No matter who was producing, Spidey remained a hot character. Further trailers released throughout 2017, with many responding positively, though some felt too many details were revealed. Though Justice League trailers generated more overall conversation, analysis revealed more enthusiasm for Homecoming.

The posters for Homecoming were received more negatively, with many feeling they used a bland, overused style with shoddy combinations of floating celebrity heads. Sony responded with more unique marketing tactics, including some creative TV spots that played during the NBA finals, opening a Spider-Man cafe in Tokyo, and a promotion that allowed people to explore Peter’s fictional cellphone. Overall social-media conversation was strong throughout the campaign and second only to movies like Black Panther. Analysts noted the campaign generated over $140 million in media value, topping the campaign for Vol. 2.

Homecoming arrived in theaters in July 2017 and quickly garnered the top box-office spot on its opening weekend, earning $117 million. This was the second-highest ever opening for a Spider-Man movie. It suffered some second-weekend drop-off but managed to top both Amazing Spider-Man movies. Homecoming finished its run at $880.9 million after some strong international success, becoming Sony’s best movie in China and the third-best MCU movie there. While Homecoming wasn’t quite on the level of the MCU’s top movies, it was still a massive success and a clear sign that MCU Spidey was a winner.

Critical response hit 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many enjoyed the performances and the light tone, feeling it stood out in the MCU. Some felt it leaned into cliche too much, and overly linking itself to the MCU. Some fans were annoyed that the movie made Peter subservient to Tony Stark and drifted away from comic authenticity. There was little doubting that the overall response was quite positive, though.

The film included two post-credits scenes. The first hinted at the Vulture being somewhat redeemed, refusing to divulge Peter’s identity to Michael Mando‘s Mac Gargan, who is hinted at becoming Scorpion due to the scene prominently featuring a scorpion tattoo on his neck. It took all the way till Brand New Day to follow-up on this scene. The second scene followed up on a running bit of Captain America filming fitness videos for gym classes, talking about the virtue of patience. This was not the first joke scene to serve as a second post-credits scene, but it was the first to directly poke fun at the idea of waiting for post-credits scenes, leading to some fans being upset that neither scene contributed to the upcoming Avengers movies. There were even plans of including other Avengers in these videos throughout the movie, though they never materialized.

Thus, summer 2017 signaled yet one more success for the MCU. Phase 3 was firing on all cylinders. While domestically the DCEU managed to outpace Marvel that summer with Wonder Woman, the worldwide box-office still had Homecoming finish as the highest-grossing superhero movie of the year. Buzz could only be described as positive as Marvel headed towards its last release of the year, which promised to change the narrative with its last major founding Avenger: Thor.

A redeveloped Inhumans project did release later that fall. Originally planned as a movie, it wound up as a limited series on ABC following a short theatrical release of the first few episodes. While Marvel’s cinema side was doing well, TV was uneven and Inhumans was a notable disaster. Critically derided it, it was quickly cancelled, and it was another signal that Marvel TV remained far away from Marvel movies. Other shows released throughout 2017 such as The Defenders, a crossover that unfortunately received a lukewarm response.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Spider-Man had quite an MCU future ahead, with multiple sequels and other appearances. The most recent Spidey movie hints at Spider-Man returning in one of the new Avengers movies. As for anyone else, we think they’re all unlikely save perhaps a quick cameo, as occurred for Batalon’s Ned in Infinity War and Endgame. Keaton’s Vulture would be used in another other Sony movie’s post-credits scene to set up a larger return, though that never materialized. As mentioned before, Mando finally reprised his role in this movie in Brand New Day.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

It was apparent by Phase 3 that Thor wasn’t on equal footing with the other headliner Avengers. Despite getting the same number of movies as Iron Man and Captain America, his films were nowhere near as successful. Thor also failed to stand out in the ensemble movies, being a bit of a staid character by comparison to the others. Marvel saw something had to be done.

Chris Hemsworth noted during the marketing campaign for Thor: The Dark World that he was willing to continue playing Thor, but he was privately frustrated with how stagnant his character had become. While Marvel announced a third movie in 2014, Hemsworth wasn’t sure he could keep interest without some drastic changes.

Marvel’s early moves weren’t favorable to Hemsworth’s hopes, as it hired prior Thor-writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost to begin writing the third movie. But Feige wasn’t going to lean on familiarity, and in late 2014 Marvel announced the third movie would be titled Ragnarok. Ragnarok was not only a major event of Norse mythology but also an important story arc in the comics, and Feige noted the movie would be equally important to Phase 3. He said that people would get some idea of the stakes from the title alone. Thus, the beginnings of a new, improved Thor were born.

While Marvel confirmed that Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston would return, the rest of the creative team and cast took a while to come to fruition. Throughout 2015, members of prior casts confirmed reprisal of their characters, including Idris Elba as Heimdall, and Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, and Zachary Levi as the Warriors Three. Jaime Alexander was also going to reprise as Lady Sit, but scheduling conflicts kept her out. Anthony Hopkins confirmed his return as Odin. In one of the bigger stories, in October 2015 Marvel revealed that Mark Ruffalo‘s Bruce Banner would be part of the film. Marvel decided it was natural to include him, since it opened up a semi-adaptation of Planet Hulk and would explain why Hulk was absent from Civil War. Fans were intrigued at the possibilities.

As scripting occurred, the search for a new director pressed on. Alan Taylor completely disavowed returning due to feeling his version of The Dark World was thrown out in editing, and he wanted no part of the MCU anymore. Feige and Marvel Studios considered diverse names such as Ruben Fleischer, Rob Letterman, and Rawson Marshall Thurber. Even Elizabeth Banks was interested in making a pitch. Marvel’s gambit to candidates was to create a new direction for the character and effectively combine “the ten different ideas” Marvel had for the film.

Enter Taika Waititi. Waititi was a bold new comedic voice at the time, bringing a uniquely New Zealand sense of humor to his work and impressing with What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Waititi’s pitch consisted of a sizzle reel to establish tone, including clips from Big Trouble in Little China and using Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” for score. While Marvel discouraged sizzle reels as a matter of course, Waititi’s blew them away. After being promised enough creative freedom to satisfy, Waititi agreed to direct, forging the deal in October 2015. Marvel loved the use of “Immigrant Song” so much it became part of the marketing and was used in the movie.

With a director in place, pre-production moved forward as Waititi began to implement his unique voice. He confirmed filming would occur in Australia, though this was also due to Hemsworth requesting they film in his home country. While longtime Thor character Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) was jettisoned, Waititi brought on frequent collaborators and other Oceanic talents to fill out the cast and crew. He prioritized hiring indigenous Australians and New Zealanders, feeling a responsibility as a Maori. Waititi cast Rachel House and decided to voice Korg himself, as well as providing motion capture for Surtur.

Meanwhile Australian legend Cate Blanchett joined as lead villain Hela, who became Thor’s sister at the suggestion of Pearson. He wanted to deepen the personal conflict for both Thor and Loki, as Hela is only Loki’s daughter in the comics. Karl Urban joined as henchmen Skurge, and Waititi brought on some big-name actors for small cameos mocking the events of The Dark World, including Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and Luke Hemsworth.

Waititi polished up the script alongside Pearson to both add more of his humor and break away from the history of the other films. Hemsworth was open to big changes, leading to Thor losing his long hair, an eye, his hammer Mjlonir, and his home world by the end of the movie. Likewise Elba’s Heimdall is far less stoic and becomes a rebel warrior in the movie. Waititi continued going wonky by making one of the smaller antagonists, the Grandmaster, into a goofier character played by Jeff Goldblum.

Tessa Thompson joined as new hero Valkyrie, yet Waititi was not content with a straightforward adaptation. He and Pearson drew from multiple versions of the character to create something new. While the script originally had a romantic entanglement between her and Thor to replace Natalie Portman‘s Jane, Pearson suggested moving away from that to a relationship of mutual respect. Thompson wanted Valkyrie to be explicitly bisexual and in relationships with women, but this was ultimately cut down to a mild hint in a flashback. Still, Valkyrie was set up to be a longer-term MCU character.

Filming took off in 2016 with Waititi first filming a scene with Doctor Strange to connect Strange to the wider MCU and serve as a crucial first-act plot beat. By nature of Waititi’s chaotic style, and the expansive story, the story kept changing throughout filming and even in post. Waititi drew from many places of inspiration including Jack Kirby for visuals, the “Ragnarok” and “God of Thunder” arcs for story details, and Hela borrowing powers from Gorr the God Butcher. The film would reinvent the Thor franchise by staying in space and being weird.

Hemsworth commented that he wanted the tonality of Guardians of the Galaxy (Waititi wanted to include John C. Reily’s Guardians character, but he couldn’t figure out how). Executive producer Brad Winderbaum commented on the impact of Ragnarok‘s story being akin to Captain America: The Winter Soldier in Phase 2, and that it would lead directly into Infinity War.

Waititi said that Flash Gordon was another visual inspiration, and that the movie was shifting from a pure buddy comedy into something different. Keeping a loose, friendly mood, Waititi kept improvising dialogue, resulting in about 80% of it being improvised. Waititi took no shortcuts, even having the entire Quintet interior set, originally built for The Avengers, shipped down to Australia.

Filming wrapped in October 2016, and by early 2017 Pearson received the sole screenwriting credit. This was appealed, and eventually Kyle and Yost received screenwriting credit as well; none for the improvisor Waititi.

Reshoots occurred in early 2017. The most notable reshoot was changing the location of where Thor and Loki found Odin. This originally played as a comedic beat, with Odin dressed as a hobo on the streets of New York. Waititi felt humor took away from the moment and also felt the scene of Hela being released and destroying Mjolnir didn’t work in a New York alleyway. He rewrote it for Thor and Loki to find Odin in Norway, adding weight to the scene and letting Hela’s moment play better, though this resulted in the film’s final cut having notable differences in Hela’s appearance from scene to scene.

The final part of the process was getting to final cut. Waititi’s initial edit had been two hours and forty minutes long. Marvel editors cut many of the jokes to get it down to ninety minutes, but after seeing the response to the clips shown at 2017 Comic Con, they decided to let Waititi add many of the jokes back in. It was a tricky matter to figure out which jokes were the best and to balance humor with the drama. Something else they figured out in the edit was retconning the Infinity Gauntlet seen in Thor in Odin’s Vault into a fake and playing it off as a joke, thus fixing the continuity error.

A whopping seventeen effects studios assisted in post. ILM, the main studio that designed Hulk’s CGI, put in extensive work as Hulk delivered far more dialogue in this film than any prior Marvel movie. Keeping Hulk’s size proportionate to Thor and other characters required a variety of techniques, including fully digital doubles and stunt men of varying heights to create forced perspective. The Valkyrie flashback was another extensive effects sequence achieved through CGI, motion capture, a 900-fps frame rate, and a specialized lighting rig. Marvel and Waititi were intent on making Ragnarok a movie to remember.

Marketing began in 2016 with small dollops of information including costumes, clips, and more. Waititi also shot a series of short films called Team Thor to promote the movie, featuring a humorous look at what Thor was doing during Civil War. While not called this at the time, Marvel later recategorized the three shorts as Marvel One-Shots, thus becoming a post-release revival of the brand.

Early 2017 also saw the first trailer with most outlets responding positively. The new visual style and energy immediately caught the press’s attention, with “Immigrant Song” giving the entire affair a propelling energy. It became Disney’s new quickest-viewed trailer, with 136 million views in 24 hours, topping Civil War. On a touching note, the line that many found most amusing where Thor called Hulk “a friend from work” came from a Make-A-Wish child.

Hype continued to build throughout 2017 with subsequent trailers and convention panels. Social media discussed Ragnarok intensively, with many noting the movie looked like the most fun Marvel work yet. Other creative marketing included a STEM project competition and releasing clips of Thor and Hulk fighting on the night of a Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather boxing fight. The cast also performed a low-budget stage-play version of the certain scenes on James Corden’s late night show.

November 2017 arrived, and brought Ragnarok‘s release as the final MCU movie of 2017. Marvel’s success only continued as Ragnarok launched to a $122.7 million opening weekend, the highest of the Thor trilogy. It surpassed the entire box-office run of the first two films by its second weekend and finished worldwide with $855 million, becoming a 2017 top-ten release and thus placing the entire MCU trifecta in 2017’s top-ten.

Critical response more than equaled this box-office, with rave reviews matching much of the early expectations. Garnering a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score, critics noted it as one of the best films of the MCU. Many noted Thor finally became a truly interesting character, both by allowing Hemsworth’s comedic chops to shine and bringing new dramatic depths. Hulk and Valkyrie likewise shone, and the performances of Blanchett, Hiddleston and Goldblum were also lauded.

That said, despite the soaring success overall, some noted an uptick in superhero fatigue, and some audiences were worn out by Marvel’s sense of humor. Ragnarok certainly kicked the humor into overdrive.

Some comic fans were also notably negative because Ragnarok strayed quite far from the source material, substantively altering the origins of Hela and other characters. Many were angry that a rather serious storyline like Ragnarok had been turned into a comedy, including making Surtur largely a giant joke. Some also felt The Warriors Three were unceremoniously killed off and given short shrift. Waititi’s style would be even more divisive in his next entry, but there were already detractors amidst the grand praise.

Still, 2017 ended up a clear success for the MCU. Ramping up to three movies in a year had the potential to cause burnout and lessen quality, but instead Marvel knocked it out of the park three times,. Anticipation for MCU’s 2018 slate mounted, which would include Infinity War, the culmination of everything the MCU had worked toward.

Fittingly, two post-credit scenes appeared at the end of Ragnarok. The first directly led into Infinity War, showing wayfaring Asgardians being intercepted by Thanos’s ship, setting up an ominous cliffhanger. The second was comedic, true to Marvel tradition at this point, featuring Goldblum’s Grandmaster congratulating rebels for deposing him though he humorously called it a draw. Waititi and Goldblum completely improvised this scene and tried out multiple versions, including one where they made up a national anthem for Sakaar.

The home release brought some fun extras as well. One was a deleted scene featuring Michael Rooker’s Yondu, though as it turned out this was never meant to be in the movie and was merely a byproduct of Rooker recording for a Guardians of the Galaxy Disney ride around the same time. Another extra was the final Team short, Team Daryl, completing the trio and standing as the final Marvel One-Shot to date.

By year’s end, the MCU’s dominance over the DCEU seemed unquestionable. The DCEU’s greatest success that year, Wonder Woman, still finished behind all three MCU films. The DCEU’s other big release, Justice League, debuted the same month as Ragnarok and was night and day in quality. Critically lambasted, it was the epitome of a rushed effort and eroded confidence in the ability of DC to seriously compete against Marvel.

With Spider-Man introduced more fully, a new Guardian on the team, and Thor finally hitting the big leagues, Marvel was ready to stride into 2018 confidently assured that nobody would stand higher. Marvel even began talks of creating an MCU series for the brewing Disney+ service.

But before the insanely-anticipated third Avengers movie could happen, there was one other movie to come. It would be one of the greatest cultural movements in blockbuster film history.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As mentioned before, Thor and Loki are already confirmed for Doomsday. Hulk is a little less clear, though he seems likely to play a part. The deaths of Odin and the Warriors Three seem to be permanent, so their return seems unlikely. The same could be said for Hela, given the general MCU trend of killing off its villains. Valkyrie, introduced here, has had several MCU appearances since and is one of the most durable characters from Ragnarok. Her role in Doomsday is unclear, though we think she will at least get some screen time in it or in Secret Wars.

Black Panther (2018)

The deeper into this series we go, the less often new characters have appeared. After twenty years of major blockbuster adaptations, Marvel had used many of the characters likely to get solo features. There were still more than a few left in the wings, though, including one of the comics’ most notable black characters.

Since the Blade films kicked off the Marvel craze, there hadn’t been a black-led Marvel movie. Marvel had not attempted to give solo movies to War Machine or The Falcon. Yet with Chadwick Boseman‘s well-received debut as Black Panther in Civil War, the field was primed for a major blockbuster adaptation of one of Marvel’s most prominent characters of color, and one who was idiomatic of such representation.

Perhaps being so closely linked to black representation was part of the reason it took so long for Black Panther to reach the big screen. Wesley Snipes wanted to bring Black Panther to life back in the early ’90s, as we touched on in our first article. Snipes felt Africa was poorly represented in Hollywood and saw Black Panther as an antithesis to stereotypes about African people.

Snipes’s star was large enough that Columbia Pictures agreed to produce the film in early 1994, and Stan Lee joined the team. Snipes shopped for notable directors like Mario Van Peebles and John Singleton, yet progress was slow. Snipes was unsatisfied with most of the scripts, and the character was unknown enough that many in Hollywood confused the movie as being about the Black Panther Party.

These problems eventually resulted in Columbia’s exit. Marvel’s bankruptcy issues in the late ’90s created further delays, yet Black Panther eventually became part of the Artisan Entertainment deal we’ve discussed many times now. Of course, by this time, Snipes had launched to stardom in the Blade movies. While he still wanted to be Black Panther, some, including Blade writer David S. Goyer, felt Snipes couldn’t star as both due to market overexposure.

Artisan eventually folded into Lions Gate, and Marvel got back most of their character rights. Tim Story expressed interest in casting Djimon Hounsou as the character in a third Fantastic Four movie, though he never made one. Thus, Black Panther became one of the initial ten movies Marvel announced after Marvel Studios obtained its independent financing deal. Snipes was still intent on starring, though Marvel Studios was not rushing to make the movie.

After Marvel finalized its Phase 1 lineup, it funneled Black Panther into the writer’s program to develop creative ways to launch the property. Snipes’s involvement already seemed unlikely by this time, but his arrest for tax evasion confirmed Marvel was moving on without him. Marvel tried a creative approach of hiring documentarian Mark Bailey to pen a script, while dropping hints at Wakanda’s presence by introducing vibranium in The First Avenger and briefly hinting at the country in Iron Man 2. Early scripts for Iron Man 2 even directly mentioned the nation, though Marvel decided to soft-pedal this to ensure Wakanda was introduced cohesively.

Black Panther seemed to move to the back burner in Phase 2 as the MCU became a juggernaut and sequels became a priority. Yet Kevin Feige remained determined to debut the character. In October 2014 as part of Phase 3 announcements, he finally revealed that Black Panther would come out in 2017 and star Boseman after his debut in Civil War. Boseman’s star was on the rise after well-received performances in 42 and Get on Up, and he did not audition for the role. Snipes voiced support for Boseman’s casting and the project moving forward despite the fact that he was no longer involved.

Brainstorming occurred throughout late 2014 and 2015 as Marvel discussed story direction and which creatives to approach, including talking with comics writer Reginald Hudlin. Casting took off even as they searched for a director and writer. Feige did not commit to hiring a minority creative team necessarily, though that was part of the discussion.

Marvel approached a variety of notable black directors including Ava DuVernay, F. Gary Gray, and Ryan Coogler, while Joe Robert Cole, a member of the writing program, was eyed to pen the screenplay. A common point of contention with the creatives Marvel pursued was their desire to express a meaningful story about a black superhero versus the MCU’s vision. This conflict resulted in DuVernay passing and discussions with Coogler stalling. Gary decided to direct The Fate of the Furious instead.

Money talked, as it always does. With profitability a likely concern in allowing Black Panther to talk about racial issues, the successful release of Coogler’s Creed changed Marvel’s tune enough. Feige in particular kept coming after Coogler, and Coogler agreed to direct if he could be given creative control and bring in his production team from prior works rather than relying on Marvel’s in-house team. Marvel Studios finally got in lockstep with him, resulting in his hire.

Coogler brought along cinematographer Rachel Morrison, production designer Hannah Beachler, and composer Ludwig Goransson, a longtime friend. He felt he could tell a unique, black-centered story while still fitting in with the MCU. Coogler began working on the script with Cole, though release was pushed back to accommodate the time needed to develop the film and with the aim of filming partially in Africa. Donald Glover also contributed to early drafts of the script.

The writing pair were inspired by the ongoing comic run penned by Ta-Nehisi Coates, as well as older notable runs by writers Jack Kirby, Christopher Priest, Jonathan Hickman, and Hudlin. Coogler didn’t aim to directly adapt any particular storyline or character, but instead used the source material as a mosaic to create a story commenting on African and African-American relations with the world. He even wanted to include Kraven the Hunter, though he couldn’t do so due to Sony holding the rights. Initial drafts included more scenes outside of Wakanda, and more of the character Eli Bradley, though Coogler ultimately decided to stay more focused on Wakanda. Coogler drew inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola‘s work in terms of a spanning story focused on family.

Production design was a major focus of Black Panther outside of the writing. Coogler felt it was crucial to pull from actual African cultures. Lesotho was a major inspiration as a small confined African nation that largely avoided colonization due to its geography, and traditional blankets from the country are featured in the film. He also drew inspiration from the Congo’s near-exclusive possession of the rare mineral coltan as a point of comparison for vibranium.

Coogler and Beachler created a detailed project bible with particular designs for each tribe to make Wakanda feel lived in. They drew from various Sub-Saharan African nations including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and many others, as well as the comics. Beachler described it as a love letter to Africa. They struck a delicate balance with the comic inspiration, wanting a futuristic look while avoiding the alien designs Kirby sometimes used. The Jabari Tribe were set in the snowy mountains at Coogler’s suggestion.

The Xhosan language became the basis for the Wakandan language due to the casting of John Kani, a native Xhosan speaker, in Civil War as T’Challa’s father. He taught Boseman the language during filming, which allowed Boseman to further develop the fictional Wakanda language in preparation for the film. Kani’s son wound up serving as a dialect coach on Black Panther. The written form of the language was based on old Nigerian writing.

Costume designer Ruth Carter followed suit and based costumes on a variety of African peoples including the Himba, Dogon, Suri, Zulu, Basotho and more. She developed specific colors and patterns to distinguish each tribe. The Dora Milaje were specifically modeled after the Maasai people of Kenya, with a smattering of other influences from across the world. The costuming department reshaved Danai Gurira‘s head every day as she played the head of the Dora Milaje, Okoye, and she needed her head tattoos reapplied daily.

Carter gave T’Challa’s costume special care, combining a militaristic look with something more kingly. She created 700 different costumes for the movie. Hair and makeup designers followed suit to help create a cohesive look. They worked extensively on Killmonger’s scar tattoo, a key part of the comic character that was changed to resemble the tattoos of the Mursi and Surma tribes. The department also created an extensive wig for Ramona, Queen of Wakanda, compromised from 120 pieces of hair hand-rolled into dreadlocks.

2016 Comic Con featured the first major announcements for the film including revealing the casting of Lupita Nyong’o, Gurira, and Michael B. Jordan as the lead villain Erik Killmonger. Further casting occurred throughout 2016 including Winston Duke as minor antagonist M’Baku, who beat out Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Michael James Shaw. M’Baku was reworked from the comics to only wear mild ape costume elements and to never be called Man-Ape due to wanting to avoid uncomfortable racial implications. M’Baku’s tribe, the Jabari, were given a different language, Igbo, to distinguish them.

Daniel Kaluuya was also cast, and Letitia Wright joined as Shuri, Black Panther’s sister. Wright beat out Dominique Thorne for the role, though Thorne would later join the MCU as well. Veteran actors such as Forest Whitaker, Sterling K. Brown, and Angela Bassett also signed on, setting the movie up as the MCU’s first majority-black cast.

Feige commented that part of highlighting the movie was connecting Black Panther in a meaningful way to Phase 3. Wakanda’s political situation is first introduced in Civil War, and Feige planned for Black Panther to play a key role in the next Avengers movies.

Filming eventually launched in early 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, with filming throughout Atlanta. Morrison’s early goal was to work in the MCU film language while pushing the look into something more distinct. She was taught how Marvel shot its other projects in order to make informed decisions. Further casting was announced after filming started, with Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman confirmed to reprise their prior Marvel roles of Ulysses Klaue and Everett K. Ross, respectively.

Jordan joined later in filming and deliberately kept to himself to emphasize Killmonger’s separation from others. He likened his performance to Heath Ledger‘s Joker, and he felt the relationship between Kllmonger and T’Challa should resemble the Magneto-Professor X dynamic. Much of the filming overlapped with Infinity War, requiring deft cooperation between the productions.

Black Panther also filmed in South Korea, including a huge car chase sequence involving 700 people and 150 cars. Coogler wanted to create car sequence on the level of Bullitt, Drive, and The French Connection. And yes, the movie did shoot briefly in Africa in Uganda, as well as briefly capturing aerial footage in South Africa and Zambia. Boseman personally visited South Africa as part of his preparation.

Speaking of South Africa, South African Debbie Berman joined as an editor after finishing work on Homecoming. Coogler had already finished a director’s cut but liked to have both male and female editors. She worked alongside editor Michael Shawver to amp up scenes like the Warrior Falls fight, and she added female Jabari tribe members in the final battle to help rescue the Dora Milaje.

Turning to the other side of post-production, visual effects abounded on this film. Effects studios were responsible for creating most of the natural environments and main city due to it all being a fictional, futuristic African kingdom. Designers noted the difficulty of devising something futuristic while also maintaining authenticity to traditional African art and design aesthetics. Aerial shots of Uganda proved to be major inspirations. A new version of the recently-updated Marvel Studios logo was used to celebrate Marvel Studios’s tenth anniversary, forming the final letters of the phrase into a 10. Fitting that Marvel released big movies and big storylines in its tenth year.

As yet another of Coogler’s collaborators, Goransson kept up the same level of quality as the other creatives when it came to the score. He visited Africa to research native sounds, and he traveled with musician Baaba Maal. He pushed beyond typical Marvel music stylings to deliver something culturally grounded, resulting in one of the more iconic MCU themes, the Wakanda theme. Goransson also collaborated with famed rapper Kendrick Lamar to produce songs thematically fitting the movie to go on the soundtrack, one of which played in the credits.

As usual, marketing began with a prior movie, Civil War. This was followed by early footage and concept art in early 2017, which generated praise similar in tenor to other films in this era, with the movie’s originality and differing styles highlighted. While the press criticized the first poster, the first trailer was highly praised. One outlet commented that it outclassed the entire Homecoming marketing campaign, and it received 89 million views in the first 24 hours, beaten only by the views for Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s teaser. 2017 ComicCon and other expo panels debuted costumes, the cast, and footage, which was met with a standing ovation. Disney’s biggest marketing ploy was co-opting the entire halftime show for the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship, having Kendrick Lamar perform to promote Black Panther and its music.

The hype grew throughout early 2018 as many sensed the global phenomenon it was becoming. Presale tickets shattered records and became the most pre-sold Marvel movie of all-time. Disney gave it the largest marketing budget for a non-sequel Marvel film.

It was the most-tweeted movie of 2018 and utilized extensive merchandising and product partnerships. Of course, the predominantly black cast and creative team was a major part of the conversation, with many hopeful that an MCU blockbuster headlined by people of color would be a strong boon for representation.

To say it was a boon for representation would be an understatement. Its LA premiere screening received a standing ovation, and this was only the beginning. Disney engineered a “cross-nation release” in Africa, a first for Disney. It was also the first film to screen in Saudi Arabia after a nearly 30-year ban on public cinemas in the nation. Garnering 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, it bested both The Dark Knight and Iron Man as critics raved about the characters and themes, the fully-realized vision of Wakanda, and the overall refreshing approach to superhero cinema.

Audiences and critics alike championed Black Panther‘s place in lifting up black culture. The vision of afro-futurism enchanted people, as did the mature handling of themes regarding colonialism, the experience of Africans versus the diaspora, and one’s duty to the world and their people. It is difficult to put into words how much 2018 became dominated by the cultural phenomenon of the movie and the way it shifted Hollywood culture towards black-starring blockbusters.

One activist compared its release to Rosa Parks’ bus boycott, MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and Obama’s election as president. “Wakanda forever” and the matching arm cross entered the cultural lexicon, and sociologists, film scholars, and more have spent countless pages debating the movie’s broader social meanings. To be fair, many of these musings have been far less positive on the movie’s messaging.

If words can’t capture the aura after its release, perhaps box-office numbers can give some idea of scope. Its opening weekend finished at a massive $242.1 million, becoming the largest opening weekend for a black director. It became the highest-grossing movie ever for 33 AMC locations. It surpassed $300 million in eight days and had only a 45% drop in its second weekend, the smallest such drop for an MCU movie. It remained #1 for five weekends straight and even had a surge after Infinity War released. Black Panther ultimately finished at $1.35 billon, becoming the third-highest grossing MCU movie and highest for any solo hero. Perhaps it was no longer fair to credit a post-Avengers effect for these numbers.

Marvel had been chasing the prestige of The Dark Knight and finally found a movie that matched it. Thus, Marvel engineered a massive Oscars campaign. At the time, the Academy was considering introducing a Best Popular Film award, which led to a conversation about whether putting Black Panther into this category would delegitimize it. Ultimately no such Oscar was introduced, but Black Panther garnered seven Academy nominations including Best Picture, the first superhero movie to get that nomination. While it only won three Oscars, Feige called this “the highest form of recognition from our peers.”

Thus, as 2018 opened up, perhaps it could be said the MCU finally climbed the critical prestige mountain it long had been scaling. With four box-office successes in a row, and largely positive critical acclaim, the MCU had all of the momentum it could want as it headed towards the beginning of its Avengers finale. Speaking of, Black Panther featured two post-credits scenes to tease the future, and for once, neither was comedic.

The first was originally intended as the movie’s ending before Coogler decided he wanted to end the movie in Oakland to parallel the beginning. It features the tease of Wakanda opening up to the world, seeming to tease a sequel. Coogler initially considered the idea of a scene hinting at Namor, but rights issues remained at this point in time. The second scene features a hint of Bucky’s rehabilitation and thus directly ties into Infinity War. Marvel hadn’t mandated any connections, but Coogler himself was eager to follow up on this link to the wider franchise.

The path to the end was shining bright. With ten years of work in hand, finally everything the MCU was built for was here. Would they stick the landing?

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

That Black Panther‘s success garnered it a sequel should be no surprise, but it all became complicated after the untimely loss of Chadwick Boseman. We will focus more on that in a future article. Still, many of these Wakanda characters returned in Infinity War and Endgame.

Despite a complicated future, Doomsday has already confirmed the appearance of multiple characters from this movie including Shuri, M’Baku, and other side characters. While Jordan’s Killmonger did get a brief cameo in the sequel, his character remains dead and we don’t think he is likely to be revived. Serkis’s Klaue also died in this movie and isn’t coming back. Martin Freeman’s Ross is unlikely to make it, given how many other characters there are.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

“Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it’s here. Or should I say, I am.”

These bold opening lines from Thanos, the big bad of the entire Infinity Saga, as Feige and the MCU named Phases 1-3 in 2019, could fittingly be applied to the movie itself. It was inevitable this massive blockbuster was coming after the monolith of the MCU formed, maybe much to the chagrin of those who felt the MCU had become destructive to Hollywood. Yet for fans of the affair, this movie was the entire point, the subject of years of anticipation. And even for the haters, there had to be some curiosity as to whether Infinity War would function as a movie.

Despite how much of an air of destiny it arrived with, those reading this series already know that was far from the case for a long time. In many ways, Infinity War is the result of decades of failure and success for all Marvel movies and superhero movies as a whole. This type of movie was what Kevin Feige dreamed of back when he was an assistant on Fox’s X-Men films. Pulling it off would require him relying on all he had learned from decades of work, and all the MCU had learned from ten years of filmmaking.

Of course, as previously described, Marvel settled on Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet as the overarching narrative in 2013 and officially announced it in 2014. Phase 3 announcements had stated that the sequels to Age of Ultron would be Infinity War – Part 1 and Part 2 with both movies filming back to back. Because of this, early development of this film began with the decision to retcon MacGuffins from earlier-releasing movies into Infinity Stones. James Gunn, for example, changed the color of his Orb to meet the new overall narrative. Marvel also had to retcon prior appearances of the Infinity Gauntlet that began as Easter eggs in Thor and Age of Ultron.

Yet, by 2015, while Feige and Marvel had sketched most of the broad outlines, the particulars remained up in the air. While Jon Favreau and Joss Whedon seemed the unassailable creative structures of the early MCU, conflicts on their sequels slightly soured their relationship with the MCU. Marvel Studios did still initially approach Whedon about writing Infinity War, but Whedon felt overwhelmed by the scope and declined, thus truly marking Age of Ultron as the dividing line between the first era of the MCU and the next.

Feige therefore turned towards the most critically-acclaimed directors working with Marvel at the time: the Russo Brothers. After impressing with their two excellent Captain America movies, they soon penned a deal to direct Infinity War and Endgame. Their screenwriting collaborators on those two films, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, naturally penned a deal to write. But seeing these movies as a culmination of all that came before, Marvel brought Favreau and James Gunn aboard as executive producers to ensure voices from across the MCU’s history contributed.

Despite Infinity War having so much riding on it, Feige didn’t dictate much to Markus and McFeely regarding the story other than that it include Thanos and the Infinity Stones. They were allowed to kill off characters and use any characters from the MCU so far. It was Markus who thought of including the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Russos decided they wanted two distinct movies, rather than a part one and two, leading Marvel to rename the movies in 2016 while holding off on the second movie’s title.

Markus and McFeely’s writing process started while Civil War filmed in 2015, creating sixty pages of brainstorming for Marvel to sift through. As Marvel shot down concepts, they also drafted a master index to rank the viability of various story ideas. The pair pulled in elements of a comic storyline, “House of M,” and considered bringing Richard Rider’s Nova in to herald Thanos’s coming (an idea recycled into Hulk in the final film.) They commented that writing Civil War was a good warm-up and a “walk in the park” compared to writing this film, because while Civil War had many characters, Infinity War had around 67 characters up for consideration.

They initially gave no regard to actor availability and focused purely on the story they wanted to tell, but Marvel also created baseball cards of the entire MCU roster to date, noting each actor’s contract status and filming availability. Markus and McFeely used these cards to draft a broad outline of groups of characters and planned story ideas around when actors’ schedules aligned. This “group” idea was a writing tool developed early on, as the pair realized shoving the entire cast on screen together in scene after scene would be silly and leave many characters with nothing to do. Anthony Russo described this technique as Nashville for superheroes.

After narrowing down ideas, Markus and McFeely met with Feige and the Russos whenever they were free. The guiding questions in making groupings was whether to develop pre-existing relationships or create new ones, and what would be dramatically and emotionally compelling. Robert Downey Jr. commented that he was paired with Spider-Man to continue the Science Bro energy of Banner and Stark. McFeely also stated Strange was deliberately thrown in to mirror Stark’s ego, but also to show contrast. They deliberated avoided making any meta-Sherlock jokes (both actors played the famed detective).

Constant collaboration led to the creation of more cards with scenes they wanted before producing a readable outline for Marvel Studios to greenligiht. Markus and McFeely began actual screenplay work in January 2016, taking the scene ideas and writing them into fuller scenes. They finished a first draft by May 2016, but work continued throughout 2016 as they constantly shuffled back and forth between writing both films. They created up to six more drafts in order to make the best movies. One neat grouping from the many drafts was putting Rocket Racoon with Thor to bring out unpredictable depths in both characters.

Their overall aim with the story was to make it feel like a cohesive continuation of the psychological realism elements developed in The Winter Soldier and Civil War, despite the more cosmic settings. Markus and McFeely pulled from more modern Thanos stories in addition to the Infinity Gauntlet, and they also drew inspiration from 2 Days in the Valley and Out of Sight as they wanted heist film energy. To that end, one draft utilized Thanos as a narrator, had a nonlinear structure, and detailed backstories for each of Thanos’s “children.” While this version wasn’t used, it did help the creative team hone in on Thanos’s personality and motivation. They also teased having the movie start with Thanos already having the Space Stone in hand, but rejected this since the quest for the Stones was the main point of the plot.

Speaking of Thanos, Markus and McFeely spent much of their writing work developing his character. Even with a sprinkling of teases throughout the MCU, little was actually shown about him. They enjoyed the process of finding his character and found writing him to be “delightful.” They decided early on to eschew his comic motivation of impressing the personification of Death, as the Russos felt the time spent developing Death as a character would be better spent on Thanos and the rest of the cast. While Whedon had teased this back in The Avengers post-credits scene, even Whedon conceded he wouldn’t have known how to write this for a movie and enjoyed where the Russos took it with the Malthusian motivation. Instead, Thanos’s relationship with Gamora became the personal focus and filled in the lines of Thanos’s character.

As each of the above entries has revealed, Phase 3 was the most collaborative era of the MCU, and Infinity War‘s production certainly showed that. Markus and McFeely garnered help from throughout Marvel Studios in order to meet deadlines and get all six drafts complete. They had Eric Pearson flown in from Australia during Ragnarok to aid in writing because they had worked with him on Agent Carter, and they also solicited Waititi’s help. Pearson and Waititi were crucial in helping rewrite Thor in light of his makeover into a funnier and yet more dramatically-hefty character after Ragnarok.

They also talked to Ryan Coogler to ensure Wakanda was correctly depicted (though they did not alter the script to include more T’Challa after the success of his movie). They talked to Scott Derrickson regarding Doctor Strange, and they worked with Gunn to get the Guardians’ humor right. Gunn selected the song marking the Guardians’ first appearance in the film (“The Rubberband Man”) and suggested adding a kiss between Gamora and Peter Quill since he had cut such a scene from Vol. 2 but wanted to cement them as a couple.

Gunn clashed with the writers and the Russos regarding their choices to have Star-Lord vengefully attack Thanos at the end of Infinity War. Gunn felt this was an out-of-character choice, disconnected from how he wrote Quill. Gunn raised other quibbles as well.

Writing was never entirely over even after filming began in January 2017. Marvel juggled multiple drafts of each scene as they shot, with the Russos, other writers, heads of each filmmaking department, and producers all contributing to screenplay revisions. Markus and McFeely attended set rehearsals to get feedback from the actors and worked with the editing team to rewrite as quickly as possible to enable reshoots while all the actors were present and sets still existed.

Despite almost every character preexisting, there was still some casting to be done. While most of the main cast had multi-film contracts locked in, others such as Jeremy Renner required specific extensions. Conversely, Stellan Skarsgard did not appear despite having a film remaining on his contract.

Infinity War utilized the surprise return of Red Skull from The First Avenger, allowing Markus and McFeely to follow up on a dangling plot thread they’d left open in that movie. Hugo Weaving didn’t want to return, feeling Marvel low-balled him on pay, leading to the casting of famed character and voice actor Ross Marquand who could do an impressive impression of Weaving’s performance. Marquand didn’t realize he was doing it for an Avengers movie until he was on set doing makeup and the makeup artists told him he was there to play Red Skull. Marquand aimed to combine Weaving’s Skull and his Agent Smith performance from The Matrix to create an ethereal take on the German accent.

Much to the chagrin of the MCU Netflix shows, none of those cast members got to make surprise appearances. Despite the films never referencing the characters, many fans still wondered in vain if Daredevil, Luke Cage, Punisher, or others might get to join the big crossover. Feige and company did announce it as a possibility, but the separate corporate structure complicated matters.

Markus and McFeely later commented that they felt a quick cameo wouldn’t make fans happy and decided it was best to avoid even trying. This didn’t stop Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from fully including Infinity War as part of its plot, though this ultimately led to the end of any attempt at shared continuity.

There were a few new actors to join the fold. Peter Dinklage joined as the dwarf Eitri, but in an ironic twist on the species Eitri became a giant dwarf. The Black Order were all-new cast members, with Carrie Coon notably playing Proxima Midnight by motion capture due to being pregnant. Michael James Shaw got to join as Corvus Glaive after missing out on playing M’Baku as described above. In their tradition of casting Community actors in cameos, the Russos invited David Cross who they’d worked with on Arrested Development to play his character Tobias Funke in a scene. Unfortunately Cross was unavailable, though Funke still appears in the movie inside one of the Collector’s tanks played by an uncredited extra. And of course Stan Lee provides a cameo as Peter Parker’s bus driver.

To bring such a massive film to life, the Russos went to MCU regular production designer Charles Wood who worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Age of Ultron, among others. Wood found the scale challenging but relied on revisiting Doctor Strange‘s sets and the Wakanda sets from the co-filming Black Panther to aid his efforts.

One of the main design challenges was Thanos’s homeworld Titan. Wood started by designing it as though it were in Thanos’s youth, and then transformed it into the post-apocalyptic version seen in the film, drawing inspiration from the Atacama Desert in Chile after briefly considering filming on-location there. Vormir also drew inspiration from that desert, while Nidavellir relied largely on the comics for its design aesthetic.

While originally planning to shoot the movies concurrently, the shooting schedule kept moving back. Dave Bautista noted he hadn’t received a script in January 2017 despite filming starting that month. This was part of Marvel’s plan to send actors incomplete scripts or scripts with fake scenes to preserve the movie’s plot. Eventually Feige and the Russos changed course and decided to shoot the movies back to back despite it throwing off the pre-production work. They shot some scenes for both movies on the same days to accommodate some of the cast.

Atlanta was a primary filming location as usual, including at the Pinewood Atlanta Studios. With an estimated budget of $325-400 million, Infinity War was one of the most expensive movies ever made, and filming had to go just right. Director of photography Trent Opaloch shot entirely with digital IMAX cameras, thus making Infinity War the first Hollywood movie to be shot entirely that way. The Russos utilized a single-camera approach despite using three cameras on all their prior MCU movies.

They also shot in Scotland, Queens, and outsourced filming to a Thai studio to film in the Philippines for the final shots of Thanos. They also shot a 45-minute prologue scene depicting Thanos taking the Power Stone from Xander, though this was cut to avoid the expense of the special effects. Filming ultimately wrapped for Infinity War on July 14, 2017, though there was pick-up shooting in subsequent months.

It would be wrong to say that post-production began when filming finished, as editor Jeffery Ford described the entire year of 2017 as a constant state of simultaneous pre-production, production, and post-production. He edited on a daily basis, showed footage to the Russos, and worked with sound and VFX artists to include finished shots as early as possible. This allowed he and coeditor Matthew Schmidt to have “a pretty solid cut” by October 2017, but editing was still constant afterwards. He described the period of January to April 2018 as a hellish post-production race to finish Infinity War. Ford was ultimately proud of how editing helped shape the actors’ performances and highlighted the character-focused nature of the movies.

Eleven visual effects studios were involved. One of the more notable pieces of effects work was Thanos, who was involved in over 400 effects shots. Digital Domain developed a new facial capture system to bring depths from Josh Brolin‘s performance. Weta drew from its work on the Planet of the Apes movies to animate Thanos in the Titan fight. Digital Domain also created Red Skull, considering several design philosophies including some where he appeared more skeletal and ravaged by the Space Stone before settling on the one used in the movie.

Meanwhile, Framestore worked on the various CGI suits. They created the Iron Spider armor, sharing their work for use in Homecoming. They spent two years developing Tony’s Mark 50 suit made of individual nano-bots.

As one of the final parts of filmmaking, Marvel hired Alan Silvestri to return after he had scored The Avengers. He scored this and Endgame, working on them from January to March 2018, finding it a unique experience due to having balance quick tone changes deftly. He also pulled the Black Panther theme from Ludwig Goransson’s score.

The marketing campaign for the movie was beyond elaborate. In one sense, there was ten years’ worth of marketing already done in the form of the MCU. But nailing the trailers and convention panels was also important. Luckily, the 2017 D23 Expo panel did its job featuring much of the cast, life-size models of various characters, and footage that set a fire under fans and had them jumping around as it played. Press outlets noted the early trailers properly teased the culmination of ten years of effort, describing them as “dark and dramatic, and utterly epic.”

While not doing the number of mentions on social media of Justice League or Ragnarok at first, Infinity War‘s first trailer managed to take the new trailer-view record of 230 millions in 24 hours. Infinity War‘s Super Bowl ad dominated, and the second trailer earned over one million views in less than three hours, becoming the most-viewed second trailer of all-time. Marvel utilized extensive merchandising, brand deals, and tie-in events in games such as Fortnite. The result was a groundswell of anticipation.

To say there was much riding on this movie would be a severe understatement. If this movie failed, it would be ten years of planning resulting in a massive disappointment to fans. The doors to success may already have been opened, unlocked, busted open, and kicked down, but Infinity War and Endgame were the final test of the capabilities of the MCU and superhero movies. Fans were clearly ready, based on the movie quickly beating Black Panther‘s pre-sale records, putting Infinity War on course to become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

Perhaps the box-office numbers were already in too-big-to-fail land, yet the movie still was monumentally successful. It set all-time records with its April 2018 opening weekend, garnering $640.5 million, and it crossed $1 billion in a mere eleven days. Infinity War became only the fourth film ever to cross $2 billion, doing so by June 2018, with Avatar being just one day quicker in doing so. It had a legendary multi-month run, becoming the highest grossing movie of all time in many nations. Infinity War finished at $2.052 billion, becoming the king of the MCU, of 2018, and of all superhero movies.

While this box office success was undeniably important, critical success was also important to create a feeling of victory. Luckily, critics and fans by and large loved the movie. Garnering an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score and 94 Flickscore, most felt it deftly balanced the largest cast of characters yet and delivered a dramatically satisfying story. The performances all received praise, with Brolin singled out for elevating Thanos as a compelling character.

Some certainly felt there was overload and that the movie made no sense without seeing a substantial number of prior movies. Action scenes were praised and derided, depending on the critic. The ending was criticized by some for its cliffhanger nature and lack of dramatic believability.

Regardless, it was hard to call Infinity War anything but an earth-shattering success. Marvel had done what they set out to do and fulfilled their destiny. It was at this time between Infinity War and Endgame where one could say the MCU reached its zenith of cultural relevance. Most of the world was locked in on how things would conclude. Ten years of storytelling built up into a titanic movie. While it only garnered one Oscar nomination versus the many for Black Panther, few could argue this was still a profound achievement.

Given the cliffhanger ending, one would think a post-credits scene wouldn’t even be needed, and indeed, the Russos considered not doing one. Ultimately, there was one scene filmed to set up one of the MCU movies in-between. It depicts Nick Fury, a character largely sidelined in Phase 3, noticing the effects of the snap and calling in Captain Marvel for help. She was deliberately left out of Infinity War in order to save her debut for a solo movie — not the first time an Avengers film had left her out for that reason.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-High

We’ve discussed that many of the Avengers are returning to Doomsday. Given the ensemble nature of this movie, it seems almost pointless to discuss individuals. Instead, there is some speculation the events of this movie and Endgame will directly set up elements of Doomsday. We agree that Doctor Strange’s glimpses into the future in this movie will likely play into the plot.

But we don’t think any of the characters introduced in this movie will return. The Black Order returned in Endgame, but that is likely the end of the road for them. Thanos may get mentioned, but we doubt he’ll get a cameo. Nor will Eitri the Dwarf.

As this era closed, Marvel was riding high. The path to the finale did its job, building one success after another to culminate in Infinity War and its record-shattering box-office numbers. It is easy to see why many consider Phase 3 the peak of the MCU as a result. Even their lesser movies were making money and getting at least decent reviews.

While the DCEU attempted to challenge Marvel in this era with Justice League and Wonder Woman, both ultimately fell well short, even if Wonder Woman was a pretty big box-office success. Justice League marked the beginning of the collapsing of the DCEU, the converse of what the latest Avengers movie had done.

At this point, the only real chink in the MCU armor were the continued accusations of sameness and the way the shows had been discarded. While Feige and Marvel continued to try to diversify the genre influences, some persisted in the opinion that little truly distinguished the multitude of Marvel movies from each other. Yet these accusations seemed to mean little and superhero fatigue felt like a myth in the face of Infinity War‘s success.

As for the TV shows, Infinity War confirmed there was no chance of connecting to Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. if it hadn’t been clear already. The show’s fifth season directly referenced Thanos’s arrival and then lifted the characters into a different timeline. The promise of the show being a true companion to the MCU seemed totally unrealized. While shows like Cloak and Dagger and Runaways were debuting across various platforms, these likewise seemed to use the MCU as background only.

This lack of connection did seem to dwell in Feige’s mind. With the rumors of Disney acquiring Fox and launching its own streaming service, it seemed like a post-Endgame MCU could be more expansive than ever before.

First, though, Marvel had to stick the second part of its landing. Fox would try to remain competitive, and Sony would piggy-back its relationship with Marvel to relaunch their own movies. Beating the MCU seemed impossible, but keeping up quality and avoiding the effects of oversaturation remained crucial as Era 8 loomed.

Ranking Era Seven

Era Seven may be one of the most solid across the board eras in this entire project. There is not a single movie that could be described as bad and most are good to excellent. Thus, this was a tight contest and some might disagree with this ranking a bit if the Flickscores are any indication. But we feel this debate is only a boon and a sign of what could be called the MCU’s peak.

#5: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Flickscore 86)

Vol. 2 is the weakest of Gunn’s Guardians trilogy. While it is has some excellent scenes and moments, and maybe features the best soundtrack of the three movies, it is the weakest structurally. Vol. 2 sags in the middle with not a lot of plot momentum and editing that feels like it struggled to create a narrative through-line.

It is still a solid film overall because the cast are well-settled into their roles and Gunn brings the humor. Having Kurt Russell play a villain that symbolizes the brokenness of 80’s parenting was a masterstroke and lets Russell stand out as one of the MCU’s better foes. Yondu’s arc with Peter and Rocket, ending in his emotional death, makes up for a lot of the narrative wonkiness. His big arrow scene is pure zany fun. And the beautiful concluding funeral scene scored by “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens is a highly emotional sequence. One of the MCU’s best endings, bar none.

#4: Black Panther (Flickscore 86)

Some may shake their fist at Black Panther sitting this low, but this reviewer thinks the film is more judged by its cultural impact than actual quality. To be fair, Black Panther is still a good movie overall. Chadwick Boseman’s performance is strong and his relationship with his father’s death and learning to forge a new future for Wakanda is a well-developed emotional core.

Likewise, the conflict between he and Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger touches on real world issues in a relatable way and explores the nature of the African diaspora in America versus the African experience with some depth. The internal battle humanity has when it comes to resolving conflicts and oppression is rich. And Wakanda feels like it has a developed culture and look that is a credit to the impressive production design team.

Yet the plot at its core still repeats many beats of standard superhero fare. The third act in particular is quite weak, devolving into bland CGI action that feels silly. Throwing two people in CGI Black Panther costumes against each other in a CGI underground train tunnel was a poor choice, even if Killmonger’s death scene still has some weight. Because of how strong this era is, Black Panther is still a bit better than most Marvel movies. But it is not one of the best ones either.

#3: Spider-Man: Homecoming (Flickscore 87)

The aptly titled Homecoming is indeed a celebration of Spider-Man coming home under the Marvel banner. It’s a movie that aimed to deliver on aspects of Spidey missing from the Sam Raimi or Marc Webb versions. Peter Parker remains a high schooler throughout the runtime, is a nerd and wallflower, and struggles with his responsibilities between being a superhero and normal high school kid. All core tenants of Spidey’s character while letting Spidey quip in costume.

The film also crafts a better villain, a thankfully running trend of this era overall. Michael Keaton’s Vulture had a relatable motive, was well-performed, and the third act twist regarding Vulture’s relationship to Spider-Man was an excellent writing choice adding new stakes to the movie. The film provides a recreation of the iconic comics moment of Spidey lifting multiple tons of wreckage off of himself and throws in minor villains like Shocker through using MCU world building in a natural way.

Homecoming isn’t perfect though. It is never quite as deep or emotional as it could be, staying surface level compared to Spider-Man 2. There is also a bit too much Tony Stark in this movie, though Robert Downey Jr. is as affable as always. Spidey feels more beholden to Iron Man than he should be and doesn’t get to use his genius scrappiness as much.

Homecoming is still a welcome return to form after two mediocre to terrible Amazing Spider-Man films.

#2: Avengers: Infinity War (Flickscore 94)

Infinity War bore the weight of ten years of MCU development and a lesser film might have disappointed the entire point of the MCU. Thankfully, the Russos delivered with one of the most thrilling pieces of superhero cinema of all-time. Perfectly realizing the interconnected universe of all of the characters and prior movies, Infinity War feels like a crossover event comic book brought to life.

While it does suffer as an individual work from the fact that it doesn’t develop many of the characters itself, Infinity War does create the most perfectly-realized villain in the MCU. With impressive CGI work and Josh Brolin’s rumbling baritone, Thanos’s Malthusian motives made him compelling and an effective protagonist of the movie even as a villain. The film treats him with the appropriate weight and each action scene with him intrigues. The fights overall are creative and some of the MCU’s best, outside of fighting another alien army in the third act. Thanos’s duel with Doctor Strange finally feels the creativity of magic and the Infinity Stones is truly unleashed.

For juggling so many characters and plot threads, Infinity War make it feel effortless. It’s everything MCU fans could have hoped for with one climatic moment after another (Thor’s arrival in Wakanda is peak aura farming) ending in in what is now one of cinema’s most famous cliffhangers with the heroes losing. It was a bold move leaving audiences shocked in a true shared cultural moment that signaled the triumph of the MCU’s vision.

#1: Thor: Ragnarok (Flickscore 90)

Some may disagree (and clearly based on Flickscore, many do), but in this reviewer’s view, Ragnarok is the king of this Era. While Infinity War does juggles its large cast rather masterfully and brings the thrills of culminating ten years of storytelling, Ragnarok was such a burst of fresh air when it arrived. Many have turned on Taika Waititi because of Thor: Love and Thunder and have forgotten how brilliant this movie is.

Here, Waititi has a steadier hand in balancing the humor with drama and embracing zaniness without making every second and line of dialogue a joke. Hemsworth, Hiddleston, Ruffalo, and Thompson all deliver strong performances with Hemsworth especially showing off comedic chops. Goldblum and Blanchett ham it up in different yet equally entertaining ways, showcasing villainy in a particularly peculiar manner.

Ragnarok is also a visual delight. Full of bright colors, and willing to embrace its comic-book roots fully, it’s a movie that remembers it is a movie and uses visual language to its fullest. Seeing characters like Fenris and Hela and the planet of Sakaar brought to life fully is a joy for comic-book fans, with the frame littered with subtle references. Like most of the best Marvel movies, it’s never embarrassed about what it is while also taking its character arcs and drama seriously.

And yes, using “Immigrant Song” was a masterstroke of genius.

Marvel Chart

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
3. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
4. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
5. The Avengers (2012)
6. Logan (2017)
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
8. Iron Man (2008)
9. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
10. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
11. X2: X-Men United (2003)
12. X-Men: First Class (2011)
13. Iron Man 3 (2013)
14. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
15. Black Panther (2018)
16. Big Hero 6 (2014)
17. Deadpool (2016)
18. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
19. Spider-Man (2002)
20. Doctor Strange (2016)
21. Ant-Man (2015)
22. X-Men (2000)
23. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
24. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
25. Thor (2011)
26. The Wolverine (2013)
27. Blade (1998)
28. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
29. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
30. Iron Man 2 (2010)
31. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
32. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
33. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
34. The Punisher (2004)
35. Hulk (2003)
36. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
37. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
38. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
39. Blade II (2002)
40. Daredevil (2003)
41. Blade: Trinity (2004)
42. Fantastic Four (1994)
43. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
44. Fantastic Four (2005)
45. The Punisher (1989)
46. Ghost Rider (2007)
47. Howard the Duck (1986)
48. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
49. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
50. Captain America (1990)
51. Elektra (2005)
52. Fantastic Four (2015)

Zach Cregger has swiftly made a name for himself as a new, bold voice in horror. Deftly combining comedy with traditional suspense and supernatural plotting, Cregger’s films have all been lauded, especially as he trickles in societal commentary about various topics such as wealth inequality and gun violence against children. Last year’s Weapons garnered an Oscar win, a rare feat for horror.

Thus, perhaps inevitably, news came that Constantin Film tagged Cregger to direct their Resident Evil remake. The Resident Evil franchise is one of the longest-running video game adaptation franchises and synonymous with failure and schlock. Certainly, the films have their fans but few would call them universally good. Video game movies in general have largely been bad even if a few TV shows have cracked the nut. As is so often the case, a major studio will seek out a new voice to bring life back to a faded IP.

But half the time, these projects result in the visionary’s voice being overwhelmed by studio interference, and are disappointing. Many likely felt apprehension at Cregger being swept away into adaptation rather than creating another original story. Cregger himself commented he would only do the one movie before going back to original storytelling.

Luckily for everyone involved, Cregger knocked it out of the park. Resident Evil is easily the best film of its franchise and the best video-game movie ever made. It succeeds in part by leaning so heavily into its video-game origins. Resident Evil is a stripped down survival horror flick often seeking to recreate the feeling of playing one of the games while still maintaining enough of a narrative to be a movie.

To be sure, the biggest criticisms of the film are that its narrative is almost too stripped down. With almost no story to speak of, the protagonist’s character is rather thinly developed and his final emotional catharsis moment doesn’t feel the result of any change in circumstance. There’s an also rather unwieldy exposition dump in the middle of the movie to try to make up for the lack of story and lack of narrative devices to deliver said story, even as it is delivered by an ever-funny Paul Walter Hauser.

But these are minor critiques in what is quite an enjoyable flick. Cregger’s humor is replete throughout the movie, often taking quite frightening situations and leaning into the funny absurdities. It playfully pokes fun at the mechanics of the games by having padlocks appear on various doors and gates that the lead, Bryan, has to get through.

The movie also plays into Bryan as a bumbling amateur by having him constantly make mistakes. He is terrible with guns, slips and falls, throws helpful items aside, and walks into dark alleys despite it clearly not being a smart move. Resident Evil is never quite full slapstick but Cregger pulls just lightly enough from that tradition to get laughs without the movie being overly silly.

Once again balancing tone quite well, Cregger also manages to generate plenty of horror. While some monsters are direct pulls from the games, he also creates several original terrors that are quite creepy. Aside from a few moments of cheaper looking CGI, these look quite good overall and are appropriately disorienting.

Austin Abrams shines as Bryan, capturing the bumbling energy quite well, building on the energy of his Weapons performance. He’s quite funny and believable as just “some guy” that got caught up in the film’s events. And he manages to put some emotional weight into his catharsis scene even if the script doesn’t.

Resident Evil is a triumph. While not quite a masterpiece, it is a prime example of how to adapt a video game into film properly, mixing in the feeling of playing the game quite well. Cregger may not be doing a sequel, and that’s probably for the best, but you almost wish he had another coming after the possibilities of a good Resident Evil have been seen.

Tell us your thoughts on Resident Evil below and rank it on Flickchart now!

Countdown to Doomsday returns with what is a slightly slimmer article than the last two, and we promise they will be (somewhat) shorter from here on! The last two eras of Marvel movies were huge, and we haven’t even brought up the idea of superhero fatigue yet (until now). All the same, our journey of chronicling Marvel cinema history continues, as we’re about four months away from Avengers: Doomsday.

The prior era found four different studios pumping out content, three of which involved Marvel characters. Sony was unlucky and crashed out with its rushed Spider-Man series. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. wanted to jumpstart a DCEU with a Justice League movie. The critical prestige of Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight trilogy seemed a distant memory when the keys were handed to Zack Snyder. Meanwhile, Fox fought to keep up, creating some uneven movies but also arguably its best entry yet; Fox needed to be bold to stand out, especially with growing criticism of MCU sameness

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)’s Phase Two proved that The Avengers boosted every box office thereafter. Riding high, Kevin Feige and Co. revealed that the MCU would culminate in an Infinity Gauntlet adaptation. Such ambitious storytelling excited and locked in audiences. Could the MCU keep them on board, or would it fall victim to its own success?

Era Six: The Fight for Prestige

The sixth era of Marvel is comprised of eight films between 2015 and early 2017. By this time, the MCU was the defining brand in superhero cinema and the measuring stick that others competed against.

It was in this era that many of the questions surrounding Marvel cinema since the early days came to a head. The MCU redefined concepts of prestige and comic-book authenticity, yet while superhero films now drew a broader audience and were no longer the sole domain of “nerds,” many old-guard fans felt the MCU was leaving them behind in some ways. Film critics and those concerned with the art of cinema worried about the effects of the MCU on the Hollywood landscape. Was there room left for anything else to break through, or would blockbusters solely exploit IP and continuations of film universes?

There was much work to do laying the groundwork for Thanos’s arrival, but the MCU alternated between event films and introducing new heroes, building up their roster with long-awaited characters like Ant-Man and some from the supernatural side of Marvel. The results were mixed, and the term “superhero fatigue” first started popping up in the parlance around this time, referring to the gluttony of movies in the subgenre. If nothing else, the MCU was not stagnant, transitioning away from the old writing and directing guard of Joss Whedon and Jon Favreau.

The DCEU’s first big event film provided a point of comparison, and a warning. Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice generated a legion of fans who preferred Snyder’s darker, seemingly more mature aesthetic, but most critics derided it as rushed catch-up to the MCU, an accusation that lingered with all subsequent movies in the “Snyderverse.” As has been evident from Marvel’s cinema history, the rush to make a quick buck often has destructive effects.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

2014 was a watershed year for Marvel. While Kevin Feige discussed Phase 2 as early as 2011, it was all speculative discussion until The Avengers broke the box-office open. After that, Disney CEO Bob Iger personally announced the sequel’s development.

As previously discussed, the MCU retained Joss Whedon after his early success to serve as a Phase Two architect alongside Feige and build to the next Avengers film. The pair were conscious about trying to do something different with the sequel, aiming to make it more personal, small, and painful. Still, there was the competing concern of making a major event movie that built up the overall storyline with Thanos. Whedon set out to write something in the vein of The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II, sequels that turned darker and more inward than their predecessors.

Whedon and Feige worked to perfect a story dynamic that effectively juggled all of the existing characters, including sidekicks from the sub-franchises, while adding new characters as well. One potential inclusion was Captain Marvel, who remained in the script deep enough into production that visual effects shots were made for her. Tom Hiddleston almost reprised as Loki, but Whedon ultimately decided to exclude both Captain Marvel and Loki due to the film feeling overstuffed. Instead he focused on Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

This pair’s inclusion was tricky due to the rights situation. They were mutants as well as Avengers, so Fox shared their rights and had just included Quicksilver in their big event picture X-Men: Days of Future Past. Still, Whedon was eager to use them and rewrote their origins to avoid mention of the word mutants. He was fascinated by the possibilities of their powers, including Wanda’s ability to get into the heads of the Avengers, which allowed for more dynamic character exploration. Whedon also wanted to explore the world’s varying reactions to an entity like the Avengers, and he felt that outsider characters allowed that.

In 2013 Thor: The Dark World debuted the Infinity Stones, and San Diego ComicCon revealed the Avengers sequel’s title: Avengers: Age of Ultron. No Thanos yet, but at least Ultron was another iconic Avengers villain from the comics.

The only problem? Hank Pym (Ant-Man) famously created Ultron in the comics, yet he did not yet exist in the MCU and Ant-Man had a release date after the Ultron movie. Whedon explained that Ultron’s origins were altered to account for the MCU’s present state, disappointing some fans. Such are the compromises of worldbuilding.

While Whedon finalized his script, casting began. Most of the original cast were contracted to return, with the exception of Robert Downey Jr., whose contract expired after Iron Man 3. Downey publicly commented that he might be done as Tony Stark, though this was likely a negotiating tactic. No longer the underdog, Downey negotiated a massive new contract and officially joined the cast.

With the original cast locked in, now came new characters. Supporting characters like Don Cheadle‘s War Machine and Anthony Mackie‘s Falcon garnered small roles, finally joining the big team-up films. Marvel announced further castings including James Spader as Ultron, which generated mixed reactions. Much more positively received were the casting of Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron-Taylor Johnson as Wanda and Pietro, with fans getting a first look in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier post-credits scene.

Even more eyebrow-raising was the announcement of Paul Bettany as Vision. Vision is an android member of the Avengers created by Ultron in the comics. Bettany had long held a small role as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony’s AI assistant (and a nod to the comic-book butler of the same name).

This marked at least three new characters joining. Whedon admitted it was a struggle to balance all of them in one script, especially due to their disparate backgrounds and identities. Feige and others continued to talk about the difficulties of balancing technology-based and fantasy-based characters, especially in the MCU which was more grounded than the comics tended to be.

Filming launched in early 2014 and was a much more international affair than the first film. Despite the intention to make a smaller, more personal work, Age of Ultron filmed in South Africa, South Korea, London, Italy, Bangladesh, New York, and a massive multi-level set for Avengers Tower. Whedon shot the film differently than the first, embracing a more cinematic look with longer lenses. There was also intense post-production, with 3000 visual effects shots completed by ten different effects studios. Motion-capture technology advanced for the film, and the result was one of the most expensive films ever made, and still the most expensive Avengers movie to date.

Teases of the film first arrived in 2014, including the reveal that Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor would play a role. ComicCon panels hyped the movie with plans of a trailer debut during an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Sadly, the trailer leaked before that, and Marvel ended up releasing it online. While bad luck for the show, the trailer received 34.3 million views in 24 hours. With 2015’s arrival, marketing went full force. Marvel revealed that Andy Serkis would play Ulysses Klaue, fueling speculation about Wakanda’s introduction. Linda Cardellini and Julie Delpy were annonuced for unknown roles.

Yet while Marvel prepared for release, behind the scenes, turmoil arose. Despite Marvel giving Whedon oversight of all of Phase 2, Marvel clashed repeatedly with him about the final cut. Whedon fought hard to include the scenes at Hawkeye’s farm revealing his private family life and the dream sequences after Scarlet Witch hexes the Avengers. These clashes culminated in Whedon’s relationship with Marvel souring and Age of Ultron suffering as a result. Whedon also wanted to include Spider-Man, but while Feige was secretly negotiating that deal with Sony and Amy Pascal, it wasn’t completed yet.

Regardless, Whedon and Marvel finalized the film for its May 2015 release. Audiences were super excited for a sequel, and Disney was hopeful for another round of Avengers-led box-office dollars. Opening day seemed to herald yet another massive success with $84.46 million in earnings. By the weekend’s end, it sat at $191.3 million, one of the highest opening weekends of all time.

Yet it didn’t surpass the first film’s opening weekend or total draw. While Age of Ultron was inarguably a massive success, it fell off 59% in its second weekend, one of the largest drops of all time. To be clear, it still finished at $1.405 billion, and in no way could be considered a failure.

It received a more mixed reception than the first movie. Many critics found it overstuffed and thought that Ultron lacked as a villain. Despite praise for Spader’s vocal performance, many comics fans were put off by his more sardonic take on the android. Action sequences received praise, though the finale was criticized as repetitive of the first Avengers. Critics faulted it for repeating the Iron Man 2 problem of stuffing the middle act with set-up for other movies. Still, there were more personal aspects that critics praised, with the farm sequence receiving accolades that justified Whedon’s clashes with Marvel. Vision’s design was also well received.

By not surpassing the first movie’s smash success, Age of Ultron became something of a chink in the MCU armor. Many wondered if the superhero fad had already peaked, and thought there were too many comics movies coming out. If that was the case and audiences lost interest, the MCU’s grand storytelling might fall apart before it could reach a conclusion.

This was also one of the last hurrahs for any connectivity with Marvel Television. Despite Whedon’s brother overseeing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., its relationship with the films was never strong, and the second season didn’t seem to impact the movies at all. There was one tie-in episode explaining where Nick Fury’s Helicarrier from Age of Ultron‘s final act came from, but fans of Phil Coulson felt that their desire to see him reunite with the Avengers was being ignored.

Agent Carter, a new show spun off from the Marvel One Shot series, had a successful debut. Critics praised it even more than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Hayley Atwell‘s performance continuing to shine. While other spin-offs were developed, they failed to reach the airwaves. Over at Netflix the most critically-revered MCU show, Daredevil, debuted to rave reviews. Again, though, it referenced the MCU without reciprocation from the movies.

Though these shows were treated as an afterthought in the MCU’s canon, Iger saw the possibilities of TV as a means to give people more Marvel content. He publicly mused on creating a streaming service for Marvel, which some may say were the first inklings of Disney+ emerging. Devoted fans were enjoying any extra avenues into the MCU they could get.

The MCU had one more 2015 release lined up that, oddly, introduced a founding Avengers member who was tied to Ultron’s creation in the comics. Perhaps Ant-Man would be an Age of Ultron capstone as well as a Phase Two send-off.

Yet Age of Ultron‘s scant post-credits scene did nothing to tease Ant-Man. Whedon initially claimed there would be no post-credits scene, which would be a sharp break in the routine at this point. Feige later clarified there would be something, emphasis on something.

Indeed, the short thirty second or so clip merely featured Thanos drawing an Infinity Gauntlet out of a space cupboard and stating he would obtain the Infinity Stones himself. It was far from Marvel’s most specific scene, though some speculated Thanos might start gathering stones in other films leading up to the third Avengers, where he would surely appear. Only time would tell.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

We already know many of the characters from this will be in Doomsday. Most of the Avengers team are returning in some respect, though Nick Fury’s status is unclear. Vision and Ultron are returning to the MCU in the upcoming VisionQuest Disney+ show after hiatuses of various lengths. We are doubtful Ultron has any additional appearances, but we speculate Vision’s status will be clarified after the show and he will appear in Doomsday or Secret Wars.

Ant-Man (2015)

We’ve alluded to Ant-Man for nearly three articles now. Indeed, Ant-Man is the movie with perhaps the most tumultuous history in the entire MCU. It was a long and winding road to get this little guy to the big screen, a story spanning decades and multiple iterations. Despite being a founding member of the Avengers in the comics, he’d been the missing piece in the MCU to date. But no longer.

Stan Lee first pitched an Ant-Man movie to New World Pictures in the late ’80s, but Disney’s development of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids dissuaded New World from pursuing the project, feeling there was only room for one shrinking movie. Howard Stern of all people attempted to buy the rights a decade later, but Ant-Man wound up part of Marvel’s deal with Artisan Entertainment in 2000. While it wasn’t Artisan’s top priority, they did hire Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish to develop a treatment. Yes, they were involved before Marvel Studios even existed.

Wright championed the property and hung with it for most of its development thereafter. Envisioning a wacky, high-concept crime comedy, Wright made Scott Lang the protagonist from his first draft, seeing him in the vein of Elmore Leonard. Artisan losing the rights caused a small bump in the road, but Wright and Cornish successfully pitched their vision to Kevin Feige who then hired them to steward the Marvel Studios iteration.

Thus, Marvel announced Ant-Man as part of its first batch of movies back in 2006. Wright discussed his plans at ComicCon that year, including period elements and a plot involving both Hank Pym and Lang. Yet development sat in a holding pattern throughout most of ’07 and ’08 because Wright continually revised his scripts. Feige and Marvel also decided Ant-Man was not a “tent-pole” character and did not rush to develop a movie, deciding to give Wright all the time he needed to refine the script. Lee met with Wright in 2010 to discuss ideas, and during 2010 ComicCon Wright commented that Ant-Man would not release until after The Avengers.

Wright submitted multiple drafts in 2011 and 2012, with work picking up after Wright finished his Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy. Test footage at 2012 ComicCon was positively received for having a different vibe from other MCU works. Feeling confident, Disney set a 2015 release date.

Feige announced that Ant-Man would be part of Phase Three, though further script modification was needed for it to gel with the MCU’s current state, since work started on Ant-Man prior to Iron Man‘s release. And as mentioned above, speculation arose about the plot once the Avengers sequel was announced as having Ultron. Wright clarified that his film would stand alone while being part of the wider universe.

While script work was still being completed, casting began. Paul Rudd was an immediate front-runner for the lead and was soon cast. At first, it seemed Rudd would play Hank before he clarified that he was playing Scott. Michael Douglas was then cast as Hank, with Michael Pena also joining the cast. Jessica Chastain was offered the lead female role, but she turned it down, leading to Evangeline Lily landing the part after she beat out Bryce Dallas Howard and Rashida Jones. Corey Stoll also joined the cast around this time.

Filming was set to occur at Pinewood Studios in Georgia (then owned by the same company as the British Pinewood Studios of James Bond fame), beginning the MCU’s fruitful run of filming in Georgia due to the state’s tax incentives. Wright hired most of his usual crew members, yet unfortunately for him, it was around 2014 that Ant-Man started becoming less and less his film. Feige and Wright were no longer aligned on the film’s vision, leading to further rewrites and rumors of discord. With the MCU’s success, Feige was becoming more concerned about connecting than universe than having a movie that was wildly divergent. While Wright and Cornish allegedly wrote a post-credits scene for Age of Ultron, the lack of harmony likely led to it being scrapped.

The separation became official by May 2014 with Wright commenting that Marvel didn’t want to make an “Edgar Wright movie” and citing Marvel’s desire to commission a new script without him as his breaking point. As he departed, so did most of his crew, ending years of work.

Marvel moved quickly to find a replacement director. They initially talked with Adam McKay, but he backed out in solidarity with Wright. This led to hiring Peyton Reed, whom Marvel previously considered for other projects, with McKay eventually providing script contributions due to his relationship with Rudd. As a bit of explanation, or maybe just PR, Feige publicly commented on his discussions with Reed. They were still operating from Wright’s blueprints, but Feige claimed Reed agreed with Marvel’s direction and that Reed didn’t want to be a director-for-hire of Wright’s vision. Reed felt he and McKay could take what Wright started and move it forward into something new.

McKay described the rewriting process as an intense weeks-long retreat into a hotel room with Rudd, who had a knack for dialogue according to McKay. The creatives continually heaped praise on Wright and gave him credit, though they added many scenes not present in Wright’s version including a flashback with Peggy Carter, the introduction of the Quantum Realm as a concept, and the fight with Anthony Mackie’s Falcon. Reed and Rudd also discussed beefing up the female roles and creating potential for development of sequels.

As summer 2014 ended, Reed hired writers Gabriel Ferrari and Andrew Barrer to assist in additional rewrites, and Eric Pearson from the Marvel writing program also provided uncredited writing work. Reed considered adding a robotic form of Arnim Zola at one point, though he ultimately decided it would overstuff the work. Lily commented that while the loss of Wright’s vision was sad, she felt the new script worked much better in relation to the other movies as Wright’s version would have “stuck out like a sore thumb, no matter how good it was.”

Ant-Man kicked off filming in San Francisco, the first MCU film set in the city, perhaps distantly inspired by Big Hero 6. As shooting continued throughout late 2014, Feige then announced Ant-Man would end Phase Two rather than start Phase Three. He felt this helped it preview thematic underpinnings for Phase Three while also serving as an epilogue for Phase Two.

For the shrinking sequences, the movie made extensive use of macro photography — that is, filming extremely close to the subject of the shot to make it appear larger. This required compositing Rudd’s performance onto a CGI shrunken Ant-Man so as to work this footage in conjunction with the live ants. Naturally, this led into an effects-heavy post-production. Seven companies provided effects shots, with special techniques developed to depict Ant-Man shrinking and leaving outlines behind at each step.

Post also involved various characters being included and jettisoned in the edit. The original cut featured a detailed heist sequence with Pym’s Ant-Man that was eventually cut due to being too tangential. William Sadler was going to reprise as President Ellis from Iron Man 3, but he was also cut. Instead, John Slattery and Hayley Atwell briefly reprised their roles of Howard Stark and Agent Carter. Falcon had a sequence which debuted his newly-designed suit for Captain America: Civil War.

Marketing started in 2014 and then took off in a major way in 2015. The first trailer debuted in “ant-size” as a clever gimmick before the full-length trailer aired during Agent Carter‘s premiere. Marvel leaned into the “mini” gimmick with posters emphasizing Ant-Man’s small size, mini-billboards, and a tech challenge working with teenage girls to create science projects featuring micro-technology.

Then, July 2015 came. In a box-office take matching the hero’s diminutive size, Ant-Man posted the second-lowest MCU opening weekend, earning merely $57.2 million. This was enough to claim top dog at the box office, but it was a step down from where Marvel had been. Still, it sustained some success through its second weekend and did better with women and families than most MCU films. It was Rudd’s biggest live-action box office to date and finished with $519.3 million. Ant-Man certainly earned a place.

Critics were mostly positive, with the film sitting at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many found it a fun and breezy entry in the MCU and enjoyed Rudd’s performance, though it was also criticized as bland and the epitome of a formulaic Marvel movie. While Feige hoped to differentiate it as a heist movie, Ant-Man still felt too like an MCU house product, and some decried the loss of what Wright might have brought to it.

Two post-credits scenes teased the future of this sub-franchise and how Phase Three would open. The first alluded to Lily’s Hope taking on the Wasp mantle, while the second scene was shot by the Russos and featured footage from the upcoming Captain America: Civil War featuring Falcon deciding to call Ant-Man for backup. This certainly amped up anticipation for the third Cap movie.

While Phase Two didn’t end with a bang, Ant-Man did suggest Marvel could have lighter entries and let the universe be more than one world-shaking event after another. The MCU still seemed the dominant force in superhero cinema, and many were ready for the new heights of Phase Three. The Infinity Saga was brewing.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Rudd’s Ant-Man remains part of the MCU, and his third film was the setup for the next big villain until Kang was scrapped. While things were reworked for Doomsday, Ant-Man should still feature. The rest of the cast seems unlikely to appear, with Douglas and Lily more or less done with Marvel. Stoll returned for the third Ant-Man in a different capacity, but we’ll leave that for later.

Fantastic Four (2015)

The Fantastic Four thus far were on a not so fantastic cinematic journey. When we last left this quad, Tim Story‘s second film underwhelmed in 2007, leaving Fox wondering what to do with its last non-X-Men Marvel property. While mainly focused on its mutant movies, Fox finally announced a Fantastic Four reboot in August 2009.

However, Fox didn’t rush into development. Scripts from Michael Green, and then Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller slowly came into development. As the studio mulled over concepts, Fox also considered casting Adrien Brody for Mr. Fantastic and Kiefer Sutherland for The Thing. But nothing really compelled Fox executives, and finally it commissioned a third script from writer Jeremy Slater. Inspired by the success of The Avengers, Slater wrote a screenplay in line with that tonality. His plot featured Galactus and Dr. Doom again, with Doom as a spy and herald for Galactus.

Just a few months before The Avengers, February 2012 saw the release of Josh Trank‘s Chronicle. A surprise indie hit, the movie deftly blended horror with the superhero genre and attracted Hollywood’s attention. Fox leapt after Trank, not thinking about whether Trank’s work actually melded with their vision for the Fantastic Four, and eventually signed him to direct. Unfortunately, conflicts quickly arose.

For one, Fox didn’t provide a budget that matched MCU blockbusters. Trank did not align with Slater’s vision or script, wanting to do a film more in line with Chronicle or Batman Begins. Trank didn’t identify with the prevailing tonal trends in Marvel movies and directly stated he wasn’t interested in “superheroes” as it were. Thus, Trank deliberately cut Slater out of discussions with Fox and refused to pass him studio notes on the script. Trank wrote his own script instead, causing Slater to leave.

Yet Fox seemed unconcerned as development continued into 2013. It hired past creatives, bringing on Matthew Vaughn and Simon Kinberg to produce and having Kinberg co-write alongside other script polishers. With X-Men creatives involved, Fox considered the possibility of a crossover with the X-Men, perhaps eyeing the MCU with envy. Studio heads seemed oblivious to how mismatched their priorities and Trank’s vision were. Trank ignored Fox’s crossover desires and fought hard for his vision, wanting to make something inspired by David Cronenberg‘s Scanners and The Fly.

The disagreement over vision and tone eventually boiled over as Fox started completely ignoring Trank’s desires. It commanded Kinberg to rewrite Trank’s script as casting began. Trank was able to exert some influence in the casting process, aiming for younger versions of the characters. He took a diverse approach, controversially casting Michael B. Jordan as Human Torch. This led to severe fan backlash, with Trank claiming he slept with a gun nearby during production for his safety.

Trank wanted the entire Storm family to be black, but the backlash led Fox to override him on Sue Storm. He later stated this should have been his first breaking point for leaving the film. Instead, Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, and Emily Rossum were among the possibilities for Sue, with Kate Mara landing the part.

As for Reed, after considering Kit Harington, Richard Madden, and Jack O’Connell (Game of Thrones‘ influence was notable yet again), Fox ultimately hired Miles Teller, hot off of Whiplash. With Doom the villain again, the studio considered actors such as Domhnall Gleeson, Eddie Redmayne, and Mads Mikkelsen. Strangely, despite auditioning for Doom, Mikkelsen was only asked to stretch his arms wide apart in the audition, which he found annoying and insulting. Thus, Mads continued to strike out on comic-book films.

Photography finally took off in 2014, five years after development began, but the battle over direction only continued. Fox kept pushing for something more commercial and mainstream, while Trank apparently completely ignored studio notes and proceeded as he wanted. Reportedly, Fox decided to have Kinberg and another producer completely rewrite Trank’s script after filming started. This came to a head after Fox executives viewed Trank’s first edit and came away with the sense that his original cut felt like a Chronicle sequel.

Fox more or less took over after this screening and sidelined Trank in favor of their hand-picked editor. Toby Kebbell, who played Doom, later commented in favor of Trank’s original vision, claiming it was a better, darker movie than the final product. But Fox hated it, fearing that Trank’s version wouldn’t sell to mainstream comic book fans.

Trank may have tried to work with the new editor, but Fox apparently shut him out. Rumors arose of Trank’s erratic on-set behavior, as he supposedly nearly came to blows with Teller during filming. Yet opinions differed, and some speculated that these reports were simply PR from Fox to cover for its takeover of the movie. The result was a film that limped to the finish line.

The irony was that the marketing and trailers were all positively received. Throughout early 2015, as these massive rewrites and re-edits were done, people raved about the darker and different tone in Fantastic Four‘s trailers. The first trailer became Fox’s most-viewed trailer. Yet this only fueled Fox’s fire to try to make the movie into something they thought more likely to turn a profit.

As August 2015 arrived, Trank issued an infamous tweet essentially disowning the movie. While quickly deleted, his denunciation spelled doom. After critic reviews were unveiled, there was only one conclusion: the movie was an abject failure.

Sitting at a mere 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and holding a 10 Flickscore, Fantastic Four was ravaged as an incoherent mess that was aesthetically drab and lacking in merit. The seams of the reshoots and reediting were readily apparent, with Mara’s hair-color changing scene to scene as well as Teller losing and growing a beard. Many critics expressed shock at this level of incompetence in a major studio release. A few spare critics did positively describe it as different from most Marvel movies, and the music also received praise. But most considered Fantastic Four one of the worst movies of the year.

The box office reflected the lack of quality. It managed a mere $25.6 million on opening weekend, one of the lowest openings for a superhero movie ever. It fell 69% in the second weekend and finished with $168 million worldwide, a total bomb relative to its budget.

In the years since, Trank commented with total disdain about the process. While remaining vague, both Mara and Teller both commented about how horrible the experience of making the movie was, and Teller blamed one executive in particular for screwing it all up. Thus, despite announcing a sequel ahead of release, it was little surprise that Fox quietly removed it from the release calendar.

While Kinberg kept affirming a desire to make a sequel with the same cast, the disastrous reception certainly dissuaded Fox from another attempt. Fox kept quiet about the franchise until their acquisition by Disney was announced in 2017. With the merger completed, the rights folded into the MCU.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Small

Despite the mess, many of the cast members are happy to reprise their roles in the MCU if given an opportunity. With the Disney merger, perhaps they have that chance. Bob Iger publicly commented that they would integrate the Fantastic Four into the MCU, yet when a film was announced in 2019 it did not connect with this entry.

That said, we think there may be some chance of these versions getting cameos. They were apparently going to cameo in Deadpool 2 at one point, and given Marvel’s use of cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine to redeem former Fox characters, it might happen with these iterations. It would likely be just Teller, Mara, and maybe Jamie Bell, as Jordan would cause too much confusion. Marvel likely wouldn’t want multiple versions of Doom, given the work to build up the Downey version.

Deadpool (2016)

2015 thus ended on a sour note, and while fans were ready for Fox’s next release to open up 2016, Fantastic Four‘s trainwreck left some worried. Given what Fox did to Deadpool last time, the possibility of failure was all too real. Luckily, Fox hired someone passionate about Deadpool to bring him back to life.

Ryan Reynolds‘s passion dated all the way back to the early ’00s, as we previously mentioned in our discussions of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After a comic book described Deadpool’s appearance as that of an ugly Ryan Reynolds, it piqued the actor’s interest and led to him falling in love with the character. He tried to create a Deadpool movie with David S. Goyer in 2004 at New Line Cinema. While New Line executive Jeff Katz was fully behind the idea, Fox holding the rights put the kibosh on it.

Luckily, a year later in 2005, Katz moved to Fox. Fox was already interested in using Deadpool, so Katz advocated for Reynolds and he was subsequently cast in Origins: Wolverine. We all know how that went.

Despite the first, botched interpretation of the character, Fox saw the value of Reynolds playing Deadpool and began development on a spinoff movie. Even after rebooting things around the X-Men: First Class cast, producer Lauren Shuler Donner stood up for the project. The journey for Deadpool would still be a long and tumultuous one, facing multiple near-cancellations and compromises of vision.

Fox wisely decided to ignore the Origins version of Deadpool and hired Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to write a script in 2010. Reynolds was enthused, having worked with them on other movies, and soon Robert Rodriguez was in line to direct. But just a little later in the year, Rodriguez’s interest waned and he dropped out. Fox next considered Adam Berg to direct before pivoting to Tim Miller due to Miller’s extensive history of working on visual effects for X-Men movies.

During these years of development, new script drafts were produced annually, with Reynolds working to refine the character and correct areas where he felt the writing pair got things wrong. Things took another bad turn when, due to a lack of progress in Deadpool‘s development, Reynolds agreed to star in Green Lantern for Warner Bros. Before Warner handed Snyder the keys, there was a notion of using Green Lantern to launch a connected universe. That movie bombed big time, leading Fox to consider cancelling Deadpool altogether, as they were already antsy about the R-rating the creative team insisted upon.

Miller convinced Fox that a PG-13 version simply would not work, and Fox gave him some money to produce test footage. Miller used his animation company to produce CGI clips with Reynolds voicing Deadpool.

After The Avengers‘ smash debut in May 2012, Miller hoped Fox might finally give him the green light, but instead Fox explored putting Deadpool into a team-up film. Even with big names like James Cameron and David Fincher lending support to Miller, Deadpool simply stalled.

Taking a page from Jon Favreau’s notebook, Reynolds leaked the test footage online in July 2014, hoping for viral audience support. Luckily, his instincts were correct. Fans were highly enthusiastic about the footage, and the studio caved, giving Deadpool a release date. Reynolds played dumb at the time before finally admitting to the leak in 2025.

The compromise is that Fox cut the budget down to $58 million. This required last-minute rewrites before production launched. By this time, Reynolds and the writing duo settled on making the movie a modern-set origin story mixing darker aspects with jokey fourth-wall breaking.

They also centered the origin story as a flashback unfolding over a long, singular action scene in order to save money on multiple fight sequences. The team considered a variety of mutants for characters, including Cable, but decided to push him to a hopeful sequel to keep the focus on Deadpool. The writers also constantly updated the pop culture references to remain fresh at release time. While there were challenges because of the reduced budget, Reese ultimately found the changes beneficial to the film’s pacing.

With writing finalized, the other major aspect of pre-production was honing in on Deadpool’s look. Film Illusions created the costume with a focus on maintaining some reality while also capturing the comic-book art style. The all-white eyes were highly important to Reynolds and the crew. Hard work paid off, and Reynolds reportedly wept upon seeing the finished suit for the first time, though the nature of its design apparently made CGI work difficult. The crew also wanted Deadpool’s disfigured face to be particularly horrible to justify his anger, creating a complicated nine-piece prosthetic for the face. They also made a full-body version for a scene, which took six hours to apply.

In March 2015, Fox golden boy Simon Kinberg joined as producer and confirmed the film’s continuity with other X-Men works but that it would be self-contained in a certain sense. The creative team decided to use Colossus, a relatively quiet character in the other films, as a foil to Deadpool to make the X-Men connection. However, Daniel Cudmore did not return as Colossus, further solidifying the distance from other Fox films.

While Reynolds was obviously already cast, the rest of the players needed to be hired before filming started. T.J. Miller joined as a comedic sidekick, and Ed Skrein joined as the primary villain, with Gina Carano as the secondary antagonist. Many were screentested to play the lead romantic role, including Crystal Reed, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Sarah Greene, and Taylor Schlling. Ultimately, Morena Baccarin won the part. Brianna Hildebrand rounded out the mutant characters as obscure X-Man: Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Deadpool shot in Reynolds’s native Canada and emphasized a grittier aesthetic than most superhero movies. The team filmed digitally but added film grain in post to suggest a grimier style. Because of the confined budget, the crew were deliberate about which sets they built to preserve money for special effects. The writers remained present throughout the shoot at Reynolds’s expense, as Fox was unwilling to pay them to be there. There was also plenty of improvising from Reynolds and others, adding to the film’s humor.

Filming wrapped in May 2015 and the movie headed towards its final cut. A large part of the editing process was deciding which of the many alternate joke takes to use and when to cut humor back in order to maintain stakes and drama. Because Deadpool’s mouth was covered, Reynolds and the writers had the freedom to keep changing lines even deep into post. Late inclusions were Reynolds doing a Hugh Jackman impression and asking which actor would play Professor X, mocking Fox’s confusing continuity. They also experimented with a linear cut of the film in the editing room, though ultimately they kept the flashback approach.

As with most of these movies, a multitude of studios worked on the visual effects. Six worked on Deadpool, fewer than usual. Animating Deadpool’s eyes was a key part of the process to help make the comic-book look work, which essentially no other comic-book movies had attempted to date. The effects team also had to design a helicarrier for one scene, though they worked hard to make it very distinct from the one in The Avengers, for legal reasons.

The smaller budget inherently limited marketing, so Reynolds got innovative in working with Fox to market the movie in a unique way. He kept a Deadpool costume and continually posted on social media wearing it, trying to create a constant presence of Deadpool’s zany personality. Deadpool showed up in unique trailers, billboards, Super Bowl ads, and other places. The result was one of the more ambitious and creative ad campaigns for a comic-book film.

After years of hopes and dreams, hard battles, and near misses, Deadpool finally released in February 2016. It was a weird window for such a film, and Reynolds and Fox held their breath. It took lots of work to push Fox to embrace an R-rated superhero movie with such source accuracy. The movie’s failure might lead Fox to never try anything as creative and experimental again. In fact, Deadpool‘s strongly explicit nature led to several countries refusing to screen it, or extensively editing it. This made the box office all the more important.

Despite this mountain of adversities, Deadpool made the climb. It surged in its opening weekend, setting a plethora of box-office records for Fox, R-rated films in general, and February releases. Finishing with a massive $172.7 million by the end of its Presidents’ Day weekend release, Deadpool rode that momentum to $55 million more in the second weekend, becoming the fastest R-rated movie to cross $200 million. With this groundswell of support, Deadpool finished its run at $373.1 million and became one of the most profitable films of all-time, the highest-grossing R-rated movie at the time, and the highest grossing film of the X-Men franchise.

Fox was astonished, but such was the power of something made with love. Critics embraced it as much as audiences, praising it for its comedy and having real teeth as an R-rated work. It also received praise for effectively balancing tone and for Reynolds’s strong performance. There were some detractors, but they were few in number and it currently sits at an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score and 88 Flickscore.

Deadpool earned a number of awards nominations as well and was widely considered a game-changer for how studios approached mature superhero content. Both Warner and Sony made overtures in the years following to develop grittier superhero films, even if other factors prevented most of them from happening. While Disney never felt it needed to respond, it would produce its own Deadpool movie years later, which became the first R-rated MCU movie. That’s a story for a future article.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-High

As eluded to, Deadpool received two sequels, including one set directly in the MCU. While Deadpool’s goofier meta-tone will likely struggle to authentically mesh with Doomsday, his character has a decent chance of showing up in Doomsday or Secret Wars. With much of the Fox X-Men on board, it’s hard to think Deadpool won’t show up somehow. As for other characters from this first film, we think it unlikely.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Despite Fox tanking its Fantastic Four property and seemingly paving the way for Disney’s Marvel dominance, the arrival of Deadpool brought new life. The gauntlet was thrown as the MCU entered Phase 3.

Unlike the universe’s early years, Kevin Feige and Marvel now had a clear narrative path: they would use Phase 3 to reach the concluding act of the Infinity Saga. Feige announced the full slate of Phase 3 films in 2014 at a solo Marvel Studios event. This was an unprecedented move for a studio, but it signaled the strength of the property. Most of the movies announced wound up released, with the exception of Inhumans, which became a TV series.

Phase 3 was set to open with the third Captain America movie. Marvel signed the Russos to direct before the second film even released, due to the strength of The Winter Soldier‘s test screenings. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely also returned to write the screenplay, keeping together this core of creatives. Early development occurred throughout 2014, with interviews teasing a lighter tone than The Winter Soldier while still keeping political themes and exploring the post-Winter Soldier dynamic between Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers.

Early concepts reportedly involved a brainwashing plot featuring the Madbomb device from the comics. Such concepts never made it into script form because Feige approached the team and requested they adapt the “Civil War” storyline. The Madbomb plot wound up shifted into the Agent Carter show. Feige did give them leeway to mix in ideas from their original planning, which allowed Markus and McFeely to readapt their planned use of Baron Zemo into the new storyline.

However, making an MCU Civil War was largely dependent on securing Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, a key character in the plot. Downey’s contract had expired after Iron Man 3, but luckily he and Marvel worked out a new deal by October 2014, locking him in through the end of the Infinity Saga, and Marvel therefore announced its intention to make a Civil War film.

Fans were split on whether this could work, with the MCU having far less characters than the comics. Marvel Studios had been having the same debate internally for months. Markus and McFeely tried to find a way to make it work within the MCU’s context while preserving the concept of superhero registration and a moral conflict between the heroes. It would be a far from direct adaptation, given the vastly different continuities between the comics and MCU. Yet Marvel felt it was the right time, wanting to kick off Phase 3 with a bang.

Some felt Marvel only decided to adapt Civil War because the DCEU had announced that its second film was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. There were accusations of ripping off the idea of heroes clashing. The plots bear only superficial similarities, and both were announced years in advance, but there’s no doubting the complaints came from a growing sense of competition between the MCU and DC’s director of choice Snyder.

Marvel executives initially balked at the film ending with the team split up, and wanted to force the Russos into a happier ending where Tony and Steve reunited to fight the HYDRA super soldiers. The Russos fought hard to keep their ending, with Feige backing them. This battle led to supervision of Marvel shifting from Marvel Entertainment to Disney Studios. Disney had faith in Feige and his leadership over Marvel’s executives and pulled a division of Marvel under its direct umbrella.

With Disney behind them, the creative team moved forward. However, the exact composition of characters and plot was still shifting throughout the production. Feige wanted to expand the MCU’s roster through this movie and set up additional solo films. First, Marvel cast Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther and announced he would appear in his own movie. Boseman did not audition and instead talked with Marvel directly, developing the Wakandan accent on his own ahead of the solo work.

The biggest news for the movie came in February 2015. As previously mentioned, leaks from Sony revealed that Feige and Amy Pascal were actively negotiating to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. While it was believed talks had died, the Russos personally lobbied Sony for Spidey, and their efforts paid off.

Civil War became the launching point for a unique licensing deal for Spider-Man. Sony seemed to have conceded that another self-produced reboot was not the way and instead allowed Spider-Man to join the MCU. We’ll detail the finer points in our next article, but the deal broadly kept rights for Spidey and his universe of characters with Sony while allowing Disney to produce movies featuring the Web Head.

Despite not being a Spidey movie, the Russos underwent an extensive casting process with Pascal and Feige, as the actor would be helming a franchise after Civil War. The Russos suprisingly managed to have a large voice in the matter, pushing for a younger actor despite Sony apparently being hesitant about casting too young.

The Russos centered on Tom Holland, as did Downey. The casting process nearly fractured Disney and Sony’s deal, as did many other small things due to the agreement’s tenuous nature. Yet by July 2015, Holland was confirmed as Peter Parker.

This news rocked the fandom and set anticipation for Civil War at new levels. Many started calling it Avengers 2.5 because of the sheer number of characters. The Russos had to balance that reality while still trying to make it a sequel to The Winter Soldier. They used ideas from that film to add personal stakes to the registration conflict, with Rogers motivated by his connection to Bucky and wanting to redeem him.

After Daniel Bruhl joined as Zemo and almost all of the Avengers cast were confirmed, filming launched in April 2015. There were some surprising exclusions: Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury did not appear, as the writers felt he had no place in the story. Wasp was near inclusion but ultimately left out due to not wanting to rush her debut in the suit.

Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Pepper was considered for a guest appearance, but her Marvel contract ended with Iron Man 3 and hadn’t been renegotiated at that point. Thaddeus Ross, played by a returning William Hurt, was also potentially going to appear as Red Hulk. Speaking of Hulks, Mark Ruffalo‘s Hulk was originally in the script, but Marvel felt Hulk would unbalance the movie and that the plot tease from the end of Age of Ultron had more potential.

Georgia was a prime filming location for Marvel and filming took place on location and sets throughout the Atlanta area. Well-regarded stunt coordinators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch worked as second unit directors; the pair were racking up quite a bit of experience on superhero movies. Jon Watts visited set to see how Spidey was used, as he would be directing the future Spider-Man movie. Filming moved internationally as well before wrapping.

As usual, post-production was a sizable part of the process. Due to the massive scale, almost twenty visual effects studios worked on the movie. The scene de-aging Downey was considered one of the more difficult. Marvel continued its trend of stylized title card end credits, first seen in Thor.

Marketing began with the post-credits scene for Ant-Man and continued throughout 2015 with huge positive buzz developing. The debut of multiple new characters, the return of most of the main characters to date, and adapting a popular comic-book story all worked in its favor, with trailers and test footage looking great. The trailer debuting Spider-Man became one of the most watched at the time.

With anticipation at a fever pitch, Civil War released in May 2016. The MCU’s snowball box-office effect continued with a smash opening weekend. Earning $75.5 million on opening day alone, it finished the first weekend with $179.1 million and surpassed the entire theatrical run of The Winter Soldier by May 10. Its worldwide gross at the end of its run was $1.153 billion, turning it into the highest grossing movie of 2016 and fourth-highest grossing superhero movie ever.

Critics raved, considering it one of the most mature MCU entries yet and having built wonderfully on the foundation of prior MCU entries. The action was considered delightful and entertaining, the themes well-developed, and it didn’t forget to explore meaningful character conflict. While not every review was positive, it managed a 90% RT score and a 90 Flickscore. It kicked Phase 3 off with a bang and reminded audiences how powerful the MCU could be when everything was running well. For what it’s worth, it far out-performed Batman v. Superman both critically and commercially. Despite the protestations of Snyder fans, the MCU’s superiority seemed intact.

With another hit in hand, the MCU was ready to steam ahead into Phase 3. Both post-credits scenes fittingly set up coming Phase 3 movies for new heroes, teasing Wakanda and the potential of Bucky breaking free of his brainwashing, as well as Spidey’s solo film. Still, the summer brought the next X-Men movie. Perhaps Fox would get the last laugh after all.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-High

Many of the characters in this movie are already confirmed to return in Doomsday. Funnily, this is the last “solo” film for Evans’s Rogers, as he’s only played the character in team-up films since. While there has been some talk of a return, nothing has materialized. The latest Captain America movie focused on a different Cap, but we’ll get to that later.

As for characters specific to this film, Bruhl’s Zemo did return in a Disney+ series, but we think there’s no chance of him being in Doomsday. Martin Freeman‘s MCU debut was in this movie as well, and he showed up in future Black Panther movies, so there may be a small chance of him being in Doomsday with Wakanda featured.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

While Fox tended the fires of multiple spin-offs, its mainline franchise also continued. Given the success of Days of Future Past, Fox was keen to ensure it quickly had a follow-up. It had commissioned X-Men: Apocalypse by December 2013, before Days of Future Past even released. After that film did well, Fox rehired Bryan Singer to direct.

Singer approached the project with high hopes. He saw it both as a conclusion to a trilogy of movies with the newer cast and also as a conclusion to the older works, as well as a potential set-up for a new era of X-Men movies. To that end, he brought on creatives like Simon Kinberg, Dan Harris, and Michael Dougherty to work on story ideas. Kinberg soon announced the movie was set in the ’80s and would debut young versions of iconic X-Men such as Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm. Gambit was set to be included but didn’t make the cut.

Singer and Kinberg were interested in tackling the origins of mutants and naturally felt the best antagonist would be Apocalypse. One of the major villains of the comics, he is the first mutant and would bring high stakes for this culminating film, drawing inspiration from “The Fall of the Mutants” crossover event. The story would culminate a trilogy of development for Mystique, after she received heavy attention in Days of Future Past and First Class.

In late 2014, Fox moved forward with casting and first confirmed Oscar Issac would play Apocalypse. While Issac is a talented performer, many raised their eyebrows at this choice as he was a smaller man and didn’t seem quite right. Next came the announcements of the new generation of X-Men including Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, and Game of Thrones‘s Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, demonstrating the continuing influence of the show on superhero flicks. Turner beat out Grace Fulton and Ashley Benson. Other fan favorites were announced as well, with Kodi Smit-McPhee confirmed as Nightcrawler, Lana Condor as Jubilee, Olivia Munn as Psylocke, and Ben Hardy as Archangel.

Rose Byrne was also confirmed to return as MacTaggert after missing the prior film. Other returning players included Lucas Till‘s Havok, Josh Helman‘s Stryker, Evan Peters’s Quicksiler, and a cameo from Hugh Jackman as Logan. Apocalypse was shaping up to potentially be Fox’s most extravagant X-Men yet. With this robust cast, filming launched in mid-2015. However, trouble brewed under the surface as composer and producer John Ottman would later reveal.

Ottman served the same roles on Days of Future Past. He provided feedback as a producer, and Kinberg was present to make script changes immediately. But this time Fox was rushing things along, and Ottman felt a complacency entered the creative process due to prior success. He described others as having a blind faith that things would work out.

Despite reams of notes that existed on Apocalypse‘s script, Ottman claimed a third act was never written and was simply a “beat sheet.” Compounding this, Singer had to leave filming for ten days due to thyroid issues, forcing Kinberg to fill in as director on those days. Many on production found this strange, but as stories of Singer’s conduct over the years came out, it fit into an unfortunate pattern.

By the time filming concluded in January 2016, production was a mess. Ottman described their efforts to save the movie in editing by improvising the final battle using voiceover and Xavier’s telepathy as an excuse to use CG effects for scenes. Rising Sun Pictures returned to do the visual effects for Quicksilver’s time-slowing sequence, alongside four other effects studios that all played a role in trying to save the movie.

Marketing began with the initial post-credits sequence in Days of Future Past, and a Comic-Con panel in 2015 showed off the cast and initial footage. Fox tried to do an ad campaign involving products and other creative touches, but it was outclassed by Reynolds’s creative marketing for Deadpool. It didn’t help when there was a billboard controversy about a depiction of Mystique being choked by Apocalypse, which many felt was insensitive to women. As such, Apocalypse didn’t carry quite as much favorable buzz as earlier entries. It was coming as part of a stuffed 2016 superhero film schedule, and Civil War had released just a few weeks earlier and was maintaining momentum.

By the time its May 2016 release happened, Apocalypse felt lost in the sauce of more successful works. The critical dredging that happened upon release was perhaps inevitable given Fox’s approach to production. Most critics derided the work as an overstuffed, limp action movie with a weak villain. While some felt there were decent visuals and that the young cast was talented, it wasn’t enough to make up for the cliches and lack of story.

Issac himself later expressed disappointment with his role. He found the costuming process excruciating and said it held him back as a performer. He also wished the script did better at defining and developing his character.

Perhaps the lack of momentum and critical issues explained the uneven box office. It managed only $79.8 million in its opening holiday weekend. This was not chump change, but it was certainly far less than Civil War or Deadpool. That said, it did surprisingly well overseas, especially in Asian markets. It finished as the third-highest grossing of the franchise with $543.9 million when all was said and done.

Despite failures and issues, Fox felt satisfied enough to keep going and commissioned a sequel. There was even a post-credits scene potentially teasing Mister Sinister as a villain, though Kinberg later clarified this was a nod for Logan, not the next X-Men movie. While Fox’s X-Men franchise was no longer the head honcho, even when compared to Fox’s other Marvel works, it endured and arguably primed a new generation of characters. Still, this was Singer’s apocalypse on the franchise, as it would be the last X-Men movie he would direct. More on that when we get to Fox’s final releases.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Low

As we’ve noted before, while Fox X-Men are definitely included in Doomsday, there’s been little indication that any of the newer trilogy characters will show up. In a set of movies already overstuffed with characters, we think Marvel decided it will be too confusing to include multiple versions of the X-Men. The only characters that might stand a small chance of showing up are fan favorites like Munn’s Psylocke or Condor’s Jubilee that have no other live action versions. Issac’s Apocalypse definitely seems out given the nature of that character, this film’s poor reception, Issac’s subsequent role as Moon Knight, and Issac’s overall issues with Disney.

Doctor Strange (2016)

The MCU’s second and final release in 2016 had the opportunity to follow Fox’s stumbling block in Apocalypse. Despite Deadpool‘s success, Disney could revive the push to acquire the X-Men that somewhat quieted of late.

Though Doctor Strange had never made it to the big screen before, he was actually one of the characters we mentioned way back in the first article of this series as having received a TV movie pilot in the ’70s. Stan Lee reported having a fairly positive experience making it, despite it receiving a critical drubbing. Indeed, CBS did not pick it up for a full-length TV show.

With this failure, Doctor Strange went on hiatus for about a decade until New World Pictures obtained the film rights and intended to develop an adaptation written by Bob Gale (Back to the Future), though this version faltered. Regency then bought the rights and had a script written by Alex Cox and Lee himself. This attempt was even closer to production, but then fell apart because Regency’s movies were distributed by Warner Bros., which was in a big merchandising battle with Marvel in the late ’80s. Full Moon Entertainment took a swing next, yet its rights expired before it could finish the movie. Their work wound up repurposed into a film called Doctor Mordrid.

As the Marvel craze took root in the ’90s, this was another property that cycled between studios and creatives. Wes Craven was attached to write and direct at one point, then David S. Goyer wrote a script, followed by Michael France with Stephen Norrington interested in directing (all familiar names from the early Marvel days). Studios juggling the rights included Columbia Pictures, Dimension Films, and Miramax. Yet Doctor Strange never could quite emerge in the sea of superhero adaptations.

Finally, in April 2005, Paramount bought the rights from Miramax to aid Marvel Studios as they embarked on their self-production scheme. Hearing of this wild idea, apparently Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman made a pitch to Marvel for a Strange film that included Clea, though Marvel balked at their script. Yet as Marvel Studios basked in their initial success, Doctor Strange was included in the writing program they launched. Marvel tasked Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to pen a script at the same time Patrick Dempsey lobbied to play the character.

Yet none of Marvel’s early development attempts went in a satisfying manner, with Kevin Feige prioritizing other characters. Strange’s supernatural, magical powers were the kind chalked up by Feige as indistinguishable from “advanced technology,” showing that the studio was not confident in how Strange fit into the prevailing landscape. Interest remained in using the character, though, and Feige announced in January 2013 that Marvel intended to bring Strange to life as part of Phase 3.

Throughout 2013 Marvel developed ideas and considered directors. The directing rumor mill churned until mid-2014 and included names such as Mark Andrews, Jonathan Levine, and Nikolaj Arcel. But Marvel landed on Scott Derrickson in June 2014. Derrickson came from a horror background, showing that Feige was continuing to push genre diversification with the choice.

Derrickson also came from a background of really liking the character, and he emphasized his desire for comic authenticity in interviews. His script treatment drew heavily on comics, and he landed the job in part by creating an animatic at his personal expense, bringing to life a scene from the comics. Marvel used his animatic as the basis for an action sequence that wound up in the final product (Strange fighting an enemy in the astral plane while trying to save his physical body).

That said, Marvel passed on Derrickson’s pitched plan of him cowriting with his Sinister writing partner, C. Robert Cargill, as they believed they would miss their desired release date if Derrickson wrote and directed. Instead, it hired Jon Spaihts, another longtime fan of Doctor Strange who had also been pestering Marvel for years about the character.

Derrickson and Spaihts hammered out story ideas, debating whether to skip the origin movie, though ultimately they decided Strange’s background deserved to be told. Derrickson wanted Nightmare to be the main villain, but Feige rejected that, believing it would be too much to convey the idea of another dimension in addition to everything else the script did. Instead, Feige pushed for Dormammu to be the main villain, an entity from… another dimension.

As for casting, Benedict Cumberbatch became an early favorite of everyone involved. Marvel executives also eyed Tom Hardy and Jared Leto, but with fans and media clamoring for Cumberbatch, Marvel capitulated. Unfortunately, Cumberbatch turned it down due to his busy schedule.

Marvel next courted Joaquin Phoenix, though this fell apart because Phoenix felt Marvel imposed too many restrictions on the performance. This led to Marvel creating a shortlist of other actors such as Ethan Hawke, Ewan McGregor, Matthew McConaughey, and Keanu Reeves. However, Cumberbatch remained the heavy favorite the entire time, and Marvel eventually relented and agreed to move its release date and production schedule to accommodate Cumberbatch. Thus, the Sorcerer Supreme was cast.

The delayed production also gave time for Derrickson and Cargill to work on the script in tandem with Spaihts. With the script finalizing, further casting occurred, including bringing in Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, a longtime Strange foe in the comics. While originally intended as a villain in this film, discussions between Derrickson and cast members led to rewrites to make Mordo more of a supporting character with a hard edge.

Meanwhile, Tilda Swinton was cast as The Ancient One. This caused minor controversy for whitewashing an Asian character, though in doing so Marvel was trying to avoid Asian mysticism stereotypes. Rachel McAdams was cast as the main female lead after Jessica Chastain turned down yet another Marvel role. Chastain believed she’d only get one Marvel role and wanted a more important part. Michael Stuhlbarg also joined the cast, intrigued by some of the comics he read. Mads Mikkelsen finally landed a Marvel role as the lead villain Kaecilius after his history of failed auditions. Unfortunately, the character wasn’t very memorable.

With pre-production heating up, Feige and Derrickson entered the process with the mindset of distinguishing it from prior film depictions of magic. They consciously wanted to put a focus on gestures instead of spoken incantations and bring a “Ditko/Kubrick/Miyazaki/The Matrix” influence to the visuals. Feige noted this would be the first directly supernatural Marvel movie, and it would also be the first MCU movie to introduce the multiverse, though Feige was careful to note that it would only explore other dimensions, not alternate realities. To that end, Marvel consulted astrophysicist Adam Frank to inform the dialogue and ideas underlying the MCU’s multiverse.

As with most Marvel productions, filming was an international affair. This movie notably shot in Nepal, a country rarely visited in film. Derrickson felt it was important to provide a tactile visual element, and Marvel avoided Tibet (the location of Strange’s magical school in the comics) due to possible Chinese censorship. After Nepal suffered earthquakes in 2015, Derrickson wanted to bring money into their economy and highlight Nepal’s tourism.

Filming also occurred on sets in England and New York. They underwent the challenge of recreating a street from Nepalese capital Kathmandu in set form, which the production team noted as especially difficult due to Kathmandu’s unique history and architecture. Marvel pulled real Nepalese extras to add authenticity. By January 2016, Benedict Wong had learned about the film from his friend Ejiofor and petitioned Marvel to join the cast. It is unclear if Strange’s famed assistant Wong was already in the script, but Wong was successfully cast as Wong and immediately joined filming. Lulu Wilson shot a brief scene as Strange’s younger sister, though this was cut from the final film, alongside with few other characters.

Doctor Strange was promoted at Comic-Con, as most comics films were, in 2016, with Derrickson noting that filming was done but required some pickup shots depicting further training, which tested well with audiences. None other than Dan Harmon wrote these additional sequences, and he also consulted on humor and provided feedback on sci-fi aspects. Taika Waititi also took advantage of the reshoots to add a scene to the currently filming Thor: Ragnarok featuring Strange meeting Thor, which became one of the post-credit scenes. What wasn’t filmed on Doctor Strange‘s sets was Stan Lee’s cameo. Instead, James Gunn filmed Lee’s cameo on the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, alongside three other cameos, to reduce the amount of travel the aging Lee would have to do.

With post-production arriving, Feige noted they were trying to use 3D to serve the story, though this was nearing the end of the 3D craze, with many no longer caring if there were 3D releases. Doctor Strange was already facing an abundance of visual effects shots, 1450 to be exact. Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy team worked on this film, bringing their knowledge of zany visuals to both CGI and practical designs. Derrickson drew on Steve Ditko and M.C. Escher to create surrealist imagery throughout the movie. Many of the effects studios that worked on the film noted the difficulty of the work, as well as the rewards that came from beautifully designed visuals. Michael Giacchino provided the score, beginning a long partnership with Marvel.

Marvel also designed and debuted a new Marvel Studios logo with this release. After years of use, gone were the comic panels. Instead, footage from MCU films now replicating the comic panel style, and there was a new fanfare as well. It heralded a new era for Marvel as a film studio with a history to celebrate, and it continues to be used in various forms to this day.

Marketing occurred throughout late 2015 and most of 2016. While some enjoyed the trippy visuals, the various trailers received criticism, with many describing them as derivative. There were mixed media marketing campaigns and Comic Con panels, yet a true groundswell never formed for this one as it had for some other recent Marvel releases.

This did not prevent Doctor Strange from doing well. It’s November 2016 release went off with a bang, becoming the biggest November IMAX release of all-time. It netted $85.1 million in its opening weekend and by the end of the month was the largest single-character origin film in MCU history. Doctor Strange performed especially well in South Korea and China, earning $18.1 million and $44 million respectively in its opening weekends in those countries. It finished up with an impressive $677.8 million. While not quite the barnstormer that some other MCU or other comic book movies were, it still outperformed expectations.

Critics were fairly high on it, with it sitting at a 89% Rotten Tomatoes score. Flickcharters are a bit harsher, giving it an aggregate Flickscore of 79. While many noted it was overly familiar in its origin narrative, there were enough who felt it cut a new path with Eastern mysticism and highly impressive visual-effects. Most of the cast also received praise, as did its willingness to get a little weird in a genre that can be surprisingly stilted at times.

Thus, Marvel ended 2016 on a high note with multiple successful releases. Even the MCU’s stumbling blocks still did fairly well and were a cut above where Marvel cinema used to be. Plus, the MCU continued to shine in comparison to the DCEU. Suicide Squad may have made more money than Doctor Strange in its August 2016 release, but reputationally it was considered a disastrous work and tarnished the prestige of the burgeoning competitive universe.

That said, the disconnect between the cinematic wing of the MCU and the TV side seemed to be growing. By the end of 2015, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was multiple seasons deep and essentially completely ignored by the films. The show kept trying to pull off crossover episodes, but it remained a one-way street. Netflix had its own library of successful MCU shows as well by this time, including Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and The Punisher, plus the especially well-received Daredevil. Yet, these shows, too, were ignored on the big screen.

This was likely a result of Marvel Studios splitting off to be supervised by Disney while Marvel Television remained under Marvel’s direct control. While Marvel Television was especially productive in developing shows in 2016 — X-Men-related shows were in development at FX, other spin-offs with ABC Family/Freeform and Hulu, and the once-planned Inhumans film now becoming a show with ABC — it meant there was too much going on for the movies to reflect any of it. That, and the relationship between Feige and Marvel Television executives was apparently a bit dicey.

Hope remained that some of these TV characters might appear in the upcoming finale Avengers movies, but the likelihood seemed low. Doctor Strange‘s post-credits did nothing to tease those movies. One featured Thor, as already described, and the other teased Baron Mordo becoming a villain in a presumed Doctor Strange sequel.

Marvel was still rocking, and anticipation continued to climb for the MCU’s climax. Marvel announced some other shifting release schedules as the final pieces of Phase 3 were set in place and the MCU built towards its finale, including confirming that a second MCU Spider-Man movie would wrap up the Infinity Saga, as it was now called.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

While no characters from this movie are officially announced for Doomsday, it seems probable Strange will appear in some respect. There’s much more gas in the Strange tank, even with the sequel getting uneven reactions. As for non-Doctor Strange characters, Swinton’s Ancient One got a cameo in Endgame, but we think she’s done. McAdams and Stuhlbarg seem stretches as well. But the fairly unused Dormammu and Baron Mordo may have some possibility of a return, if in minor roles, as they’re well suited to the presumed multiversal nature of the Doomsday/Secret Wars stories.

Logan (2017)

As 2017 arrived, if box office and critical reception were any indication, reports of superhero fatigue were overblown. Superhero movies continued to rake in money and despite some bumps in the road, most were well-received. Yet superhero cinema continued to chase the critical prestige of The Dark Knight. Many wanted the genre to provide something truly game-changing. This era ends on a movie that arguably met that criteria, and it came from the studio that was often responsible for the worst instincts of the genre.

Fox began discussions on a third Wolverine movie back in November 2013 after being satisfied with James Mangold‘s work on The Wolverine. Mangold and producer Lauren Shuler Donner were onboard in concept, though Mangold did not want to do another movie just for the sake of it. Perhaps he remembered some of the conflict to get his vision out in The Wolverine. He publicly commented that he was discussing ideas with Hugh Jackman and that it was important for a hypothetical third movie to become even more character-centric, escaping from conventions of other comic-book movies.

Jackman for his part was open to doing another movie with Mangold and Donner, though he needed to renegotiate with Fox as his contract expired. There was no locked-in script or plans for Wolverine after The Wolverine, meaning time would be taken for deep discussions before scripting began. Jackman did comment he felt his time as Logan was nearing an end and wanted something more intimate if a third film went forward.

After months of discussion, Fox decided in March 2014 that it wanted to shoot Logan back-to-back with Apocalypse and officially re-signed Mangold and Jackman. Jackman publicly commented on the idea of finality for character and that he would only remain committed for a movie better than the last. Fox hired David James Kelly to write the screenplay, and the rest of 2014 was dedicated to writing.

More news emerged in 2015 as Patrick Stewart spoke of discussions he’d had about joining the movie to pair up with Wolverine. At this point, Michael Green took over as screenwriter with Mangold supervising. By late 2015, Jackman stated the script was about halfway done with a Fox executive commenting that the graphic novel Old Man Logan was serving as source material. As 2016 then arrived, the script was finalizing. Thus, came casting.

Early drafts of the screenplay featured the return of Sabretooth, with Liev Schreiber potentially reprising. But his character was eventually cut in favor of a villainous corporation, and Mangold cast Boyd Holbrook and Richard E. Grant as its muscle and mad scientist types. Stephen Merchant was also onboard as an alternate version of Caliban from Apocalypse.

Another key role in the Logan script was that of Laura/X-23. Mangold immediately latched onto to Dafne Keen based on her strong audition tape, but Fox insisted on looking at a multitude of choices including Millie Bobby Brown. Mangold’s choice won out after Stewart praised Keen’s tape and Keen read with Jackman.

In May 2016, producer Simon Kinberg announced filming was already underway and confirmed an R-rating. Perhaps Deadpool‘s success emboldened them to stay the course, allowing a grittier and more violent take on Wolverine to reach the big screen. Mangold talked about the difficulty of getting Fox to approve that rating, including having to cut the budget. Mangold and Jackman also commented that Logan would take place in a standalone timeline, distancing itself from an already convoluted Fox continuity, though Mangold felt it could conceivably take place after Days of Future Past if desired.

Large chunks of filming took place in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, taking advantage of some generous tax credits. They also shot in Mississippi and New Mexico, all ironic given that chunks of the movie take place en route to the Canadian border. Due to the smaller scale, the Logan shoot did not require quite as many locations or elaborate set pieces as other superhero movies, and shooting wrapped by August 2016. Mangold commented he took influence from a variety of films including Paper Moon, Unforgiven, The Wrestler, and the ever-looming Dark Knight trilogy. The shooting style sought to link the movie to noir, Germanic expressionism, and classic Hollywood, rather than just emulating comic-book frames.

There was largely just one visual-effects company involved in post-production, and editor Michael McCusker worked closely with Mangold during the editing process to hone the final cut of the movie. Longtime Mangold-collaborator Marco Beltrami composed the score, which went on to earn significant praise due to how different it was from most other superhero scores.

While initially denying that Logan would be his final film as Wolverine, by July 2015, Jackman confirmed he would hang the claws up after Logan. Crediting a conversation with Jerry Seinfeld for the decision, he felt he’d done all he needed to do with the character. Jackman’s last ride became a heavy part of the marketing for the movie, with the mature finality an overarching tonal choice.

Rumors did swirl in 2016 about teaming up with Deadpool, but Jackman shut them down, commenting he’d maybe reconsider if Wolverine could join the MCU. As the release of Logan neared in March 2017, other rumors spoke to Disney potentially acquiring Fox, which would enable such a crossover. But that’s for another time.

Regardless of what happened after Logan, anticipation for the movie itself was quite high, and it was rewarded upon release. Critics lauded the work, with many calling it a masterpiece. Praise was highlighted for the mature story and emotional depth, the more violent and uncompromising action scenes and a talented trio of performances at the center. Many were ready to call it the best X-Men movie and one of the best superhero movies of all-time. Jackman’s performance in particular was lauded, and some rated it the best performance in any superhero movie. With a 93% Rotten Tomatoes and 92 Flickscore, clearly Logan is beloved. It even received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a unique feat for comic-book movies.

The box office responded fairly similarly. While it didn’t quite replicate the unexpected R-rated success of Deadpool, it was just behind. Garnering $88.4 million in its opening weekend, it was the biggest debut of its trilogy, biggest R-rated March opening, and fifth-biggest in the X-Men franchise. The international opening was also fairly strong, and it did better than expected in China. It finished its run with $619.2 million against the $97 million budget. It wasn’t a mega-smash, but it signaled the power of the material. Numbers may also have been helped by a black-and-white rerelease, emphasizing the noirish aspects of the film.

Logan‘s release indeed seemed to signal superhero fatigue was overstated. Perhaps audiences merely were fatigued with bad superhero movies that rushed to release and didn’t put in the time for a great product. Even with 17 years of Jackman’s Wolverine, a new high point was possible. Superhero movies seemed to keep finding their next stage of evolution.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

We’ve said repeatedly that we expect Jackman’s Wolverine to return in one of these Avengers movies. Indeed, Jackman’s Wolverine had his MCU debut despite Jackman’s claims during Logan. As did Keen’s Laura, who got to reprise the role in Deadpool & Wolverine. We don’t think it likely she’ll make it into an Avengers movie, but she’s the only other one we think has any chance outside of the already-announced Xavier. The rest of the characters here are just a tad too obscure.

The mid-’10s certainly proved an interesting time for Marvel. The MCU continued to succeed and do well, but it was arguably outclassed by Fox. Despite some colossal failures, Fox proved with Deadpool and Logan that more adult superhero fare was possible while still achieving mainstream success. After notoriously ignoring comic authenticity, Fox turned to it and reached its highest heights. Perhaps it was Fox’s failures with Fantastic Four that finally emboldened them to take chances on Deadpool and Logan.

Then again, the MCU’s best films of this era came despite deviations from source material. Civil War wound up fairly different from its comic roots, as did Ant-Man. Perhaps it was more about the spirit of authenticity than panel-for-panel accuracy.

The arrival of multiple DCEU hardly seemed to flummox the Marvel machine. The DCEU’s movies did generally outpace at the box office, but there was no doubting the impact of their critical dismissal as a rush to catch up. The MCU’s cultural influence was spreading beyond the genre, as more proposed cinematic universes lurked.

Yet Feige and Marvel weren’t shaking off the sameness accusations, especially when something like Logan felt truly different. They did attempt to bring in more genres, yet even with newer corners to explore, it never felt like there was a chance for an MCU movie to reach a high level of prestige.

Thus, once again, the MCU turned to its clearest advantage. As Era Seven came, for the first time, there were five straight MCU releases, all from a single studio with a single overarching vision. With the pathway to Thanos’s arrival looming, it was time to see if this universe experiment could truly pay off.

Ranking Era Six

This was Fox’s finest era in many ways, despite featuring some of their worst work as well. The MCU also hit its stride, offering some excellent works and some more merely decent ones. This never would be considered the strongest era, but it certainly represented a superhero genre firmly settled into itself and over the 2000’s awkwardness, even if not always meaning quality.

#8: Fantastic Four (Flickscore 10)

Fantastic Four deservedly brings up the rear as not only the worst flick of this era but one of the worst superhero movies of all-time. Which is a shame given the potential Josh Trank brought to the picture. But studio interference had its worst possible effect with a quite literally unfinished third act ending the film. The start was promising with a down to earth body-horror tonality permeating and a talented cast providing a grounded take on the First Family.

Yet the script problems cascade the longer it goes on and it ultimately lacks in meaningful character work. As the incoherency of the storytelling grows, Fantastic Four becomes impossible to follow and reaches a level of nonsense usually reserved for no-budget cult classic bad movies. This version of Doom quite literally just sort of appears and does things with almost no context. Whether Trank’s original vision would have been good or not, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been better than big-budget studio released unfinished work.

#7: X-Men: Apocalypse (Flicksore 58)

Apocalypse apparently shares in the same unfinished third act issue as Fantastic Four. It’s a testament to the editing, writing, and directing talents that it’s more covered up than that of Fox’s other work. Still, Apocalypse clearly feels adrift by the end and is an underbaked work on the whole. It wastes talented performers like Issac and Munn on potentially good characters that are super underwritten and don’t feel past the first draft stage.

The film darts about from scene to scene with a silly plot that never gets room to breathe. It’s all a shame because there are many good elements: costumes that take influence from the MCU by being more comic accurate, new talented performers (outside a woefully flat Turner), and Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy still bringing it as Magneto and Charles Xavier. The scene where Magneto loses his family is heartbreakingly real. The film also brings a new Quicksilver scene set to “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” that tops the incredible Days of Future Past scene.

Yet, these positives makes the failures sting all the more. Singer apparently just rested on his laurels with this one and Apocalypse suffered as a result. There are no themes, no character development for anyone who isn’t Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence is clearly phoning it in as Mystique. Fox sadly repeated the cycle of ending a trilogy with a clunker. The ultimate irony of an article on Fox’s best Marvel movies era being held down by two of Fox’s worst is all too fitting as a metaphor for Fox’s Marvel run overall.

#6: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Flickscore 79)

Speaking of overstuffed and meandering, Age of Ultron is fittingly called the Iron Man 2 of the Avengers movies and Infinity Saga overall. It takes a solid self-contained story and weighs down a middle act with lots of set-up for other works and characters that causes the thing to sag. The second Avengers movie is still a fun time overall and far better than the two below it, but a flawed picture all the same.

Whedon embracing a more cinematic look is a welcome change with the opening action sequence a true highlight. The cohesiveness of the red color scheme throughout, from the new costumes, to the new arrivals of Scarlet Witch and Ultron, and other visual cues lends to that overall enhanced visual style. Spader’s Ultron is no Loki, but does stand out from many of the generic MCU villains. The actors also all feel more settled in their roles.

Yet, the script often calls for the heroes to be passive in their own film and repeats many of the beats of the first movie. While Tony and Steve arguing on a farm about the proper decisions to make is solid character work, it doesn’t work in tandem with the overall plot the way better scripts do. The Whedon quips also don’t feel as fresh, either in reference to his own work or the bevy of MCU films that had since copied his style. Luckily, Feige identified Whedon’s time had come and moved on from him after this one.

#5: Ant-Man (Flickscore 77)

We can’t keep the little guy too far down. While most wonder what a potentially better Edgar Wright version of this movie might have looked like, Peyton Reed still does an affable job of bringing perhaps the quirkiest original Avenger to life. Leaning into the heist genre was a wise move, even if it still mostly feels like a typical MCU flick.

Rudd has charisma for days, making up for many of the more typical beats of the movie. It’s not as weird as it could have been, but Reed and company still have fun playing with the shrinking concept and bizarreness of a hero controlling ants. Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily are the right blend of dry and sarcastic for the characters, even if it’s a shame for comic fans that the original Ant-Man is already retired.

It works as a decent palette cleanser after a big Avengers movie but it does feel inconsequential in a sense. The plot is simple, there are few themes, Scott’s character development is shallow and expected, and the fight with Falcon feels a tad shoehorned in, if fun on its own. Ant-Man is a joyous time overall with its Thomas the Tank Engine fight and the hilarious Michael Pena recap scenes and thus serves as a proper middle pack movie of this era. It’s not game-changing but nor does it offend.

#4: Doctor Strange (Flickscore 79)

In many respects, Doctor Strange too often feels like a rote origin story behind the times. By its release in 2016, superhero origin movies were played out and this plot is “been there, done that.” Compounding that is Stephen Strange being an arrogant smart-aleck genius in the mold of Tony Stark. Strange’s arc of learning to be more humble and open felt copied from Iron Man.

Yet where Doctor Strange does distinguish itself is in some thematic differences and a Jack Kirby-inspired visual approach to the magic. As the movie introducing the Time Stone, it uses the theme of time and its value throughout the runtime to great effect. One of the more profound scenes in the MCU is The Ancient One (a stern and snarky Tilda Swinton) describing her final moments of time and trying to convey the importance of what Strange has. That’s not to mention the clever time-loop that serves as the climax of the movie with Strange trapping the demonic entity Dormammu, instead of a battle against CGI minions.

Mads Mikkelsen is wasted on a bland villain but at least Cumberbatch is fun to watch. When the film lets the magic loose to ape Inception‘s visuals and Kirby art, it is a visual delight. Though magic is too often simplistic CGI weapons. This constant dichotomy of good and bad perfectly encapsulates why it is middle of the road.

#3: Deadpool (Flickscore 88)

In many ways, Deadpool is also an overdone origin story. The film manages to guise that around its constant flashback structure, but at its core, the story and ideas aren’t bringing anything all that new. Wade Wilson learns to move past being selfish and embrace being a hero.

Yet where Deadpool does distinguish itself is in its methodology. Letting Ryan Reynolds loose to embody the character, Deadpool is unadulterated chaos. The wise-cracking fourth wall breaking humor may not be for all, but for those who jive with it, it is a constant laugh fest. This allows the movie to stand out in a sea of superhero movies and be unique, as its box-office indicated. That it never feels censored or held back means it never cheapens what it is.

It helps that Reynolds and Morena Baccarin have plenty of chemistry, important for the romantic heart at the center. While Deadpool suffers from the bland villain problem plaguing many of Marvel’s movies, the comically innocent take on Colossus helps make up for that. There’s just enough dry snark and self-depreciation to make Deadpool a good time without ever feeling too proud of itself.

#2: Captain America: Civil War (Flickscore 90)

The conclusion of Steve Rogers’s trilogy may not always feel like a Cap movie but it is still an excellent piece of superhero cinema. While a very different beast from the comic arc it takes inspiration from, it feels like one of the MCU’s most-lived in entries in that it brings together so many elements of the MCU at that point and delivers a natural story dealing with the consequences of prior movies. It also brought an ethical debate that fans on the internet still debate to this day.

The entire ensemble is strong, including the notable debuts of Tom Holland and Chadwick Boseman. Though it is Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr that shine the brightest as always, butting against each other naturally, calling back to prior conflicts between them, and ending in a heart-breaking manner. The Russos continue to be some of the best at superhero action, even if this lacks the grounded thrills of The Winter Soldier. The airport battle remains a signature MCU battle scene, and Iron Man versus Cap and Bucky still thrills and saddens.

Some complain Bruhl’s Zemo is a lamer villain, but this reviewer thinks he serves his role quite well. His plan can be a tad convoluted but he’s one of the few Marvel villains that truly succeeded and did so without throwing any punches. Civil War is one of the peak MCU films in showing how the interconnected universe can shine brightest.

#1: Logan (Flickscore 92)

Some may overstate the greatness of Logan according to this reviewer. It really is just a less well-written version of Shane, which James Mangold isn’t hiding from. The plot does sag a bit in the middle and it can feel a little precious about itself.

This is where the negativity ends though. There’s a reason Logan is so praised and it starts with Hugh Jackman. Knowing he was giving what he thought would be his final performance as the Wolverine, he leaves it all on the table. The grit, jaded cynicism, and animalistic warrior coming to the end of his life are all conveyed by Jackman in one of his career best performances. It feels like Jackman finally was allowed to bring his all to the character after struggling to do so for almost twenty years. Patrick Stewart’s Xavier serves as an excellent mirror and foil as well.

The heroic themes of sacrifice, legacy, escaping a violent past, and being honorable that work so well in Shane fit naturally within the framework of a superhero movie. Jackman’s natural chemistry with the young Daphne Keen as she plays X-23, a cloned daughter, form one of those great Lone Wolf and Cub relationships that work so well in cinema. Mangold never cheaps out with dumb comic-book action, and uses his R-rating to deliver the brutal Wolverine many had been waiting for. Logan remains a shining example of what superhero movies can be when they take themselves seriously in all the right ways and remains to many one of Marvel’s best responses to The Dark Knight.

Marvel Chart

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
3. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
4. The Avengers (2012)
5. Logan (2017)
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
7. Iron Man (2008)
8. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
9. X2: X-Men United (2003)
10. X-Men: First Class (2011)
11. Iron Man 3 (2013)
12. Big Hero 6 (2014)
13. Deadpool (2016)
14. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
15. Spider-Man (2002)
16. Doctor Strange (2016)
17. Ant-Man (2015)
18. X-Men (2000)
19. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
20. Thor (2011)
21. The Wolverine (2013)
22. Blade (1998)
23. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
24. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
25. Iron Man 2 (2010)
26. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
27. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
28. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
29. The Punisher (2004)
30. Hulk (2003)
31. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
32. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
33. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
34. Blade II (2002)
35. Daredevil (2003)
36. Blade: Trinity (2004)
37. Fantastic Four (1994)
38. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
39. Fantastic Four (2005)
40. The Punisher (1989)
41. Ghost Rider (2007)
42. Howard the Duck (1986)
43. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
44. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
45. Captain America (1990)
46. Elektra (2005)
47. Fantastic Four (2015)

It is no secret the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had an uneven trajectory in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. Many felt the entire enterprise should have ended there, but that was never a realistic option. There are far too many characters and stories left to adapt and presumed profits to be made. Marvel discovered, though, that a deluge of content lowered the overall quality of many of its works and reduced profits.

One of the few major Marvel blockbusters post-Endgame was the last Spider-Man movie, No Way Home. Spider-Man has always been his own ecosphere, and as we’ve detailed in our Countdown to Doomsday series, he was Marvel’s only surefire success prior to the MCU taking off. Thus he avoided the malaise plaguing other MCU flicks and continued his critical and commercial success.

No Way Home was tied to nostalgia, leaning on the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as well as a multitude of prior villains. It also concluded Tom Holland’s first trilogy. Brand New Day appeared to be free of any such tie-ins, and with a new director to boot. Could such a movie stand on its own, or would Spider-Man also succumb to the MCU funk?

If the box office has been any indication, Spidey is still more than safe. Brand New Day had the highest opening weekend in MCU history. As for the quality of the film, we can say the success is earned, mostly.

Brand New Day brings many welcome qualities to Holland’s iteration of the character. Director Destin Daniel Cretton provides a new, grounded visual style and a more refined focus on the action. While the prior trilogy had plenty of merits, one would never accuse director Jon Watts of leaving a unique visual imprint. But Brand New Day’s more practical approach provides a depth to each frame and a New York that feels far more lived-in than in any of the prior MCU Spidey movies.

The script also keeps focus on Peter Parker and his personal struggles. Stripped away from much of the other MCU shenanigans, the film instead centers on Peter’s growing isolation after losing all family, friends, and connections as a result of No Way Home’s events. This works as a nice parallel to the movie’s mysterious villain, someone dealing with isolation as well.

The action is also creative in ways we haven’t seen. Drawing from Insomniac’s recent Spider-Man video games, there is a tactile nature to the fight choreography that’s been lacking, and the climatic fight scene between Spidey and the Hand showcases why Marvel keeps rehiring Cretton. MCU Spidey has needed a more specific direction in his battles, and this film brings it.

While Brand New Day lives up to its title, it still has plenty of flaws. By nature of keeping a mystery antagonist for over half the film, the script struggles to characterize its villain in a truly empathetic way and fails to make up for the lost ground, despite a strong Sadie Sink performance. Likewise, the movie pushes Sink’s character in far too dark directions without truly wrestling with the consequences of what she does. As excellent as the cathartic emotional climax is, it feels somewhat unearned as a result.

The plot also juggles too many threads. One thread is Peter’s sudden mutation and the development of new powers. But because of everything else the movie tackles, the film is forced to cordon this strand for large chunks of runtime, making it feel underdeveloped at times.

The MCU connections are more plentiful than usual in the sense that it feels like Marvel is trying to rectify how disconnected each property has felt from each other in recent years. The movie features Spidey fighting Hulk, consulting with Florence Pugh’s Black Widow, and teaming up with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher (a comedic highlight of the film). Yet, these connections still lack the context that the early MCU had, ultimately still falling short of the potential a connected universe ought to have. The events of the movie feel completely outside of anything happening in the recent NYC-set Daredevil: Born Again, or the Punisher special.

The film also feels like it struggles with how to use returning characters like Zendaya’s MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned. Scenes of Peter with them carry some emotional weight, and particular moments between Holland and Zendaya feature some of the movie’s best acting. But the movie feels uncommitted by the end about whether its message is that Peter needs to move on or that he should get to reconnect.

Brand New Day is a strong movie overall and promises a new take on MCU Spidey that is more focused on him being a hero in New York torn between his work and personal needs, and the other elements that have connected people to the character through 60+ years of publishing history. Much of what the movie does is welcome. One wishes the script cleaned up its various problems, as Brand New Day had the potential to be one of the best Spidey films ever made, instead of merely a good one.

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What is a good adaptation? By dictionary definition, adaptation means the process of changing and adjusting to better suit a new environment, condition, or purpose. Beginning as a scientific term popularized by Charles Darwin, it became applied to artistic endeavors in the 1860s as old plays were adapted for modern audiences of the time. Of course, this was far from the first instance of adaptation, as humans have arguably been creating adaptations since oral storytelling began thousands of years ago. Changing for a new audience is inherently part of oral storytelling.

Indeed, any English version of The Odyssey is inherently an adaptation. The text attributed to Homer is written in Homeric Greek and thus must be translated into English. Some may object that translation and adaptation are two different things, but by switching languages, one is inherently changing the source for a new environment or purpose. There are some things that simply cannot be said the same way.

Furthermore, the fact that Odysseus’s long journey home was written down at all is adaptation; although it was composed around the 8th century BC, it was transcribed from an oral tradition likely developed over several centuries in ancient Greece. And even after being written down, it seems performance was a crucial part of the storytelling. Changes in every telling were inevitable and perhaps expected. Historians have noted that the poem was often performed in the homes of important families during banquets. The story even ends at one such banquet.

Centuries later, The Odyssey continues to be adapted and thus changed and tweaked. English translations have squabbled about whether a literal word-for-word translation is more honest than one which attempts to take what is poetic in Homeric Greek and make it poetic in English.

Translations have condensed the story to make it more consumable in short sittings. Staged and filmed versions have altered the story in ways both subtle and drastic. Indeed, arguably the most famous film version before now was the Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou? which changes the setting to the 1930s American South, among many other differences.

All of this is to say is that change is as inescapable as the tragic fates of Greek heroes. The question is whether changes work for the “new environment, condition, or purpose.” When one of the most high-profile and renowned filmmakers working today, like Christopher Nolan, directs the adaptation, the stakes are only heightened for these questions.

From the opening minutes, one can’t help but question whether this adaptation has the right answers. Within ten minutes, The Odyssey makes clear it is speaking to a 2026 American and broader western audience. The cast all speak with varying American accents, some of which are notably regional and decidedly not Greek. Audiences are treated to a diverse range of skin tones, though all share in the lack of Greek blood. As this does not have the excuse of completely transforming the setting, as the Coen Brothers did, the effect is initially quite jarring.

But then one settles into the vision Nolan always brings to his films, as he adapts this very old story for a new environment and seeks to tell the tale of a tragic man seeking redemption for the destruction he helped wrought. It is a story Nolan knows how to tell, reminding one of the wayward heroes seeking home in Interstellar, Inception, and Dunkirk. Batman is the same to some extent, as is J. Robert Oppenheimer, the subject of Nolan’s last work.

The Odyssey is no Oppenheimer. Nolan’s masterwork was a coup de grace of breathtaking editing, sound design, acting, and had one of his more deeply insightful scripts. While Nolan plunders many depths in The Odyssey, it has some rather lethargic stretches in its first two acts. Relying on Nolan’s oft-used method of telling tales as remembrances, this adaptation positions the narrative as Odysseus recounting his past to Calypso as he tries to remember who he is.

This is one of many changes from Homer’s work. Events and characters are condensed, reordered, or changed to suit Nolan’s vision of the tale. Odysseus does not trick the cyclops by calling himself Nobody, the gods are almost entirely absent (if not deliberately completely absent), and a new ending is written.

But despite its weighty, overdrawn structure at times, Nolan’s adaptation still sings true in so many ways. Accents aside, the talented performers here each suit their roles well, with Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland getting the most time to shine. Some performers get shockingly little screentime. Indeed, Benny Safdie‘s turn as Agamemnon is much more dependent on filmmaking than acting to emphasize his aura. Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya are hardly in the film, despite all the offscreen controversy.

It is in filmmaking where Nolan’s work really shines. Filmed entirely on IMAX cameras, regardless of accuracy or authenticity to the imagined Greek settings, The Odyssey‘s set design and costuming are immaculate and rich, serving up visual feast in frame after frame.

The design of some of the story’s most famed sequences is unique and powerful. The cyclops is truly terrifying and otherworldly, the Sirens sequence haunting and unexpectedly saddening, and the depiction of the siege of Troy striking as a marvel of sound and tension. It’s the big-screen cinematic experience that we’ve come to expect from Nolan.

Apart from the imperfections of the first two acts, Nolan brings it home (fittingly) in the amazing third act. Many of Nolan’s choices are unexpected and do indeed create new life and vision for the story. He draws out parts of the tale rarely emphasized in prior adaptations for an effective emotional catharsis.

Despite his reputation as a cold, cerebral filmmaker, Nolan’s entire career has shown a distinct humanism, and The Odyssey taps into that idea constantly. Nolan even seems to respond to the idea with a repeated line from Odysseus about not understanding how gods speak and Athena replying: “Who doesn’t understand thunder? Fire? A child’s smile?” Nolan understands these things well, and the third act is centered on the tragedy of loss in a multitude of ways. There is the joy of being reunited with loved ones, and the pain of facing one’s past and having hope for the future. Throw in some excellent sound design and editing, and The Odyssey occasionally reaches some transcendent places.

While the pacing could have been tightened and Nolan might have wrestled with the questions of authenticity of setting in slightly different ways, The Odyssey still proudly stands as one of the best film adaptations of the poem to date. It is adjusted to a new purpose and asks a modern, globalized, 2026 world to see itself in an Ancient Greek story. It is adventurous and grandiose and tragic and messy and uneven. In that way, it is very Greek.

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The Toy Story franchise is one that has kept defying the odds. Traditional wisdom holds sequels are rarely better than their originators. After all, topping the concept that started it all while still feeling like a follow-up to the story is a tight rope to walk. Yet Toy Story 2 and 3 both found new things to say in the world of talking toys, with 3 being a perfect cathartic capstone to a decade and a half of storytelling.

Then, nine years later, 4 came. While derided by some as disrupting the perfect ending of 3, 4 did receive critical acclaim. Finding one last thing to say, it sent Woody’s character off into the sunset a second time and seemingly officially retired the cowboy.

Yet, Disney could not let sleeping dogs lie and thus arrives Toy Story 5. With many already feeling like 4 was a stretch, there is a natural antsyness with 5. How many more endings can Woody have?

Toy Story 5 sidesteps that problem by not feeling like an ending and deciding to not have as grandiose of a story. In fact, Woody and Buzz feel included mostly out of obligation and a better script likely would have jettisoned Woody entirely, as he has no impact on the story. Instead, Jesse headlines as the main character in a repeat of some of her Toy Story 2 beats while also throwing in the modern problem of kids playing more with electronics than traditional toys.

It’s a decent idea and likely the only truly impactful way of saying something new in this universe in 2026. Because it is Pixar, and because it is Andrew Stanton writing and directing, even a more average day for them is still decent. But Toy Story 5 is undoubtedly the weakest entry in the franchise so far.

The script certainly feels like it jammed together those two aforementioned story ideas, part of why 5 suffers overall. The nature of an iPad generation of kids is certainly something worth exploring in a family movie and a deep dive into how parents and their progeny wrestle with finding balance in a world where the screen babysitter is so tempting would have been interesting. Unfortunately, 5 stops short of actually saying anything about that concept and leaves the questions as surface level as the screens that serve as the movie’s antagonist.

Instead, the film spends much of its time with Jesse off at another house wondering if she has any worth left. While lip service is paid to the electronic concept with Jesse conflicting with some older electronic toys, that too is more window dressing than substance. Conan O’Brien provides a hilarious performance as a potty training toy, but Jesse’s disagreements with them seem more a parallel to racial prejudice than themes of electronic ingress.

There are certainly decently emotional beats to mine from Jesse trying to find her way back to Bonnie and form a real friendship for her. At its core, Toy Story 5 continues the ideas of meaningful connections being important in solid ways. Jesse’s emotional catharsis at the end does stir the heart.

But none of it feels truly new anymore. We’ve seen those ideas before and they are well-trodden ground in this franchise. Without anything unique to say, 5 often feels an exercise in redundancy despite what works. When in consideration with the clunky script beats, including a subplot involving a small army of Buzz Lightyears that serve no other purpose than to be literal plot devices, 5 finally feels like the first cheap, overdone sequel.

To be clear, Toy Story 5 is a solid movie. The animation continues to dazzle, there is plenty of humor, and there is something comforting in the well-seasoned vocal performances from Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks, and Tim Allen. One can appreciate that it at least tries to touch on what “play” means to kids today. But in the end, 5 makes Toy Story feel played out.

Tell us your thoughts on Toy Story 5 and rank it on Flickchart now!!!

We hope you’re still with us after that last behemoth of an article, because here’s another one! The Countdown to Doomsday series continues as we chronicle every era of Marvel cinema, revisiting each piece of the cinematic picture and how they contribute to the coming multiverse throw-down.

The gamble of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) paid off big-time with The Avengers, proving that a connected multi-franchise narrative was not only workable, but something audiences were hungry for. Comics fans finally obtained a taste of the storytelling they enjoyed on the page, while wider audiences digested longer-form narratives typical to prestige television, yet with far bigger budgets and spectacle.

Still, The Dark Knight‘s shadow loomed as the only superhero film with a Big 4 Oscar, and its trilogy capper was coming in summer 2012. Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios wondered if they could prove the MCU was more than a gimmick or just one type of movie. They had Disney money now, but big budgets didn’t guarantee high quality.

And as the MCU prepared to stretch its wings, Sony and Fox kept competing, wanting to keep their franchises relevant. Plus, outside of Marvel, Warner Bros. chased the MCU’s dollar signs and prepared its DC properties for their own universe, since Christopher Nolan firmly shut down the possibility of continuing after his third Batman film.

Thus, the 2010s were primed to be the most competitive era of superhero cinema yet.

Era Five: Spidey vs X-Men vs MCU

We define Marvel’s fifth era as the two-year period between mid-2012 to the end of 2014. In these two years, nine Marvel movies released, and they signalled a new type of superhero storytelling in the wake of The Avengers.

On the MCU side, Phase Two began. The MCU started with no specific plans aside from building to The Avengers, but now Feige and other executives were enthused by Joss Whedon‘s Thanos tease. With box-office grosses and audience reaction supporting them, their priority became penning out the rest of the MCU’s path. They could afford to be bold.

While they’d already written the conclusion of Iron Man’s trilogy, Marvel became more deliberate about building towards a specific story with the rest of their films in development: a story that culminated in something even grander than The Avengers. During Thor: The Dark World‘s production, Marvel Studios finalized its grand vision and retrofitted their planned films, including many sequels and a few for new heroes, to match this scheme. By 2014’s end, the MCU’s story was in a much different place.

Luckily for these plans, box-office success continued for the MCU in this era, signaling that the MCU brand itself now drove audiences. Observers coined this phenomenon “The Avengers boost,” and it seemed to bolster each subsequent movie’s profits. This was likely what Disney envisioned when it bought the company. Despite these grand schemes and Feige maintaining oversight to create a house style, he also started pushing filmmakers to bring other genres into MCU movies. He wanted the universe’s tapestry to be something more than just one formula. Marvel’s success at doing so was debated in this era and in the years to come.

Disney’s animation wing delivered another Marvel adaptation. While disconnected from the MCU, the historic Disney Animation Studios making a Marvel movie was corporate synergy at work, and successful corporate synergy if profits are any indicator.

Meanwhile, Sony and Fox were determined to cash in on the somehow still-growing superhero box office. Sony outright rebooted its franchise into something seemingly more modern, while surprisingly working closely with Marvel Studios despite ongoing tensions. In what would define Sony’s haphazard approach to its IP, it rushed things to try to keep up and once again damaged its Spider-Man franchise, resulting in Sony halting further individual Spidey films. Feige was ever eager to bring Spider-Man into the MCU’s fold, and as this era ended, Sony finally conceded (for now) that the MCU was better.

Fox also wanted their own event film, wisely cashing in on nostalgia that now existed for their original trilogy and the enthusiasm over X-Men: First Class to adapt one of the more notable X-Men stories. That the story involved time travel — conveniently allowing Fox to make their soft reboot in-universe and priming the next era of X-Men movies — didn’t hurt either. Unlike Sony, Fox seemed to learn from their mistakes and set up a brighter future, though that sadly (for some fans) kept the X-Men out of the MCU.

If 2014 was any indication, Marvel was more successful than not, launching one of its most obscure properties into a summer hit. The brand now seemed unstoppable. And did they just say Infinity Stones? Ohhh snap!

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Sandwiched between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises in summer 2012 was Sony’s Spider-Man reboot. As we chronicled back in Era 3, Spider-Man 3 brought an end to Sam Raimi‘s time on Spider-Man films and superhero movies for over a decade. Rather than hire someone else to direct Raimi’s fourth film (and because Avi Arad, working with Sony since his Marvel departure, apparently thought all the script drafts were terrible), Sony opted to reboot the franchise. Some might say it was a tad early for a reboot, but the legalities of film rights aren’t conducive for artistic integrity. Sony was required to make a movie within so many years or lose the rights.

Plus, to be fair, Spider-Man 3 wasn’t well-received. Perhaps Sony wanted to wash out the bad taste. Despite Raimi’s departure, most of the producers remained and were keen to focus on a younger Peter Parker again. As Matt Tolmach ascended to Columbia Pictures president, he worked alongside Amy Pascal, now co-chairman of Sony Pictures (Columbia’s owner), to find a new director. Pascal was involved with the earlier films when she was lower down the corporate ladder, and she saw herself leading the charge of bringing Spider-Man into a new era and making her own stamp on the franchise.

They considered big names like David Fincher (often considered for superhero movies by this point) and Kathryn Bigelow, yet ultimately settled on Marc Webb, who’d recently debuted with the romantic film (500) Days of Summer. Perhaps they liked his voice for youthful characters, or perhaps he would be easier to control than a more experienced director. Maybe it was just his last name.

Regardless, Webb expressed enthusiasm upon being hired. Though he was a fan of Raimi’s movies, Webb hoped to do something different that stood out in the canon. The writing process began with screenwriters Alvin Sargent and James Vanderbilt taking one of their unmade Spider-Man 4 drafts and reworking it into a reboot. Later, Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves and Paul Feig of all people provided further rewrites and contributions.

With a director and story set, next came recasting Spidey. The search dominated the first half of 2010, with Sony considering a broad span of actors for this important character. Some notable highlights included Drake Bell, Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Hutcherson, Joe Jonas, and Logan Lerman. Finally in July 2010, as Iron Man 2 finished its theatrical run, Sony announced Andrew Garfield.

Webb was impressed with Garfield’s humor, physicality, and emotional heft as an actor. While Garfield was little known at the time of casting, the fall release of The Social Network certainly changed that and created anticipation for Garfield’s portrayal. Garfield flung himself into preparation, practicing yoga and Pilates to increase his flexibility and later publicly commented on how demanding his training was. A true Spider-Man fan, Garfield admitted he shed a tear when he wore the suit for the first time, skintight as it was.

The rest of the cast fell into place throughout the remainder of 2010. Gwen Stacy took over as the main love interest, with the studio considering Imogen Poots, Lily Collins, and Mia Wasikowska among others. Yet Emma Stone won the part following Garfield’s casting, thanks to their strong chemistry during screen testing. The pair dated for a time after working together on the films. Despite considering Michael Fassbender, whose reputation grew during filming of X-Men: First Class, Sony ultimately cast Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors/The Lizard, allowing that character to finally become a main villain after teases in the Raimi trilogy.

Sally Field, meanwhile, took the role of Aunt May as a favor to ailing producer friend Laura Ziskin, who sadly passed before the film’s release. In an homage to Raimi, Webb included a cameo from Michael Papajohn, who played the burglar in Spider-Man. Stan Lee also provided his standard cameo. In a fun bit of future looking back, a very young Skyler Gisondo appears as one of Gwen’s younger brothers. He went on to star in 2025’s Superman.

Filming began by December 2010, with Webb eager to do something different than Raimi had done. In the trend of comic accuracy, he decided to have Peter build artificial web shooters, like in the comics. Conversely, and perhaps influenced by The Dark Knight, the team designed a lither and darker Spider-Man outfit than what usually exists in the comics.

Webb also sought to do more action scenes practically, using stunt performers rather than relying on CGI as Raimi’s movies often did. To that end, Garfield and Ifans performed many of their own stunts, with Ifans insisting on wearing the motion-capture suit for the reptilian form of his character. On the even more technical side, as part of the 3D-wave, the film shot in 3D at 5k resolution using RED Epic cameras. While the MCU was converting to 3D in post, Webb committed to the trend and shot in 3D to enhance the effect. This might have delayed the design of Oscorp Tower enough that it could not make it into The Avengers, as we previously detailed.

The film prepared for its summer 2012 release with an ambitious viral marketing campaign. Sony projected the Spider-Man logo on famous world sites such as the Kremlin, Sydney Opera House, and Colosseum, and created websites for The Daily Bugle and Oscorp. It also created a scavenger hunt, placing props in hidden locations that fans could find — perhaps another aspect of the movie The Dark Knight influenced.

July 2012 arrived with Sony likely privately despairing that they didn’t get to include a direct connection to The Avengers. With the MCU’s crown jewel still raking in money, Sony wondered if this reboot could compete.

Early signs were encouraging, as The Amazing Spider-Man set a Tuesday-record $35 million on opening day before the July 4 holiday. But as the holiday weekend came to a close, it finished at $137 million, far smaller than Spider-Man 2‘s similar Independence Day weekend release. The Amazing Spider-Man still managed an overall strong run, playing well overseas with the Chinese box office especially buoyant, and it finished worldwide with $757.9 million, managing 7th at the 2012 box-office. It did much less well than The Avengers, but it did better than any other MCU film that year.

Critical response was equally mid-tier. Many were positive overall and felt it improved on aspects of 2002’s Spider-Man. Garfield and Stone’s performances received almost universal praise. But even positive reviews admitted it often felt a retread of familiar story elements. Harsher critics derided it, finding The Amazing Spider-Man was “dumbed down” compared to the Raimi trilogy and overly focused on appealing to modern, moodier trends. Almost all critics criticized the Lizard as the main villain and the cartoonish motivation driving the plot. The movie’s Flickscore is currently 69.

Roger Ebert liked it. Sadly, it proved to be his final review of a Marvel-adjacent property, as he died from complications of cancer in 2013.

While not an unequivocal success, Sony was pleased enough to continue with the rebooted series. A script for a sequel was already in the works, and Sony ambitiously started planning further sequels and even spin-off movies. Perhaps envisioning a universe to rival the MCU, the movie even plugged a post-credit scene. It was a hilariously vague one, merely featuring a shadowy figure talking to Curt Connors in a jail cell with no solid references or plans. Sony wasn’t about to dethrone Marvel Studios, but they were prepared to keep competing and maintain their own slice of the Marvel box office pie.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As a later part of the article will describe, this iteration did eventually fail, leading Sony to give up on its own Spider-Man movies. All the same, Garfield eventually successfully returned to the tights in Spider-Man: No Way Home. We’ll talk more about that eventually, but there is some chance the Garfield iteration will appear in Doomsday given how well received his return was in No Way Home. Rhys Ifans also returned in that movie, at least in CGI, but we think that’s the end of the line for him. We’ll save our comments on the rest of the cast.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

With the relative success of The Amazing Spider-Man, fans eager to see Spidey in the MCU were likely displeased. Small movements towards comic-accuracy, like the inclusion of web-shooters, pleased some, but Sony still hadn’t knocked it out of the park. Because Spidey is an anchor Marvel character, fans certainly felt his absence in the MCU, but Marvel had to move on without him. (Feige was likely already scheming on a way to get him involved.)

The latter part of July brought the conclusion to Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. While it was a massive box-office success, grossing over $1 billion, it failed to surpass The Avengers. Plus, critical reception was more mixed, with some feeling Nolan dropped the ball. It was still overall well-received, but certainly it was not the genre-changer that its predecessor was. Four years later, Marvel controlled the box office and cultural zeitgeist, and there was no better way to follow-up on The Avengers than with the conclusion of Marvel’s own most lucrative trilogy: Iron Man.

Of course, given the lengthy nature of blockbuster filmmaking, preproduction on Iron Man 3 began before The Avengers released. As previously hinted at, disagreements on distribution between Paramount and Disney led Disney to buy Iron Man 3‘s distribution rights in 2010, ending Paramount’s run with Marvel and setting up the trilogy-capper as the first film to be funded independently of the Merrill-Lynch loan that started it all.

Iron Man 3 was also the first film of the newly-dubbed Phase Two. Feige announced this at the 2012 San Diego ComicCon, along with the entire line-up of Phase Two, and he confirmed that Thanos would not be the next Avengers villain but that the MCU would build up to him. This Phase expanded the universe and would accidentally be defined by every movie featuring someone losing a hand or arm. Throughout 2012, Feige made further moves, including locking Joss Whedon to an exclusive contract wherein he would write and direct the Avengers sequel, oversee all Phase Two movies alongside Feige, and help develop the first MCU TV series.

All of this cemented the transition away from Jon Favreau. Despite being the pioneering MCU directorial voice, Favreau moved on after Iron Man 2, seeking instead to direct non-Marvel projects such as the failed Magic Kingdom movie and Chef. Favreau did remain as a producer and as Happy Hogan, Stark’s former bodyguard, who in a nice piece of meta-storytelling became even more redundant.

Yet with Favreau unwilling to finish his trilogy, Marvel needed to find a new voice. Once again Robert Downey Jr. used his star power and pushed for Shane Black to write and direct. Black had already contributed story suggestions to Iron Man 2, and Downey felt gratitude to Black for casting him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang when most of Hollywood wouldn’t touch him. Downey said Black was the only person to carry out the transition from Favreau.

Marvel locked Black in by February 2011, also hiring Drew Pearce to cowrite, moving him from the abandoned Runaway movie they’d originally hired him to write. Black was hesitant to work with Pearce, since he was used to working with writing partners of his own choosing, but meetings with Pearce assuaged his concerns. The pair desired to avoid the trope of two iron suits fighting each other, and they left out magic and space elements more suitable to Avengers adventures.

They were primarily influenced by the “Extremis” story arc, though they sprinkled in other comics references such as the Iron Patriot armor. The initial primary villain was Maya Hansen. Subsequent drafting led to inclusion of Aldrich Killian and the Mandarin, Iron Man’s arch-nemesis that had been teased earlier. It was Pearce who developed the controversial decision to make Mandarin a fake terrorist. While comics fans later criticized the film for this twist reveal, Black found it inspiring and realistic, as a terrorist wouldn’t be so open and obvious about who they were, and the villain’s grandiose nature in the comics made for a fitting disguise.

Even with the Mandarin reveal, Black and Pearce still wanted Hansen as the primary antagonist. Marvel Entertainment executives (likely Ike Perlmutter) shut this down, believing a woman as the main villain would lead to reduced toys sales. Black is on record that Feige had no part in this, but he lacked the power to stand up to the execs at the time. Thus, Black and Pearce were forced to rewrite Hansen and include Killian. They also set the film at Christmas, which is somewhat of a staple for Black’s works.

While Black and Pearce finalized a shooting script, story rewrites continued throughout production, leading to a logistically-frustrating shoot at times, seemingly a running theme with the Iron Man films. With studio space secured in North Carolina, casting began for the new characters. Anthony Mackie auditioned for the role of Mandarin but lost the part to Ben Kingsley, though both would have MCU futures to come (just barely in Kingsley’s case, as early drafts had his character dying). Marvel considered Chinese actors for Harley Keener, a young boy essential to the movie’s plot, as part of an overall push to make the film more appealing to the Chinese film market. A Chinese company agreed to co-finance production, which led to the inclusion of several Chinese film stars including Wang Xueqi. Alternate cuts of Iron Man 3 feature more scenes of the Chinese performers.

But they didn’t cast a Chinese actor for Keener, as Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito stated they didn’t want to ape Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom‘s dynamic. Marvel brought in Guy Pearce for Killian while casting Rebecca Hall for Hansen after Jessica Chastain bowed out. Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame also initially played a role before her character was written out. She too would eventually join the MCU.

Black and the production team sought to do action scenes practically when possible in the effects-heavy picture. One of the film’s more notable sequences of Iron Man catching passengers falling from the sky was filmed with actual skydivers, for instance. Reshoots, an increasingly habitual practice for Marvel and blockbusters by 2013, captured more material with the Mandarin. Despite the push for practicality, Iron Man 3 still featured over 2000 effects shots with 17 effects companies working on them. As Stark advanced his suits in the story, it unfortunately became increasingly impractical to have practical designs for them.

Marvel first began marketing the movie in July 2012, shortly after The Avengers released, at none other than San Diego ComicCon. With a panel discussing the film and displaying Iron Man’s prior armors, it became clear Iron Man 3 would have the most suits yet. Marvel also utilized a massive array of product placement, utilizing the Disney theme parks for the first time, part of the company’s growing synergy with the Marvel brand. Marvel Studios officially moved its executive offices into Disney Studios in April 2013, as Marvel continued to fold into the Disney umbrella. Meanwhile, Feige confirmed in January 2013 that Ant-Man would no longer be the first film of Phase Three, but instead would cap off Phase Two.

Iron Man 3‘s wide release came in May 2013. While this was already the most successful MCU sub-franchise, The Avengers boost was palpable. It made $68.9 million on its opening day and finished the weekend with $372.5 million, the second-highest opening weekend of all-time at that point, behind only The Avengers. It sustained an immense box-office run, surpassing $1 billion after twenty-three days, and finished at $1.266 billion, more than Iron Man and Iron Man 2 combined.

The critical response was a bit mixed, or rather, dichotomous. Some felt it was the best entry in the trilogy, maturely wrestling with Tony Stark’s PTSD following The Avengers and finding interesting things to do with his character in what felt like a wrap for the trilogy. Critics especially praised Downey’s dynamic with Keener. Flickchart users give it an aggregate Flickscore of 75, placing it slightly above Iron Man 2 but far below Iron Man.

Some were less friendly though, feeling it lacked dramatic weight and was too formulaic. Even harsher were many comic fans. In the first big blow to MCU’s claims of source authenticity, a section of fans ripped apart the movie’s Mandarin twist, leading many to this day to consider it one of the worst MCU movies. The backlash was immediate and palpable, much to Black’s shock, as he didn’t think the character was that sacred. As a result, Marvel eventually partially retconned the twist.

Despite this controversy, many remained excited about the MCU overall. With massive profit on a trilogy closer, Marvel and Disney saw the financial potential swelling. Not only could they tell an interconnected narrative, they had an interconnected media system bolstering the profits of each entry.

That said, Iron Man 3 ended Downey’s initial MCU contract. At this time, his MCU future was unclear despite the Avengers sequel coming and plenty of money to be made. Downey vacillated on his returning or if there would be a fourth Iron Man film. In fact, this remains the last solo Iron Man movie, as all subsequent Stark appearances were in team-up movies or as cameos. The one that started it all had his own trilogy come to an end, but while it felt like a conclusion in many ways, the MCU’s nature allowed Stark’s character arc to continue.

The post-credits scene gave no hints as to where the MCU was going. Instead, the scene humorously revealed that Stark’s narration throughout the movie was to a sleeping Bruce Banner. While a funny sting cameo for Mark Ruffalo, it added nothing to the narrative. The MCU went the comedic route on many future post-credit scenes, triggering another debate on whether this was a good thing.

On a final note, Iron Man 3‘s home release featured another One-Shot, Agent Carter. Directed by Marvel executive Louis D’Esposito, it featured the return of Hayley Atwell‘s Peggy Carter, a character with a long MCU future to come. This short was quite popular due to Atwell’s endearing performance, and it eventually led to another MCU TV series. More on that later.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

We’ve spoken plenty on Downey’s return in Doomsday. As it happened, Kingsley also reprised his role in several subsequent Marvel projects, including recently in Wonder Man, a surprising longevity for a Marvel semi-villain character. As for anything else, Stark’s surgery and use of Extremis altered his MCU story arc moving forward, but it seems unlikely to matter for Doom’s backstory.

The Wolverine (2013)

While 2013 is host to another MCU and its first TV show, the summer season was dominated by competition both inside and outside Marvel. After passing on many Marvel projects, Zack Snyder finally made his major superhero stamp with Man of Steel in June 2013, launching the competing DCEU. Christopher Nolan may have been finished directing superhero projects, but he was happy to shepherd his friends’ material, with his signature “darker” grounded style serving as a reference point. Though critical reviews were mixed, and the box-office not quite as spectacular as the last two MCU outings, it served as a rallying point for those dissatisfied with the seemingly formulaic and light MCU.

Fox, meanwhile, continued onward with its X-Men franchise. After First Class‘s success, Fox was teeing up its own event film to try to compete with the likes of The Avengers. But first came The Wolverine.

Despite Fox’s helter-skelter approach, constantly revamping sequel and prequel ideas, they realized Wolverine remained their most popular character. And even with the relative failure of X-Men Origins: Wolverine sidelining many similar projects, Fox had discussed a direct Wolverine sequel as early as 2007 with thoughts of adapting the Wolverine in Japan stories. Some cuts of Origins: Wolverine included a post-credit scene with Wolverine drinking in a Japanese bar, though this was altered to a scene featuring Deadpool in the general American release.

Hugh Jackman was a huge fan of the Japanese stories and pushed hard for a Wolverine movie to go that direction. As Origins‘ production wrapped, producer Lauren Shuler Donner sought a potential writer to develop the idea, though she struggled to find the right fit. In 2009 Fox finally committed to a sequel and hired Christopher McQuarrie, who did some writing work on the original X-Men. Determined to take Logan to Japan, Fox sought for Bryan Singer to direct. He turned it down, as he had with other X-Men projects at the time.

Thus, Jackman again pitched for his pal Darren Aronofsky to direct. With the script finalized by early 2010, Aronofsky eventually committed in late 2010. Jackman was publicly excited about the sequel, hopeful something unique could be made with a McQuarrie script and Aronofsky directing. One of Aronofsky’s first public comments was that he was not treating the movie as a sequel but rather a “one-off,” with the story not following up on Origins and instead set after X-Men: The Last Stand, the first continuation of that timeline in years.

As it became clear that production required an extended overseas shoot in Japan, Aronofsky bowed out, sidelining production. By then First Class was preparing for release, leaving Fox with only The Wolverine to develop in order to keep competing with the burgeoning MCU; Days of Future Past was still in infancy. The 2011 Japan earthquake also sidetracked production, though the inability to shoot created time to find a replacement director.

While Jackman filmed Real Steel, he approached its director, Shawn Levy, about directing. Levy declined, though he would later direct Jackman as Wolverine. Fox also considered a variety of action-oriented directors including Antoine Fuqua, Doug Liman, and Justin Lin. Apparently Guillermo del Toro, another fan of the Wolverine Japan stories, pushed to direct as well, but ultimately he passed due to the lengthy production time. Fox eventually settled on James Mangold, who was building action credentials after beginning his career in drama. Perhaps this appealed to Jackman and Fox due to the direction they wanted to take Wolverine.

Despite Mangold’s hire, Jackman’s busy shooting schedule and further script rewrites from Mark Bomback continued to delay filming. By summer 2012 the film finalized its script again. Fox started hiring its Japanese cast, including Hiroyuki Sanada, another Japanese action actor slowly breaking into Hollywood cinema. Other stars included Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima.

As casting news spread, commentators commended The Wolverine for its unusual use of four female leads, a rarity for action flicks. Mangold and Jackman pushed Fox to make The Wolverine the first R-rated mainstream superhero movie since the Blade trilogy, but Fox refused. Speaking of Blade, Jessica Biel was originally in line to return to superhero cinema and play co-villain Viper, though negotiations broke down. For his part, Jackman took bulking tips from Dwayne Johnson, eating 6000 calories a day this time to gain the muscle to play Logan. More importantly, Jackman focused on bringing out Wolverine’s pain as his near-immortal nature caused him to lose everyone in his life.

Shooting finally began in July 2012. Sadly, despite shepherding the project, Shuler Donner was absent from filming due to breast cancer treatment. It was a global shoot, which was becoming normal for Fox’s X-Men movies. Production started in Australia, moved to Japan, and reshoots concluded in Canada. Despite the lengthy delays, production finished in November 2012 allowing post to take over. While still an effects-driven work, it wasn’t quite as FX-intensive as the MCU was becoming, and it only required four effects companies. One of the more difficult characters to render was Silver Samurai, due to the character’s highly-reflective surfaces making him more digital and cartoonish.

Fox mandated the inclusion of the character and some bigger third-act action scenes. Mangold later disclosed that Fox felt the urge to compete with the MCU’s bigger sequences and interfered in The Wolverine‘s production from time to time to achieve that. Mangold wanted to stick to a Japanese noir aesthetic, and he fought Fox’s demands.

While perhaps learning from Origins: Wolverine, Fox didn’t learn enough, and this is reflected in The Wolverine‘s reception after its July 2013 release. Critics and audiences were mixed, as indicated by the 71% Rotten Tomatoes score and 71 Flickscore. Many praised its more mature aspects and willingness to do something different with the character. Jackman’s performance in particular was highlighted for wrestling with the character’s trauma after so many movies. Yet a common critique was that the third act became a schlocky mess. Despite improvements, Fox still couldn’t help itself.

All the same, The Wolverine‘s box office did enough for Fox to continue making Wolverine solo films. It earned a respectable if not great $139.6 million on opening weekend and finished at $414.8 million, outgrossing Origins: Wolverine. A significant portion of that success came from the overseas audiences, as it became the highest-grossing X-Men film internationally.

Accordingly, Fox ordered a third film and brought back Jackman and Mangold. But the studio had another movie coming first, and taking a page from the MCU, they finally included a post-credits scene to set it up. Set a few years following The Wolverine, the scene shows Logan and the triumphant return of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, six years after their characters were seemingly finished. Even more intriguingly, it appeared to tease one of the more famed X-Men stories, “Days of Future Past.” An expansive time travel dystopia story, it demonstrated Fox had big ambitions and wanted to compete with the MCU.

While the dreams of a fully-united Marvel universe remained off the table, Fox appeared to be finally getting itself together, mostly. With two successes in a row and a clearer game plan for the future, competition was forcing Fox to do better. Though that had its downsides, as The Wolverine‘s final act indicated, the rising tide of superhero movie success was carrying all ships. 2013 was shaping up to be a good year for superhero cinema.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

While Wolverine’s appearance in Doomsday feels assured, that is probably the extent of anything from this movie. The Japanese characters feel too minor for any references, as The Wolverine is an under-the-radar superhero movie on the whole. Some elements were referenced in Logan, though.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Fall 2013 found the MCU expanding in a new way: to the small screen! Debuting in September 2013, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. furthered the MCU’s storytelling and expanded upon the intelligence agency that was a backbone of Phase One movies. It revived Clark Gregg‘s Phil Coulson after his seeming death in The Avengers alongside a cast of other characters, including notably Ming-Na Wen, as they dealt with superhuman issues on a weekly basis. It was a clever conceit co-created by Joss Whedon and his brother Jed, who largely took over running the show.

The hook was that it shared continuity with the films and might affect events in the films, and vice versa. However, the crossovers were fairly inconsistent and one-sided due to Marvel Television and Marvel Studios having separate corporate structures, and due to difficulties between Kevin Feige and Jeph Loeb. The show essentially never impacted the films, aside from two arguable moments. That said, the show’s first season did directly reflect events from the films, including Thor: The Dark World.

Marvel officially announced the Thor sequel in 2011, before the first film even released. This took director Kenneth Branagh by surprise, since he was unused to Marvel’s expansive and rapid approach to franchise filmmaking. While Branagh was initially open to returning to direct, he was soon put off by Marvel’s methodology of quickly moving onto the next movie. He needing more time between lengthy productions, and he ultimately declined the director’s chair.

Marvel did moved quickly, officially hiring Don Payne, who helped write the first movie, as screenwriter the next day. Payne initially wrote Hela as the main antagonist, but as with Iron Man 3, Marvel Entertainment executives shut this down believing it would harm toy sales. As for filling the director’s chair, Marvel wanted to strike the Game of Thrones iron while it was hot and initially pursued Brian Kirk, but Kirk passed. Marvel then pivoted and hired Patty Jenkins, and they also confirmed the return of Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman.

Yet by December 2011, Jenkins left the project due to creative differences. She and Marvel never could square on story direction. Marvel resumed chasing Game of Thrones talent at this point, eventually settling on Alan Taylor. Feige cited Taylor’s experience on Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire as further reason for the hire, hoping to ground Thor’s aesthetic a bit more in the Norse aspects and bring some dramatic heft in the vein of those shows.

Marvel was also interested in continuing Thor, Loki, and Jane Foster’s stories post-Avengers and further expanding the universe. To that end came the casting of a new villain, the dark elf Malekith. Without Branagh attached, Marvel had to pursue dramatic actors on its own. They again had Mads Mikkelsen under consideration, but he ultimately passed once he committed to Hannibal. Benedict Cumberbatch was also in the running, yet Marvel eventually settled on Christopher Eccleston. Most of the supporting cast from the first movie also returned, though Zachary Levi notably replaced Joshua Dallas as Fandral after nearly playing him in the first movie.

The writing process took a bit of turn at this point. Quite like Iron Man 2, Marvel decided to use Thor: The Dark World as a launching point for the future, resulting in many revisions. Christopher Yost came in to rewrite, followed by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who were becoming Marvel darlings and worked on this script between drafts of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

This was all because Marvel had officially decided what the MCU’s endgame would be: the Infinity Gauntlet. Disparate elements from various movies had to be retrofitted to become Infinity Stones, including this film’s MacGuffin, the Aether. Rewriting continued even as filming started in England and Iceland. Taylor later said that Joss Whedon came in “like a SWAT team” to rewrite a few scenes that weren’t working during filming.

In addition to changing things for the new MCU gameplan, another major element Marvel changed was Loki. Feige commented that The Dark World was initially meant as the conclusion of the “Loki trilogy” that started in Thor, with Loki’s death intended to be final. However, audience response in test screenings changed Marvel’s mind and led to rewriting his conclusion. Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth‘s dynamic popped so much that reshoots were specifically done to add more scenes of banter between the brothers.

While Taylor was grateful to Whedon in some ways, he apparently lost control of the film during post-production. Marvel allegedly did extensive editing work that substantially changed the final product and narrative, including Taylor’s desire to have Loki die for real. Taylor later commented that he was dissatisfied with the final work and felt his vision was lost in re-editing. He apparently considered quitting directing due to how “wrenching” the experience was. In its desire to be grandiose, it seemed Marvel repeated many of the same mistakes its rivals had in the past.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason for the middling response upon its release in November 2013. Sitting at a mere 67% Rotten Tomatoes score and 67 Flickscore, many felt Thor: The Dark World was formulaic and lacking in genuine drama or heart. The hyper-bland villains were particularly criticized. Its reputation only further sank in the years afterwards, and it was widely considered the worst MCU movie until Phase Four. Still, most at least praised Hemsworth and Hiddleston’s charisma and chemistry together and felt it wasn’t entirely miserable or unwatchable.

The average reviews didn’t hurt the box office. In another likely Avengers boost, Thor: The Dark World opened to $109.4 million in its first five days and surpassed the first film’s gross by day nineteen. It became Disney’s best November release at the time and managed a strong running throughout the holiday period, finishing at $644.8 million.

Despite the uneven critical responses, it seemed Marvel found the secret sauce of connectivity, at least in terms of box-office dollars. With a fun cameo from Chris Evans as Captain America (albeit as an illusory disguise by Loki), the interconnected nature of the movies continued to entice fans.

It was perhaps the post-credits scenes that most tantalized people. The first featured several Asgardian characters visiting none other than The Collector, a notable entity in Marvel Comics. This teased his upcoming appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, the announced Marvel project that raised the most eyebrows. More excitingly, this became the first direct mention of Infinity Stones (changed from Gems as in the comics). At last, the scene was a major confirmation that Marvel was heading towards the Infinity Gauntlet saga and that Thanos’s teased appearance was queueing one heck of a story. Anticipation for each subsequent Marvel movie only increased, with fans trying to guess which would feature the next Infinity Stone and which Stones had already appeared.

Thus, even with competition, Marvel Studios had to feel strong and unstoppable at this point. With a strong 2014 film slate coming, Marvel also announced a set of TV shows for Netflix. These shows would feature other reclaimed characters that Marvel wasn’t ready to bring to film, including most notably Daredevil. The MCU’s reach was only expanding.

That said, the Marvel One-Shot unknowingly came to an end on Thor: The Dark World‘s home release. The release featured the short film All Hail the King, which saw the return of Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery in a humorous expansion of the character that also served as fan service by retconning the Mandarin reveal. The short explained there was a “real” Mandarin out there displeased by Slattery’s impersonation. This was incongruent to Black’s storytelling, but it assuaged those angered at Iron Man 3. Still, Marvel no longer needed the One-Shots after this due to expanding to TV. Marvel was already everywhere.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Thor and Loki are both already confirmed to return in Doomsday. As we said in Thor‘s entry, most of the other characters are long out of the MCU. Maybe Portman’s Foster will be back. Eccleston and the Dark Elves were particularly forgettable and won’t be returning.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Spoilers! 2014 is considered one of the best years in Marvel cinema. The two MCU movies are often rated as the MCU’s crown jewels, and many consider Fox’s X-Men movie to be king of its franchise. This is especially notable given most considered Guardians of the Galaxy to be a massive risk, featuring the most obscure Marvel characters to date in any film.

But first was the much less-risky Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Captain America was already one of the more popular Avengers relatively speaking, and Chris Evans‘s portrayal in the prior two films earned the most acclaim alongside Downey. People were more than ready to see a Cap solo outing set in the modern world.

By this time, Kevin Feige was quite conscious about wanting to bring diverse genres to the MCU and giving filmmakers more leeway to leave a directorial stamp. As The Dark World proved, this was a difficult prospect given that Marvel needed each movie to serve a larger purpose, but Feige determined to do better.

It all started on The Winter Soldier with rehiring Markus and McFeely, who did a notably good job at writing the period WW2 superhero film that was the first Captain America. Feige felt this was a great example of the MCU stretching genres, and this time Feige wanted to make a 70s spy thriller. He set the pair to work in mid-2011, preparing for Phase Two alongside the many other creatives as the release of Phase One was still rolling out.

After months of bouncing ideas back and forth with Marvel, the pair arrived at a tale that pitted the old-fashioned moralism of Steve Rogers against the more cynical and morally-complicated present. They decided to avoid most time-displacement humor and wanted to ground the film in a believable reality that eschewed the fantasy elements of The Avengers. They took time to adapt “The Winter Soldier” storyline, taking inspiration on how to execute it from spy thrillers like Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, and Marathon Man. Indeed, they leaned heavily on Three Days of the Condor for story structure while throwing in the comics element of the Winter Soldier twist.

Even with all of these influences, the pair still struggled developing the third act. Feige saved the day by suggesting it feature the fall of SHIELD and revealing that HYDRA lived on after the first movie. It was a major decision to say the least, and one that would have lasting ramifications on the MCU moving forward. This let the duo figure out the end of the story, though the inclusion of Arnim Zola proved challenging as the heaviest sci-fi element in a more down-to-Earth tale.

Feige also suggested the inclusion of Nick Fury and Black Widow because these characters lacked solo movies, and because Cap lacked supporting characters given that he was displaced from his time. Marvel even wanted to bring in Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye, though they couldn’t figure out a unique writing purpose for him and Renner’s schedule got in the way regardless.

With a general story set, next came securing a director. Marvel’s hunt narrowed to three choices by early 2012, and then one choice, F. Gary Gray, removed himself from the process to direct Straight Outta Compton. A two-horse race came down to who had a better pitch. The winning pair, Anthony and Joe Russo, distinguished themselves in the audition process. They were an unorthodox choice, with their experience largely limited to TV comedies like Community.

Feige was initially attracted to them because of their genre parody episode of Community, “For a Few Paintballs More.” After they were allowed to read the script, the Russos spent two months storyboarding, rewriting scenes, and creating an animatic to showcase their vision for the film. It was this that won them the job and started the MCU’s arguably most notable creative partnership.

Within their winning pitch was the idea to focus on the modern surveillance state and drone warfare. The Russos felt it was impossible to create a political spy thriller that wasn’t topical in some way, and with the Snowden NSA leaks making news headlines at the time, they had ample opportunity to recall Captain America’s older ideals. Marvel officially announced their hiring of the directors and the sequel title at 2012 Comic Con, and added that they would continue their partnership with Cleveland and film there.

They also began hiring cast members. While much of the cast merely reprising roles from earlier MCU movies, Anthony Mackie joined as a new character, Sam Wilson/The Falcon, after narrowly missing on playing the Mandarin. Perhaps this was a better outcome. Two other new characters were Brock Rumlow and potential love interest Sharon Carter. For Rumlow, Marvel considered actors both familiar and unfamiliar to superhero flicks like Kevin Durand, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Josh Holloway. But the part ultimately went to Frank Grillo, who’d built a reputation for action cinema in the early 2010s. As for Sharon, Emilia Clarke again came under consideration, as well as Teresa Palmer, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Alison Brie (sharing the Community connection with the Russos). But Emily VanCamp won the part in the end, based on her work on the TV show Revenge. Hayley Atwell also returned as a much older version of Peggy Carter, ahead of a confirmed Agent Carter TV show.

One of the more eye-raising castings was that of Robert Redford, who joined as a high-ranking SHIELD agent. The Russos were inspired to cast him as an homage to Three Days of Condor, and to ape Henry Fonda‘s casting in Once Upon a Time in the West by having a mostly heroic actor play a villainous role. Redford was intrigued to see what this new form of filmmaking was like. Former UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre joined as a minor villain, Batroc, bringing a physicality to that role. Garry Shandling and Maximiliano Hernandez also reprised their earlier, smaller Marvel roles to further add to the universe.

Filming took place throughout 2013 not only in Cleveland but in California and Washington D.C. as well, with most of the film set in the latter city. In order to more accurately capture the 70s feeling, the Russos aimed to shoot everything practically when possible and to minimize special effects. This included shooting longer takes on action sequences and spending months choreographing realistic fights to sustain such scenes. The Russos were inspired by Heat and Brian De Palma to create action that had grit and consequences. Still, even minimizing special effects in a modern blockbuster involved six different visual effects companies to create the 2500 visual effects shots. The costume team also designed a new Captain America outfit to fit the modern spy aesthetic.

Once the film entered post, the Russos notably edited the film at their trailer on the Community set. They also conducted reshoots once Joss Whedon shared the second Avengers script in order to coordinate the ending of their film with the beginning of that one. Whedon also shot the mid-credits scene, as everything was directly leading into the second Avengers.

Marketing began in summer 2013 and lasted until the film’s 2014 release. Marvel used teaser posters, trailers, and Comic Con panels to build hype and showcase where the movie was heading. Also notable was a new tactic of releasing a “teaser” for the trailer the day prior, a practice that soon became standard in Hollywood marketing. Video games and Disneyland appearances also became part of the marketing machine.

Finally, April 2014 arrived. Continuing the post-Avengers trend, Captain America: The Winter Soldier outpaced its predecessor, earning $95 million in its opening weekend and setting April records for the time. It had a sustained run and finished the year as the fifth highest-grossing title, earning $714.4 million in total. It seemed Marvel Studios couldn’t miss at the box office.

For the first time since The Avengers, there was universal critical acclaim. Sporting a 90% Tomatometer and 91 Flickscore, the movie pleased many with its choice to reduce CGI spectacle and offer harder-nosed action. Many noted the more realistic fight choreography, and some even compared it to The Dark Knight in terms of its topicality. The few negative reviews felt it lost steam and failed to take risks despite its “spicy premise.” Regardless of the few detractors, Feige and company felt they accomplished what they wanted by diversifying the MCU language and genres at play. This didn’t resolve the debate over whether the MCU could allow diversity or not, but it seemed a punch in that direction. It remains one of the most widely-praised MCU movies.

The ramifications for the MCU as a whole left fans wondering, though. With SHIELD’s apparent demise, where would the next MCU movies go? Importantly for fans of the TV show, how could Agents of SHIELD continue? The show answered that with its most critically-acclaimed episode to date and a ratings smash, as the effects of Winter Soldier massively changed the show’s story direction and allowed the show to come into its own. In a rare one-off appearance, Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury even cameoed in the season finale. Thus, while leaving the show’s premise in a much different place, the MCU’s synergy with its TV side reached its zenith.

As for the post-credits scenes, this was the first time that both of them were serious in tone and advanced plot points. The second scene was minor, to be fair, but it revealed that Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky/The Winter Soldier would return and was regaining his memory, setting up a third Captain America film. The first scene was the bigger tease, revealing the first new additions to the Avengers sequel: Elizabeth Olsen‘s Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson‘s Quicksilver. These siblings were villains and then Avengers in the comics, full of narrative potential. They were also mutants, though as Fox still held those rights, the scene teasingly called them “miracles” instead.

Did this mean there was a potential X-Men crossover coming? Well, the casting news for that summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past seemingly put that to bed, yet the rumor mill still stirred. Anything was possible with time travel.

As the first three Phase Two releases proved, the MCU was in a different place than when it began. Each sequel well outpaced its predecessors, regardless of critical quality, indicating a clear buy-in from fans. They were hungry for more Marvel and what this interconnected universe was bringing. With The Winter Soldier, critical prestige also came, indicating that not only could Marvel build a universe but it could create top-tier action movies as well.

The last pre-Avengers MCU film loomed at the end of summer 2014. Even many dedicated comics fans were barely aware of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and they seemed a bizarre choice for this early era of the MCU. Leaping from B-list down to F-list characters hardly seemed the smartest thing choice. Many expected Marvel to fall on its face. No studio would have dared to make a movie for these characters in the past. Could the MCU brand really sustain something so odd?

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Captain America is, of course, returning for Doomsday. And as we speculated before, we think Peggy Carter might show up again. The Russos’ career in Marvel skyrocketed after this movie, but we’ll leave more details on that to a future article. Mackie’s Sam Wilson became a major returning element in the MCU, including taking over the role of Captain America. He will also return in Doomsday.

The only other characters worth discussing are Rumlow, Alexander Pierce, and Sharon Carter. Grillo returned as Rumlow one more time before his character died, and we don’t think he’ll get any multiverse variants, especially as he’s at DC now. Redford sadly passed last year, so despite his returning in Avengers: Endgame, we think that’s the end of the line. VanCamp’s Sharon has returned several more times and has an open plot thread from one of the MCU shows, so maybe she’ll show up, though we think it unlikely.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

By the mid-10s, it was fairly standard for studios to commission scripts for sequels to their superhero flicks before the first entry even released. This was the case for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and James Vanderbilt began work in 2012. While Sony was overall pleased with its first reboot, the MCU’s Phase Two cut into Sony’s seeming advantage from The Amazing Spider-Man ‘s box-office grosses. Sequels for what were once minor characters nearly matched or surpassed Spider-Man‘s grosses, as in the case of Iron Man 2.

To that end, Sony was initially unsure of whether it wanted Marc Webb to return, especially with Webb wanting more money. They finally worked out a deal, but in Sony’s uncertainty about the future it hired a trio of screenwriters to essentially rewrite Vanderbilt’s screenplay. The trio included Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner, who were inexplicably (judging on story quality) hot items in Hollywood. But no one could deny they were penning some of the highest-grossing films of the era.

Sony also responded to the biggest criticism of The Amazing Spider-Man: that it lacked comics authenticity due to its grimmer aesthetic and costuming. Executives pushed to change the suit and make the tone more jovial overall, while still setting up an overarching Oscorp plot that could spin off into Sinister Six movies and compete with the MCU. Perhaps one can see the warning signs already.

Casting news certainly heralded doom, with announcements that Electro, Norman Osborn, Harry Osborn, Alistair Smythe, and Rhino were all joining the movie. Sony seemed unconcerned about repeating Spider-Man 3‘s mistake of stuffing in too many villains, including ironically a Harry Osborn Green Goblin. To top it all, Sony cast Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson to apparently add a second romantic figure for Peter. Apparently, Andrew Garfield also suggested casting Michael B. Jordan as a male version of MJ to explore a bisexual Peter, though Sony quickly shut that down.

Sony realized their folly, at least in part. They cut MJ entirely from the movie despite Woodley filming all of her scenes. May Parker was also sidelined, much to Sally Field’s annoyance as she later reflected her part was essentially non-existent. Unfortunately, Sony maintained the multitude of villains. Even Felicity Jones made it in as Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat.

At least Sony hired talented actors for the roles. In a bold move, they cast Jamie Foxx as Electro, again race-swapping from the comics as they did with Kingpin a decade earlier. Perhaps Foxx added cultural cache. The crew labored intensively in creating his look, using special effects in combination for a four-and-a-half-hour makeup process.

Sony cast Chris Cooper for Norman Osborn, though seemingly mostly as set-up. Paul Giamatti of all people joined as Rhino, though this was also more of a cameo. After considering a broad swath of actors for Harry, including Sam Claflin, Brady Corbet, Boyd Holbrook, and even Michael B. Jordan, they settled on Dane DeHaan, Jordan’s Chronicle cast-mate.

Filming occurred entirely in New York State, a first for any Spider-Man movie. While they used Rochester as a stand-in for NYC more often than not, this kept production in the state’s boundaries. The crew even did all on-set filming in New York, including building a miniaturized version of Times Square.

Webb went an unorthodox route for the score once James Horner declined to return. He recruited a cadre of musicians including Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr, Mike Einziger, Junkie XL, Steve Mazzaro, and Andrew Kawczynski to assist famed composer Hans Zimmer in crafting a score that was both cinematic and yet reflected the diversity of music trends. The results received mixed appraisal.

Marketing took off from there, with a panel at 2013 Comic Con alongside Fox and Marvel Studios. Sony also merchandised with toys and video games, but perhaps reflective of the more rushed production, they didn’t utilize as extensive a viral marketing campaign as they had for the first movie. In the urge to compete, Sony wanted to get a sequel out as quickly as possible.

May 2014 came after The Winter Soldier‘s successful turn the prior month. The opening weekend seemed to suggest continued success with Sony’s own sequel boost, as the movie earned $91.6 million, though this did not match The Winter Soldier‘s opening weekend. India was a strange source of success for the movie’s overseas take, as it earned $4.3 million there alone.

The run ended with $716.9 million, well below the first film and other recent MCU releases. This was perhaps because it critically bombed. While most critics enjoyed the cast and the emotional ending, these were the only sources of praise. It seemed the lessons of Spider-Man 3 were not learned, as this movie too was derided as an overstuffed mess with too many characters and no clear central narrative. Two films in, and the only improvement on the Raimi trilogy seemed to be the chemistry between Garfield and Stone. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sits at 51% on Rotten Tomatoes and has a 61 Flickscore.

Sony was initially optimistic about expanding on this film, announcing third and fourth movies in 2013. Soon thereafter, Sony shared news of plans for a two-parter Sinister Six movie, a separate Venom film, a Black Cat movie, and even more. They had dollar signs in their eyes, to say the least. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 featured no traditional post-credits scene, but the ending teased the Sinister Six.

Yet once the box office numbers were in and critical derision piled up, Sony finally got the message. With creatives dropping off the sequels, they pivoted. Sony initially delayed the third movie and discussed potentially bringing back Raimi to direct a new trilogy of Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies with plans to then cross him over into the Garfield continuity, trying to ape the MCU in a different way.

Then, Sony Pictures was hacked in November 2014. With thousands of emails leaking onto the internet, their internal secrets became public. While the after-effects of this are far more reaching than comic-book movies, it cemented Sony’s course change and led to them cancel their Sinister Six plans.

While competition from Sony wasn’t entirely removed, the failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seemed to end their run as a mainline competitor and signaled the conclusion of their era of superhero filmmaking that began back in 2002. Sony’s superhero output was done in concert with Marvel Studios thereafter, though always with tension and mostly to negative results. Thus, Marvel movies continued to consolidate into the MCU, leaving Fox as the lone wolf against Disney.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Most of our remarks from The Amazing Spider-Man above are applicable here. The villains originating here are the only unique additions. While Foxx’s Electro returned in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we don’t think he’ll be making it into Doomsday or Secret Wars. Giamatti’s comically-ridiculous Rhino is also likely abandoned.

Of course, Stone’s Gwen Stacy perished in this film. With Garfield’s guilt over that loss resolved in No Way Home, we think it unlikely for Stone to return. Sally Field also seems done with the role of Aunt May, and other side characters just lack the cultural presence for the MCU to want to cameo them.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Fox was ready to howl as lone wolf. As we alluded to multiple times now, Fox was inspired by the MCU’s competition in the best way when it came to their next mainline entry. After the success of X-Men: First Class, Fox prepared to launch a new trilogy with the acclaimed younger X-Men cast. Matthew Vaughn was onboard to continue directing with Bryan Singer potentially returning to produce.

This luckily coincided with prior discussions on the continuation of the franchise. Part of the delay for X4 aside from the Wolverine prequels was negotiating contracts for the series mainstays. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner discussed adapting “Days of Future Past” as far back as 2006. With First Class doing so well, Donner was able to pitch Singer on finally coming back to the series he started.

Early story planning was fruitful, with Vaughn excited and proposing the idea of the film opening with Magneto’s magnetic powers being behind the curved bullet in the Kennedy assassination. Singer meanwhile proposed a Vietnam War setting and the possibility of using the time travel inherent in the story to “change history.” He tried to reassure fans that he didn’t mean completely erasing prior films, though Fox likely had the soft reboot ideas in mind already.

Still, even with enthusiasm, creative conflicts arose. Vaughn wanted “Days of Future Past” to be the culmination of the trilogy of new movies with a middle entry featuring Tom Hardy as a younger Wolverine. Yet when Fox read Vaughn’s script, they insisted on doing “Days of Future Past” next. Thus, Vaughn sadly exited, with Fox citing his Kingsman film as the reason for leaving.

Simon Kinberg took writing duties over in November 2011 and received sole credit for the screenplay, though story credit went to a variety of people including Vaughn. Kinberg knew Fox wanted this film to clarify the future of the franchise, and he worked alongside Singer to develop a cohesive set of rules for time travel. Kinberg studied older time travel movies like Back to the Future while Singer talked to James Cameron after Singer finally agreed to return to the directing chair for the first time since X2.

Kinberg and Vaughn discussed how to adapt “Days of Future Past” for the big-screen before Vaugh left. While still using Kitty Pryde’s powers as the basis, they removed her as the central character and instead chose to make Wolverine the time traveler. They developed story reasons for this, though the obvious commercial one was that Hugh Jackman was the face of the franchise. The pair had considered using Bishop or Cable for this role, and using Rachel Summers for the time travel power instead of Kitty. They also considered including a number of other famous mutant characters like Nightcrawler, Juggernaut, and Psylocke.

After Singer took over as director, he brought back his production team from the first two films as well. He hired the same production designer, costume designer, music director, and editor. Thus, not only would this be the big crossover cast and return of franchise originals, but also the return of most of the same creatives who helped start this whole superhero craze to begin with. The question was, could they keep up with the MCU?

Singer began announcing cast members in November 2012 on Twitter. On the First Class side, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicolas Hoult, and even Lucas Till all returned. On the original trilogy side, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Kelsey Grammer (in a small secret cameo) and of course, Jackman reprised their roles.

But there were also new characters. As part of the overall push of superhero cinema to link itself to the Game of Thrones phenomenon, Peter Dinklage joined as the primary human antagonist Bolivar Trask. Further tantalizing fans were announcements of Omar Sy as Bishop and Evan Peters as Quicksilver, popular mutants who had yet to have live-action appearances.

As the post-credits for The Winter Soldier revealed, Taylor-Johnson was already playing Quicksilver in the MCU. This seemed to forestall any potential crossovers, though some fans wondered how this could happen at all. As it happened, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch sat at a very unique crossroads of rights, because the pair were notable Avengers but also Magneto’s children and thus operated in both spheres, allowing the rights to be shared between Fox and Marvel Studios. Funny how the cross-section of legalities and storytelling can work.

Thus, years before the massive crossovers the MCU had coming, Fox set the stage for the first major crossover comic-book movie event (though if you count the first Avengers as beating them to the punch, we won’t argue). The consequence of such a large cast was coordinating that many schedules, which forced filming to occur between April 2013 and November 2013. This also became Fox’s most expensive production apart from Avatar, with the constrained timeframe causing crunch time work for everyone involved.

Still, the production team wasn’t phoning it in. They put lots of time and thought into crafting the look of the different time periods. The team leaned heavily into ’70s style for the past timeline, hoping to recreate the ’70s as well as First Class did the ’60s. They created two dichotomous appearances for the movie’s other main villainous force, the robotic Sentinels. The futuristic ones were horrifying CGI, designed to look inhuman and also reflect Mystique in the origin of their powers and function. The ’70s ones, meanwhile, were clunkier and made to look retro in a fun way.

In order to accommodate the compressed timeframe, Fox hired twelve effects studios to assist, despite only having 1311 visual effects shots. One of the most lauded of the bunch was Rising Sun Pictures, who created the acclaimed Quicksilver “Time in a Bottle” sequence. Visual effects also took over for Mystique’s design, with Lawrence wearing a bodysuit as well. While some of the look was still makeup, this reduced the application time from eight hours to three.

As post-production moved towards an end, marketing entered full swing. There already had been a Comic Con panel in 2013 during filming, and they showed further footage at various other conventions in early 2014, such as CinemaCon. They also used post-credits scenes, such as the aforementioned one from The Wolverine. Yet more strange was a post-credits scene attached to The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This confused some into thinking there would be a Spider-Man/X-Men crossover to compete against the MCU, but this was merely the product of a corporate compromise as Marc Webb was contracted to do another film for Fox. Fox agreed to let Webb direct films for Sony if Sony plugged Days of Future Past.

Singer withdrew from marketing in April 2014 after further accusations of sexual abuse culminated in multiple lawsuits filed against him. While both suits were ultimately dismissed, there appeared to be some credibility as these accusations were discussed in documentaries and generated further discussions, including a claim by author Bret Easton Ellis that two of his former partners attended underage sex parties hosted by Singer and Roland Emmerich.

This was hardly what Fox wanted just a month before their big event movie released, but they had to press onwards. The accusations didn’t seem to hurt the box office. Days of Future Past debuted to an explosive opening weekend, earning $262.8 million, a franchise best. Critics raved upon release, with many considering it the best X-Men film yet, or at the least standing alongside X2. While some found it a bit overstuffed or confusing, those who were devotees of the franchise or of X-Men comics found it richly rewarding. There was a new reverence for the source material in a Fox production.

Indeed, Days of Future Past was seen as a course correction for the mistakes of The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine with an ending that seemingly retconned away the bad choices of those movies. While not a full reboot, the timeline reset seemed to open the future of the continuity and give a satisfying ending to the original cast that The Last Stand had lacked. The movie finished with $747.9 million, a franchise-best box office. It even managed to top Avatar in many overseas territories as the highest-grossing Fox release.

Future minded, the film’s post-credits scene followed the MCU pattern of teasing the new big villain. Indeed, it appeared Apocalypse would be next, having already been announced before Days of Future Past released. This would serve as the conclusion of the new trilogy with the younger cast members, as the older cast were seemingly retired. This wasn’t the only fire in the oven, either, as Fox was setting up more spin-offs to try to capitalise on their success and keep up with the MCU.

Of final note, the home release contained an alternate edit, the Rogue Cut. Paquin’s Rogue, the original focus character of X-Men, barely appeared as a cameo in this movie. As it turned out, there was a more substantial role for her that wound up being reduced due to runtime problems. Seeing an opportunity in the home release, this alternate cut was made available. It didn’t seem to change things considerably, but it provided some extra material and slightly different plots mechanics.

While Sony was fading, Fox seemed to have found new life. Thus, even as things consolidated under the MCU, Fox kept going and seemed to have learned from their many mistakes over the years. They weren’t perfect, still rushing movies out, but a reverence for authenticity and a more measured approach were aiding them. This meant X-Men weren’t going to be part of the MCU, which seemed to cause Marvel to move away from promoting mutants, even in the comics. But perhaps maintaining competition was a good thing, as the early part of the ’10s seemed to indicate.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

As already discussed in prior articles, many of these older X-Men cast members are returning in Doomsday. Though it is unclear if the younger cast will be joining, we feel more certain that the characters who only appeared in this movie such as Bishop, Wink, Sunspot, and Trask will not appear.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy is another example of the transformative power of the MCU. Prior to this film debuting, only the most dedicated comics fans had any idea who they were. They were far more obscure even than Iron Man, Thor or most any Marvel character who had received a cinematic adaptation at this point. When Kevin Feige announced them as the only non-sequel MCU movie prior to the second Avengers, it caused many to wonder if Marvel had lost the plot and were overestimating themselves. Certainly any character could work if written well enough, but headlining a major blockbuster was a different matter.

Fittingly, unlike any other hero who had debuted in the MCU, there was no long history of failed attempts to turn the Guardians into a film. While the original iteration of the team dated back to the late ’60s, the modern version this film used didn’t debut until 2008. And certainly they weren’t a headliner comic. They formed the team by throwing together preexisting space-faring heroes who lacked a home in the aftermath of a big crossover comics event. It did sell well enough, but it lacked a major cultural presence.

Yet the team apparently intrigued Nicole Perlman, whom we mentioned last article as a product of Marvel Studios’ writing program. In 2009 she’d been able to pick between many lesser Marvel properties to turn into a feature film script. This was Marvel’s way of starting preparations for the long-term future. Perlman was drawn to the Guardians because of the sci-fi space element. Apparently Marvel was surprised, as they had expected her to pick a romantic comedy.

Perlman spent the next two years as Phase One rolled out continually rewriting the script. She vacillated between which team members to use, including trying a draft based on the ’69 version of the team. Perlman centered the movie on Nova at one stage before Nate Moore, head of the writing program, suggested she instead focus on Star-Lord.

With this advice, Perlman found her anchor. She rewrote Star-Lord into more of a Han Solo type, included 1980s and 90s period music as a tonal element, and created the opening scene of Star-Lord on a desolate planet based on a memory of viewing a drained submarine ride at Disneyland. All throughout this period, Feige kept publicly dropping hints that he was intrigued about the Guardians becoming a movie and was excited for the MCU to expand its space side.

Feige must have seen Perlman’s scripts and decided it was worth a serious attempt. He was eager to do Marvel’s own version of Star Wars. To that end, Marvel Studios hunted for a director. They initially considered Colin Trevorrow, but he turned it down due to not being a comics fan. Peyton Reed and the directing pair of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were also candidates.

Yet it was James Gunn who beat them all. Marvel initially talked to him in 2012 about merely assisting Perlman in script rewrites. Yet Marvel was attracted to Gunn’s maverick sensibilities and dark sense of humor as seen in Slither and Super, and they eventually offered for him to direct. Gunn agreed, but didn’t care for Perlman’s script, and asked to rewrite it. Feige acquiesced, though he admitted he was scared at what Gunn might bring back.

Luckily, Gunn’s first script was on the same page with Marvel. Joss Whedon was thrilled after reading it, convinced Gunn was the guy to make the Guardians work and noted Gunn’s love of Rocket Raccoon, an element Gunn took to the very end of the trilogy. Gunn commented many times about Rocket being his favorite character. Minor disagreements later arose about the extent Perlman’s script was used in the final movie, with Gunn stating he largely disregarded it.

As Gunn worked with Marvel on further rewrites, he reflected that the character arcs for the central five stayed the same throughout the process. Many other elements changed as Gunn altered Perlman’s script into the final form. He allegedly changed the entire story, character arcs, and added Peter Quill’s Walkman as well as altering the music references to ’60s and ’70s pop hits. One change, at Whedon’s suggestion, was the removal of Star-Lord’s father as an intergalactic emperor. In fact, Whedon’s main advice to Gunn in rewriting was to enhance the weirder elements.

Thanos was the main villain of Perlman’s script, but this changed dramatically in light of Marvel’s new plans. Gunn wanted to remove him entirely, but Marvel mandated he stay to help set up the MCU’s endgame. Thus, Gunn developed the idea that Ronan the Accuser, the new main antagonist, would kill The Other as a way of including Thanos while preserving Ronan’s threat.

Gunn also briefly wrote an origin for the Infinity Stones in his script, mostly as a fun Easter Egg among many other nods to Marvel history in the film. Yet as Marvel calcified on making the Infinity Gauntlet the MCU’s main story, they told Gunn they wanted the Power Stone to be the MacGuffin of Guardians.They actually used Gunn’s origin idea for the Stones in subsequent MCU works. Thus, Guardians became a key linchpin in the forming Infinity Saga, despite being set so far from other MCU films.

As they finalized the script in late 2012, Gunn and Marvel launched the casting process. While Gunn had discretion to use many of his favorite actors for minor characters, such as Michael Rooker as Yondu and his brother Sean as Kraglin, the search for the lead Star-Lord was important to centering Marvel’s newest gamble. They auditioned many actors including Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Eddie Redmayne, Michael Rosenbaum, Zachary Levi (despite appearing in Thor: The Dark World), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Lee Pace.

Gunn was initially taken with Glenn Howerton, yet another actor ended up becoming Gunn and Marvel’s favorite: Chris Pratt. Pratt was cast in February 2013 despite no real blockbuster experience. Most knew him as the schlubby supporting player from Parks & Rec. Pratt had been trying to get into superhero movies for a long while and had missed on several prior Marvel roles and Avatar. Even Gunn was not interested until he met with Pratt, at which point Gunn was instantly convinced. In a movie that was already a risk, Gunn and Marvel decided to take a further risk on Pratt.

The rest of the Guardians followed, with Gunn continuing to make unorthodox choices. Dave Bautista beat out Isaiah Mustafa, Chadwick Boseman, and Jason Momoa (who self-removed from the process as he didn’t want to get typecast) for the part of Drax the Destroyer. It was Bautista’s first major blockbuster role after several smaller movie appearances. Bautista felt quite connected to Drax due to his athleticism and having tragedy in his life, making the four-hour makeup process more tolerable. Marvel initially cast Amanda Seyfried for Gamora, beating Lupita Nyong’o, but Seyfried turned it down after she was concerned that Guardians might be a bomb and hurt her reputation. Thus, Zoe Saldana, who had multiple sci-fi franchises under her belt at this point, took the part.

As for Groot and Rocket, makeup alone wasn’t enough for them, and they had to be created via CGI and motion capture. Sean Gunn wound up as the main stand-in for Rocket mostly by accident, as they were still figuring out how to do Rocket when filming began. He kept the role in all subsequent Marvel films, with Bradley Cooper providing the voice and some facial references. Vin Diesel took the part of Groot, providing both voice work and motion capture, though someone else stood in for him on set. Diesel found it a unique acting challenge — due to Groot only ever saying “I am Groot” — to convey many different emotions and thoughts. He leaned into his grief over losing his friend Paul Walker to fuel the emotional center of Groot.

With the heroes cast, the villains yet remained. The role of main antagonist, Ronan, went to Lee Pace after Pace missed on playing Star-Lord. Though Marvel had been considering Hugh Laurie, Alan Rickman, or Ken Watanabe for this role, Gunn was impressed enough with Pace’s acting that he wanted him in the film in some capacity. As casting finalized in summer 2013, Karen Gillan and Benicio del Toro joined as Nebula and The Collector, just in time for Del Toro to film his post-credits scene for The Dark World. Gillan was highly committed to her role, aiming for Nebula’s voice to be a simultaneous impression of Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe while physically training for two months, taking inspiration from Spartan methods.

Yet perhaps the most important villain casting was that of Thanos. Despite only being in two scenes, Marvel already knew Thanos was in line for much more in subsequent movies. Gunn worked in conjunction with Feige and Whedon to find the proper actor. They quickly settled on Josh Brolin, approaching him with the pitch that he’d be more of a cameo at first before stepping up in status. Brolin was already a big MCU fan and had a prior relationship with Louis D’Esposito, and he readily agreed, providing voicework and performance capture.

Rounding out some of the minor characters were Glenn Close and Djimon Hounsou. Close wanted to be in a superhero film because she desired something as iconic and fun as Judi Dench‘s M that could diversify her career. Hounsou was inspired to be in a superhero film when his son stated he wanted to be “light-skinned” because Spider-Man was, and he wanted to show his son that black actors could be in these movies as well. Laura Haddock joined as Peter’s mother, after previously having a minor role in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Finally, with casting done, filming began in summer 2013. Marvel kept further massaging the work throughout filming to help connect it to other MCU properties, with Markus and McFeely provided finishing touches to the script. Guardians was an elaborate production, and Marvel took the job of making a space adventure seriously. Gunn aimed to do as much practically as possible, as the blowback against the abundance of CGI was already swelling by the mid-10s.

Marvel hired Brian Muir, who sculpted Darth Vader’s helmet for Star Wars, to aid in design work. They crafted many practical sets, including a massive prison with 350,000 pounds of steel. Makeup designer David White also worked extensively to bring Gunn’s vision to life, making casts of most of the actors in order to experiment. By the end, he and his team created over 2000 molds and 1000 prosthetics, including life-size models of Rocket and Groot.

Even for effects that had to be CGI, the team went above and beyond to create realism, such as figuring out new ways of animating Rocket Raccoon to make him look believable and not like a cartoon. Luma Pictures, one of the many effects studios on the film, created a new facial animation system for Thanos. Despite aiming for practicality, Guardians finished with a whopping 2750 visual effects shots, which also pushed it above budget.

Despite the MCU being a bastion of comics accuracy when possible, they continued to make further changes. Gunn originally planed to make the main MacGuffin, the Power Stone, red, as it sometimes is in the comics. Yet because the MCU decided to retcon the red Aether from Thor: The Dark World into a Infinity Stone, they forced Gunn to change the Power Stone to purple. They also settled on changing Drax to grey from green to avoid him looking too much like Hulk. Marvel was forced the change the race of Ronan’s goons to Sakaaran from the Badoon, as Fox held the rights to the Badoon.

Filming concluded in late 2013 and post-production continued through mid-2014. Gunn and Marvel began marketing the film at Comic Con 2013, launching an extensive campaign from there. A property like this needed all the help it could get. Creating a perfect first trailer was important, and the trailer was a smash success, garnering 22.8 million views within its first twenty-fours.

Part of the trailer’s success was the music. A centering feature was Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling,” which had a 700% increase in sales following the trailer’s release. Gunn was pleased because Disney almost went with a different, “cheesier” version of the trailer. This one made the music element prominent, which Gunn used as an anchoring point for the movie’s emotional beats. In combination with an extensive digital marketing campaign, confidence built that a movie based on a “bunch of a-holes” (a line initially only in the trailers that made it into the film based on audience response) might actually be a success.

August 2014 finally arrived, and Marvel’s next big test was here. They’d launched a cinematic universe. They’d proved a crossover film could succeed. Now, the MCU would see how obscure they could get before they lost audiences. If this failed, perhaps the MCU would be too fearful to dig too deep and wouldn’t go beyond B- or C- list characters moving forward.

Luckily for fans of obscurities, Guardians of the Galaxy was an unexpected smash hit. Even its Thursday night preview screenings (now an industry staple two years after the tragic Dark Knight Rises midnight shooting), beat out Winter Soldier. Word of mouth was strong and Guardians set the August opening weekend record, garnering $160.7 million as the weekend concluded.

Critics raved, with many loving the irreverent, zany foray into superhero cinema that combined heart and spectacle in equal measure. Many positively compared it to Star Wars, feeling it was the best movie in that vein in a long, long time. A minority of critics felt it was overstuffed and too laden with jokes and pop culture references, but it has gone on to be considered one of the peak MCU movies, with some still calling it the MCU’s best film.

Certainly audiences loved it. It livened up the box office in an unconventional run, demonstrating staying power by being #1 in non-consecutive weekends and tying The Dark Knight for most weekends at #1 for a comic book movie at four, even beating The Avengers to that mark. It also had the biggest female audience of a MCU film yet, with 44% of the audience women. Guardians wound up as the third-highest grossing 2014 film, finishing with $773.3 million. Not only had it defied expectations, it blew them out of the water.

Central in the film’s praise was the clever use of music which anchored many emotional moments and connected audiences. Gunn included the music to ground Peter as an Earth character, as Perlman’s original script had. He took the process of picking songs seriously, going through hundreds of candidates until he found the ones that worked best. The effort paid off. The soundtrack album topped the Billboard 200, the first soundtrack album composed of established songs ever to do so. Clearly, people were hooked on the feelings that perfectly picked pop music can generate.

While the post-credits for Guardians surprisingly did little to tease anything in the MCU’s future, other than Groot’s return, it did feature a surprising cameo: the Collector in his ruined museum is licked by Cosmo the Space-Dog (who would eventually return) when an unseen voice comments on how disgusting the lick was. The voice is revealed to be none other than Howard the Duck, the feathered superhero who started it all for this article series and for Marvel’s big-screen presence. Gunn certainly has a love for minor characters, though Howard wasn’t actually in the scene initially and was added as a last minute cameo in post-production.

With 2014 wrapping, the MCU kept proving it was unstoppable. Every big gamble Marvel Studios made paid off. They’d launched The Avengers. A series of successful sequels released, even with some early critical backlash. And 2014 brought a pair of movies ranking among the best of their genre. Not only was the commercial aspect working with audience buy-in, the MCU had grown in prestige.

Was it enough to stand alongside The Dark Knight? Opinions varied, but certainly Warner Bros was taking cues from Disney, now rushing its own DC cinematic universe into existence rather than vice versa. But before this era could truly wrap, there was one more Marvel film coming that one many may be surprised to learn is Marvel at all.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-High

The Guardians had quite a journey ahead after this film. Though they became part of the crossover Avengers movies in a big way, their trilogy had a fairly self-contained conclusion that added a sense of finality to many of the characters that is mostly lacking with other MCU heroes. Thus many of these characters probably will not be coming to Doomsday, despite being around in the canon.

That said, Star-Lord seems highly likely to return based on how Vol. 3 ended. As for the rest, there may be a very small chance of Rocket or Groot showing up. We’ll leave further comments on the Guardians for their last film. The villains specific to this movie don’t seem likely to come back, though. Ronan and Korvath did appear in Captain Marvel since it was a prequel movie, but their characters are dead. Maybe Del Toro’s Collector will get a small cameo, since his fate is unclear.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

In our first article series crossover, the surprise closer of this era is Big Hero 6. That’s right, Walt Disney Animation Studios made a Marvel movie. Though if you didn’t know that, no one would blame you.

The superhero team this movie is based on are another fairly obscure property. The team launched in the late ’90s as a means of grouping several Japanese superheroes together on one team. A Japanese Avengers, if you will. They were meant to spin off from another comic, Alpha Flight, though publishing errors led to their miniseries debuting first. They were never a high-profile comic or team, but they did feature several direct X-Men connections that made them slightly more known than the Guardians.

Still, like the Guardians, there was never a push to adapt them to the big screen before Disney acquired Marvel. But as a matter of corporate synergy, once the acquisition occurred, CEO Bob Iger encouraged other branches of Disney outside of Marvel Studios to explore developing Marvel IP. He specifically suggested looking for the obscure characters that wouldn’t interfere with the MCU and that they could reinvent without upsetting any sizable amount of fans.

Director Don Hall followed Iger’s direction while he was wrapping work on Winnie the Pooh (2011). Scrolling through the Marvel database, he found the Big Hero 6 comics and was immediately intrigued. He pitched development of Big Hero 6 to John Lassoer, chief creative officer of Disney Animation at the time, and it was the winning idea among several other pitches.

Disney announced development of Big Hero 6 in June 2012 right at the height of The Avengers release. Unlike the live-action properties, comic authenticity was not a concern here, and story head Paul Briggs and screenwriter Robert L. Baird made no attempt at fidelity. Baird didn’t even bother reading any of the comics.

Despite the MCU taking off in a big way, development of Big Hero 6 remained confined entirely in the animation studios with no plans of crossing anything over, allowing it to exist in its own ecosphere of creative development. Despite Disney consulting comics creatives like Joe Quesada and Jeph Loeb, there were reports of corporate friction with Disney’s direction on the property. Allegedly, Marvel railed against Disney’s plans to reprint Big Hero 6 comics, though Lasseter dismissed any idea that the movie was causing a rift and stated that Marvel let Disney have complete creative freedom.

Indeed, Animation Studio President Andrew Millstein commented that they leaned more into Pixar DNA for the storytelling. The creative team also turned to Studio Ghibli and other Japanese manga/anime for inspiration as well. Hall felt this was crucial for creating an original look for the movie’s central robot, Baymax. Due to the plethora of iconic pop culture bots, Hall and his team combined this multitude of influences to try to create something that stood out, reviewing The Wind Rises, Spirited Away, Wall-E, Pokemon, and mecha anime like Eureka Seven.

The crew also visited the DARPA-funded robotics team at Carnegie Mellon University to get an idea of where the cutting edge in “soft robotics” was at. Artist Lisa Keene stated from the beginning of the design process that Baymax should be “huggable.” This philosophy led to his final look being vinyl-based. This helped them balance the idea of friendliness with the concept that Baymax still had an intimidating quality to him. The result was something quite far-flung from its comics origins, but certainly in the vein of modern Disney.

Script debates occurred alongside the design struggles. Early drafts didn’t introduce Baymax until much later in the film, but once story artist John Ripa developed a way to introduce the bot earlier, the entire writing crew felt the story strengthened considerably, even if it required extensive rewrites to the first act. Another minor script squabble occurred when Lasseter wanted to excise Baymax’s description of a cat as a “hairy baby,” though he later admitted he was wrong after it did well in test screenings. It’s now one of the film’s more iconic comedic lines.

Among the many deviations from the comics was the film’s setting of San Fransokyo. Created exclusively for the movie, this city combined eastern and western culture/art and was a way for the team to have fun with a new setting. The comic was set in Tokyo but Disney felt Marvel rarely utilized San Francisco. A fictional city was a way to combine both worlds, literally.

Animation and overall production lasted the better part of two years. It led to Disney developing a new hyper-advanced rendering system called Hyperion that required so much computing power it needed 2300 workstations that each held a pair of 300 GB solid-state drives and backed on a central storage system with a capacity of five petabytes. Talk about powerful.

At last Big Hero 6‘s production concluded and it was on deck as Disney’s follow-up to their biggest hit in years, Frozen. Disney hoped to ride the momentum of that film and Marvel mania to box-office success.

Big Hero 6 opened in November 2014 to $56.2 million in its opening weekend in North America, just ahead of Interstellar, which debuted the same weekend. Marvel got to best Christopher Nolan again, if indirectly. Though Interstellar did beat it after accounting for international grosses.

But Disney hardly cared about that as Big Hero 6 finished at $657.8 million total, becoming one of the highest-grossing animated movies of all-time. Critics also raved with a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score, and Flickchart users also mostly enjoy it, as it boasts a 79 Flickscore. Many found it a touching and exciting movie and another staple in the modern Disney lineup, part of a revived era for Disney Animation after a lackluster ’00s. It has gone on to merchandising galore, including an entire land at Disney California Adventure Park.

While there was no crossover with the MCU, the filmmakers were inspired by the comics connection and realized they should do a post-credits scene after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy. Thus, very late in production, they added one featuring legendary comics creator Stan Lee in a voice cameo. Even if the movie was far removed from its comics roots, the Lee cameo speaks to the movie’s connection to Marvel history.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: None

This is our most confident statement of no connection we can make. The film is simply in its own realm outside of other Marvel productions. The Disney Animation wing of Disney did its own thing with the material, and other than its inherent source material, it really isn’t a Marvel product. Doomsday is going to stick to live-action Marvel for its cameos.

With 2014 ending, Marvel Studios’ peak kept rising. Box-office numbers universally rose after The Avengers and Marvel created some of their best movies. Sony’s attempts to compete ultimately faltered, setting the stage for shrewd negotiation to bring Marvel’s flagship character, Spider-Man, into the MCU fold. While Fox remaining stalwart was unfortunate for those wanting a truly united universe, competition mostly had a positive effect, boosting the quality of Fox’s output. Fox’s upcoming Marvel slate seemed to be responding to audience expectations.

One could say the mid-’10s were a golden era for comic-book movies. Anticipation for the Avengers sequel kept swelling, as well as what lay beyond with the Infinity Stones and Thanos. Even with a few Phase Two films having more uneven response, the MCU was a juggernaut at this point. It took an obscurity like Guardians of the Galaxy and launched them into mainstream pop culture. There was now an MCU TV show connecting with the movies, and more shows on the way. Even Disney animation was getting in on the Marvel brand. It was a Marvel world now.

Still, if there was any conflict left, it was the growing critique of MCU sameness. With ten movies under their belt, there was a minority, if a vocal one, already fed up with the light jokey tone and Whedonification of the movies. Feige, for his part, felt the MCU diversified in 2014 with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. While many agreed the MCU was showing genre flexibility, some still stated those attempts at genre swap were facile at best and that the formula was still there. For those wanting something different, they were ready to support what looked like an emerging competitor in the Zack Snyder-helmed DCEU.

But as the next era came, the MCU planned to stay on top. The Avengers sequel was opening up 2015 and then Phase Two was wrapping with the long-awaited Ant-Man before Phase Three opened with another big event movie, Captain America: Civil War. Whether this successfully built a cohesive narrative towards the Infinity Gauntlet or not, Feige was determined to make each individual film work. Hopefully, the process wouldn’t get away from them. Fox was lining up its own array of competition, including what looked like a much more accurate interpretation of Deadpool and concluding its prequel and Wolverine trilogies by adapting some of the most prestigious X-Men stories from the comics.

Could Fox or the DCEU get the edge? Or was Marvel Studios going to become the only show in town? Only time would tell if Marvel could keep it going or if the entire project would fall on its face from excess. Many had failed before from the same problem. Marvel Studios needed to prove it was different.

Ranking Era Five

It seems like each era has been better than the next once the MCU took off. Whether that trend remains or not, Era Five is chock full of excellent movies. While there are a few duds, the lows here are nowhere as bad as they once were. The studios seemed to finally crack the superhero formula and the lesser attempts from here were usually due to rushing things, rather than being a total mess.

#9: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Flickscore 61)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 deserves the bottom spot of this era. While it wisely course-corrects from some of the needlessly moodier choices of the reboot, it doesn’t eject them completely, resulting in a weird tonal mishmash of Spidey being a fun superhero with scenes where the dark Oscorp conspiracy plot continues. The script also poorly juggles the competing plot threads of Electro, Harry Osborn, and Spidey’s rocky relationship with Gwen Stacy.

Speaking of, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield remain highlights with their chemistry sparking. Yet, the story separates them a bunch, trying to wrestle with the implications of Peter making a promise to the dying Captain Stacy while also developing the romance further. It is simply too disjointed to function properly and thus botches the impact Gwen’s death ought to have in the end, as effectively acted as a scene that it is. Toss in the goofy Rhino bookends, the rushed Harry Goblin transformation, and strange socially awkward Electro who keeps getting sidelined in his own movie, and the result is a mess. It is funny to see BJ Novak for five seconds as another snide corporate jerk.

#8: Thor: The Dark World (Flickscore 67)

Thor: The Dark World hardly fares better and was rightfully considered the worst MCU movie for a long time. Many exaggerate the dullness of Marvel villains, but Malekith is the epitome of bland. The Dark Elves are built up as this looming ancient threat, yet their motivations are flat and undeveloped. Christopher Eccleston isn’t allowed to do anything with the role, making the central drama lacking.

The inverse from the first Thor with Jane coming to Asgard as the fish out of water has some promise, yet that is a sadly underbaked aspect of the story. As are most of the dramatic threads, such as Thor wisely challenging Odin’s decision-making, Thor wrestling with his responsibility as future king and his romantic interests, Lady Sif’s seeming jealousy of Jane, and Frigga’s final scenes with her son.

Just what is in this movie instead? Bad comedy with Stellan Skarsgard and Kat Dennings. Washed-out ugly frames of Malekith monologuing in a fake language. Many lackluster fight scenes. The redemptive factor is Loki, of course. When Tom Hiddleston is onscreen with Thor, the movie pops with the brotherly rivalry naturally bringing good drama and intrigue. A shame this couldn’t have been centered even more. And the final convergence battle is admittedly whacky enough to entertain as comic-book action.

#7: The Amazing Spider-Man (Flickscore 72)

The first Spider-Man reboot has promise. Garfield nails the Spidey in costume aspect better than Tobey Maguire ever did, with smart-aleck jokes galore. A scene where he takes down a thug is a highlight of how Spidey ought to behave. More time is spent with Peter as a high school student and the film really emphasizes the school’s reaction to Peter when he loses Uncle Ben. As aforementioned, Peter and Gwen are full of chemistry and serve as a solid emotional anchor for the movie.

But this also gets so much wrong. The darker tone and push for realism don’t work that well with a fantastical character like Spider-Man. The “grimdark” aesthetic just ends up robbing the film of joy, and clashes with the Saturday morning cartoon villain that is The Lizard. The movie wants a serious spy espionage backstory while also having The Lizard’s plan be to gas the whole city and turn them into lizards. The film also retypes Peter into an emo skater type that gets the girl right away, which doesn’t feel like an accurate representation of Parker’s underdog qualities.

Worse, it feels a rushed retread of the origin plot beats from Spider-Man. While Sally Field and Martin Sheen are decent replacements for May and Ben, the script seems to recognize the repetitiveness of what it’s doing and tries to change things, yet still feels obliged to include the same story points. The result is a butchered rewording of “With great power comes great responsibility,” the film flying through Ben dying and Peter deciding to be a hero, and something altogether underwhelming. Plus, the decision to have Peter promise Captain Stacy to leave Gwen alone in the end, only for the movie to immediately undercut the choice, still rubs the wrong way and makes Peter look horrible.

The Amazing Spider-Man is hardly the worst movie, but it is firmly mid-tier.

#6: The Wolverine (Flickscore 71)

The Wolverine might be among the most unheralded entries in the Marvel canon. To be fair, the third act is a mess. As other critics noted, it reeks of studio interference and becomes Wolverine fighting a cartoonish giant samurai while the Viper character also acts like she’s from a different medium as she fights Yukio. The late plot-twist also wrecks part of the movie’s logic if you think about it too long.

But until that point, the movie was James Mangold’s glorious warmup to Logan. He gets to wrestle with Logan’s trauma the most in-depth yet, providing the one true continuation of The Last Stand‘s events (Days of Future Past wipes it from canon) as Wolverine mourns killing Jean Grey and is tormented by a life of guilt. The Japanese aesthetic suits Logan well, fitting him neatly into the ronin archetype.

Mangold adds a noir touch as well with the mystery element and yazuka coming after Logan and his allies. The fight on the bullet train is a thrilling one and seeing characters dueling with katana throughout all adds to the movie’s aura. Hugh Jackman really gets to let loose in many ways, making this a fine duology with Logan. But more on that film in a future article.

#5: Big Hero 6 (Flickscore 79)

Disney’s foray into Marvel filmmaking is a real blast. With bright colorful animation and strong worldbuilding, San Fransokyo leaps into glorious being and instantly becomes an iconic Disney location. Baymax also joins the canon of lovable companions, his ignorance quite cute and perfectly tailored to be amusing to people of all ages.

Big Hero 6 also wrestles with some important questions about guilt, responsibility, and revenge. The movie lets its lead character, Hiro, go to some fairly dark places for a children’s movie as he comes close to making a mistake he can’t take back. As contrasted against the lead villain’s arc, this is some really strong character writing throughout.

The biggest flaws of it are a somewhat flatter plot on the whole and falling into the tropes of the genre. Most of the side characters feel far more disposable than they ought to. It also plays into the modern Disney humor that feels a little lacking and leaning on goofiness for laughs instead of actual jokes. These things all hold Big Hero 6 back from being one of the true greats, though it’s still a more than good movie.

#4: Iron Man 3 (Flickscore 77)

This may be a divisive one, but we say Iron Man 3 is unfairly demonized for the twist. Certainly, there is a fair argument to be made about the way it undercuts some of the stakes from earlier in the movie. But we think more of this anger comes from deviation from source material than actual criticism of the writing.

The twist feeds quite well into a Phase Two theme of things not seeming to be what they are and looking deeper under the surface. The criticism of using symbols to distract is well taken and also mirrors Tony’s own arc in the movie of finding value past his armor. On that front, the movie wisely gives weight to The Avengers by having Tony suffer from PTSD after this life-changing battle, something Robert Downey Jr. plays quite well.

Plus, some of the film’s best scenes are with Tony on the run, forced to rely on his mind to solve problems instead of just magical armor. His dynamic with Harley Keener is a highlight, especially with the darker turns the humor goes. It’s a shame the MCU more or less forgets this kid (replacing him with Peter Parker essentially) as there was something there. Shane Black’s humor and direction overall give Iron Man 3 a nice edge and his willingness to be creative with action scenes helps it stand out. The sky dive rescue is still an MCU highlight.

#3: X-Men: Days of Future Past (Flickscore 86)

Days of Future Past can rightfully claim its place as the best of the mainline X-Men movies. While a near thing with X2, we think Days of Future Past narrowly takes it due to the expanse of its story and themes. It threatens to be overstuffed and certainly sidelines the future timeline overall, meaning longtime features of the franchise like Storm and Ian McKellan’s Magneto don’t do much sadly.

But the characters that it does focus on are developed wonderfully. Some may complain the story is too focused on Mystique because of Jennifer Lawrence’s popularity, yet centering the entire conflict on one character’s moral choice and turning away from revenge is exactly what was needed for a franchise that is at its best when examining ethical dilemmas. The conceit of using the less than diplomatic Logan to play diplomat and convince the younger more conflicted versions of Xavier and Magneto to work together is both comedic and yet thematically fitting as it causes all of the characters to be pushed out of their comfort zones and have meaningful arcs.

The weight of the doomed future and power of the Sentinels is really felt as well. The film is chock full of excellent moments from the famed Quicksilver “Time in a Bottle” scene, to past and future Charles talking in a brilliantly acted scene between James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart, and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto continuing to be an excellent wild card. The movie thrills and touches in equal measure and was a fun send-off for the elder X-Men cast at the time.

#2: Guardians of the Galaxy (Flickscore 92)

Some would call this the peak Marvel movie and we wouldn’t argue with them too much. It’s only second-place here because we think there is one just slightly better. But Guardians of the Galaxy remains infinitely watchable. It has to start from ground zero in building up its team, unlike The Avengers, but James Gunn does the job, creating a cast of lovable misfits that we can’t help but empathize with by closing credits. The casting is nigh pitch perfect with the first battle scene they have with each other being not only well-designed and fun action but also showcasing the character’s personalities and ways of interacting.

Gunn doesn’t waste a beat of runtime either, propelling the story along even while developing the divergent backstories and motivations. The bright colorful space aesthetic also manages to stand out in the crowd of MCU movies at this point. Speaking of beats, the soundtrack continues to live up to reputation. Each song matches its moment perfectly. From “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” perfectly punctuating Star-Lord’s final escape from a space prison, to “Cherry Bomb” underscoring a nice satirical tease at the superhero final battle slow walk shot, and “Come and Get Your Love” setting the tone for the movie from the start, this remains Marvel’s best soundtrack.

Best of all, Guardians is just dang funny. While Gunn’s style of humor has its weak points and can get long in the tooth if you watch too much of his material, it is all used in just the right measures and portions here. Drax’s overly literal take on things (sadly changed in the sequels), Rocket’s carefree anarchic glee, and the abundance of situational humor all keep you laughing.

Guardians is an almost perfect space adventure movie. While still leaning into quippy dialogue, we do think it stands out and feels distinct from many of the prior and subsequent MCU flicks. Its humor is a little less slick, more jaded, and the script shows a love for its characters in a way most Marvel movies fall short on. Heck, even the basic zealous villain Ronan works well because of Lee Pace giving it his all and Gunn writing him in a way to stand out against Thanos. Speaking of, this movie manages the rare feat of setting up further MCU films without bogging itself down in exposition and side-plots. Well done Gunn.

#1: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Flickscore 91)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains Marvel’s finest work in this reviewer’s eyes, even twelve years later. No, it may not be that much like Three Days of the Condor or the spy movies it draws inspiration from. There’s much more action and jokes. But it also stands out in the MCU canon as a more grounded work and for talking about real political issues.

Indeed, The Winter Solder asks an enduring societal question: how much freedom are we willing to sacrifice for security? The Russo’s had something to say about where America was headed in 2014 and used a character like Captain America to say it. Roger’s old-fashioned idealism and unwavering principles let him be the moral test for the morally grey friends around him like Nick Fury and Black Widow, who’d become used to collateral damage and taking what they deemed as “necessary risks” to do their mission.

The movie’s big HYDRA reveal is still a heck of a moment, even after knowing its coming, though the first time watch made it quite a shock in what was still a fairly young MCU at the time. It demonstrated Marvel wasn’t afraid to shake up its status quo at the time and allow the universe room to do drastic storytelling choices that had lasting effects on the other films. In other words, this was a time of peak interconnected storytelling for the MCU.

Outside of the strong storytelling, thematic work, and character arcs, The Winter Soldier is also a really well-designed action film. One can tell the care that went into most of the action scenes right from the start. The hand-to-hand fight between Captain America and Batroc has an immediacy and sense of danger to it because the fight choreography has actual weight to it. It’s designed to work without cuts to hide the fake blows, a principle carried to the rest of the movie. From the famed elevator fight, to Nick Fury’s car chase, and the two big battles with The Winter Soldier, this has many of the MCU’s best-designed action sequences.

This is the movie that let Chris Evans really get to shine as an actor too. Between being firm against SHIELD, to the pain of learning Bucky survived and became a monster, his brief moment sitting with his lost love Peggy, and even great comedic timing, this film really let Evans claim the character as his own. The movie sadly continues to feel relevant today, as America in 2026 continues to wrestle with eternal battle between security and freedom. Watching this is always a reminder we could use a little more of Captain America today and why we still love superheroes.

Marvel Chart

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
3. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
4. The Avengers (2012)
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
6. Iron Man (2008)
7. X2: X-Men United (2003)
8. X-Men: First Class (2011)
9. Iron Man 3 (2013)
10. Big Hero 6 (2014)
11. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
12. Spider-Man (2002)
13. X-Men (2000)
14. Thor (2011)
15. The Wolverine (2013)
16. Blade (1998)
17. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
18. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
19. Iron Man 2 (2010)
20. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
21. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
22. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
23. The Punisher (2004)
24. Hulk (2003)
25. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
26. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
27. Blade II (2002)
28. Daredevil (2003)
29. Blade: Trinity (2004)
30. Fantastic Four (1994)
31. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
32. Fantastic Four (2005)
33. The Punisher (1989)
34. Ghost Rider (2007)
35. Howard the Duck (1986)
36. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
37. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
38. Captain America (1990)
39. Elektra (2005)

When a master filmmaker like Steven Spielberg makes a new movie, any cinephile feels almost obliged to pay attention. Spielberg has dazzled audiences with thrilling action and soaring emotion throughout his career in equal measure. He created the summer blockbuster season with Jaws and helped expand it with his Indiana Jones trilogy and by providing advice to friend George Lucas on his Star Wars series.

The excitement is even more palpable with Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s first foray into sci-fi in eight years and first return to aliens since 2008. Spielberg directed some of the most influential alien flicks of the 70’s and 80’s with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. and bringing his first original story in the subgenre since then was all the more exciting. Thus, Disclosure Day lands all the more disappointing due to its systemic failures.

To be sure, there is no arguing Disclosure Day doesn’t demonstrate Spielberg’s filmmaking craft remains at a high level. Often feeling like a compilation of his aesthetics across decades of directing action sci-fi pictures, Disclosure Day is replete with captivating visuals. Whether its a camera panning in through a window to focus on a character in the background, cross fading the heads of two characters observing each other through a mirror, or zoom outs as the music swells, Disclosure Day readily reminds you of everything that Spielberg has added to 20th century American movie making. Not only does he harken to his prior alien works, but there is even a car chase reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the smooth sleek dark color palates remind of Minority Report.

Speaking of music, and part and parcel with this greatest hits motif, John Williams scores the work. No one would call it his finest hour and none of the themes truly stand out in his body of material, yet it does sound one of his fresher scores in recent memory. Spielberg and Williams’s partnership is one of the more iconic ones in American film history, and seeing it resound here together is a treat.

Yet perhaps it is all of the merits that make Disclosure Day‘s demerits more crushing. The story walks familiar territory with Daniel (Josh O’Connor) dodging a quasi-private quasi-governmental agency with evidence that aliens exist. He plans to disclose this information to the world, but is held back due to his leader Hugo’s (Colman Domingo) urging and his girlfriend Jane’s (Eve Hewson) fear that such information will cause global chaos due to potentially destroying people’s faith in God. This sets up a theme of science vs religion, one of many themes painfully underdeveloped by the haphazard script.

Burdened by an enormity of plot, even at nearly two and a half hours, Disclosure Day fails to spend screentime efficiently. With multiple characters and ideas juggled, the movie drops nearly every ball by the end. While it attempts to carve a decent pace to avoid bogging itself down, the final edit gives short shrift to any meaningful character development. So often, the movie tells you what to think of the characters and situations without actually showing you those things.

Daniel has apparently struggled with disconnect since being a teenager due to a weird gift with numbers rearing its head, but this is only communicated because he tells this to Emily Blunt‘s Margaret. We get no sense of his life at all prior to the events of the movie, his relationship with Jane, or what his wants and desires were and how the film’s occurrences effect that. The result is a hollow plot device rather than a real person, muting the emotional climax when revelations of the past are finally made.

Jane is revealed early on as an ex-nun officiate and this is shown to be a shock to Daniel. Though precisely why it is is left a mystery, and is never resolved. The edit barely features Jane’s character past the halfway mark outside of a lone scene of her talking again with her nun teacher that attempts to continue the religion throughline. Yet another casualty of the sloppy writing,

Margaret suffers the same issues, set up as a weather anchor who suddenly starts getting inexplicable knowledge and is compelled to seek out Daniel. Aside from some jokey dialogue with her boyfriend played by a decent Wyatt Russell, her character and relationships and motivations are woefully underbaked as well. One gets the sense that five hours of material exist that might better explain and develop the characters and ideas, but the final cut fails at all of that.

Spielberg’s call for empathy and unity as a means of saving humanity are certainly heartfelt. And aspects of the final act work purely because he knows to cinematically convey these emotions and ideas. Yet for the things it does right, the script lets it down with its painful telegraphed choices of telling the audience about something and never giving room to experience these somethings.

The plot is also absurdly silly in many aspects. Conspiracy thrillers always take on a fantastical nature requiring a suspension of disbelief. Disclosure Day pushes this beyond a breaking point though, with characters able to get away with all manner of unplausible acts. This might not have mattered if the characters were developed right and there was true emotional investment. Without those present, the holes sink Disclosure Day utterly.

The sad reality is Disclosure Day is shockingly bad at its core. Because there are talented performers, set designers, and directing, Disclosure Day is still a passable work. It reminds of Spielberg’s better movies. Yet, the biggest disclosure in this film’s release is that Spielberg has hit his lowest point as a filmmaker since Crystal Skull. In an already wildly inconsistent career, David Koepp has hit another low with his script. Disclosure Day is a movie that sacrificed everything on the altar of plot machinations and is all the worse for it.

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There was a time when a new Star Wars film felt like an event. The original trilogy was the trend-setting sci-fi fantasy of the late 70’s and early 80’s and defined a generation. And say what anyone will about the merits of the prequel or sequel trilogies, but those, too, felt like events.

Aiding that aura were the long gaps between sets of films. Sixteen years separated the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Ten years passed between the end of the prequels and beginning of the sequels.

And now, perhaps unbelievably, seven years have passed between The Rise of Skywalker and the latest feature theatrical release in the franchise. Yet as the time window has shrunk each time, there is an even bigger factor as to why The Mandalorian and Grogu does not feel like an event: there hasn’t been a gap in the same way. Instead, Disney+ hosted seven different live-action Star Wars shows in that time and seven different animated shows, whether new shows or new seasons in older shows, as well.

Now, it would be unfair not to note there was a plethora of Star Wars content between the OT and prequels, and prequels and sequels. The entire Star Wars Extended Universe formed in those periods, with a multitude of books, video games, some animated and live-action shows as well, and more. One could argue there was the same splurge of content between every set of films and Disney is merely doing its duty as owner of the franchise to satisfy fans.

Yet, there is something undeniably different this time. Perhaps because these are all live-action “official” works, they feel more obligatory and present?

Regardless, unlike the peak anticipation for The Force Awakens, it feels as though The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters with even Disney’s marketing treating it as just another movie. Indeed, that is the biggest criticism of Jon Favreau‘s first theatrical feature since his “live-action” The Lion King, another film that could have the same critiques levied at it. The Mandalorian and Grogu does not feel like an event. It barely feels like a feature film.

Favreau and company do a very adequate job at crafting this work. It is better than many of the trash blockbusters that have occupied cinema screens in preceding years. When it comes to creatively bankrupt IP mining, movies like A Minecraft Movie, Borderlands, Madame Web, and more all spring to mind as much lazier, more cynical, and idiotic films.

Yet, The Mandalorian and Grogu is so lacking in ambition that it is a far less memorable and entertaining experience than watching many of these other far worse movies. For one, it is an editorial slog plainly bearing the hallmarks of having once been 3-4 episodes of the show repurposed together into a feature. The result is multiple periods of narrative dead space, with the seams of story beats so bright it felt like episode credits ought to start rolling.

For another, because it must occupy a safe middle ground, the movie does nothing to advance its characters in any meaningful way. The titular duo are largely in the same exact space at the end of the tale as the beginning. There are no arcs, no difficult decisions to be made, and no sense of stakes or momentum to anything happening. While this avoids having a script loaded down with convoluted plot holes, it also avoids any sense of audience investment or that watching this film brought one something. It’s the Star Wars equivalent of watching ivory white paint dry, though dare we say you might see more change to your wall in two hours than in watching this film.

Yes, Pedro Pascal continues to do an affable job as the stoic Mando, and the puppetry work of Grogu is as cute as ever. If there are commendable aspects to the movie, it is the commitment to using more practical effects at times including multiple puppet characters and a battle with stop-motion animated droids. If only this approach could have been applied to the Hutt characters. They look as though the film tried to transfer the cheaper CG of the Hutts from The Clone Wars show to the big screen and, as a result, are ugly as sin.

Speaking of, the main attempt at an emotional center involves Rotta the Hutt, the son of deceased famed character Jabba. Voiced by Jeremy Allen White, he is the closest thing to emotionally dynamic or complicated this movie has. Unfortunately, such conflict is delivered mostly in bland exposition where White is clearly struggling to find a voice for the character and Rotta blankly tells Mando his backstory and personal struggles without much prompting. This is the most amateurish way of writing in background and is accordingly dull. Further, the decision to have him speak in English the entire movie feels entirely at odds with how Star Wars has shown Hutts to date.

Equally dull are most of the supporting cast. Sigourney Weaver crossing into Star Wars ought to feel like a big deal, yet her character is barely in the movie and has no real personality or character traits. There are apparently a number of cameos from characters originating in Dave Filoni’s cartoon shows such as Zeb and Embo, but one of these doesn’t even speak. Not exactly engaging. Martin Scorsese bizarrely offers a voice acting cameo in this too, though for a minor side character. One has to wonder what happened behind the scenes for that to happen.

One would hope at least the action is solid in a film largely focused on fight scenes with the character work so miniscule. Indeed, when Favreau first helped create the show these characters originate from, one of the more notable aspects were the creative sequences making for a “western” style Star Wars. Yet oddly, most of the battles here are cut in a haphazard manner where its difficult to tell much of anything happening half the time. Aside from the solid introduction sequence, the majority of action can be difficult to make out.

Ragging on the plot beats almost seems pointless given how narratively dead most of this is, but as part of the pervading choice to ensure none of this matters, the movie has Mando lose his helmet again, something the show established is sacrosanct to his code. Yet this all resolves in a manner to ensure there is no consequence to it.

Same for a sequence where Mando is seemingly poisoned by a deadly toxin for multiple days. While this allows one of the few interesting attempts at filmmaking, where there are nearly fifteen minutes of silence focused on Grogu caring for his father figure, it kills the pacing and stretches credulity given how poisonous the venom was said to be. It’s a shame because it gives glimpses of what a better version of this movie could have been.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is one of the most aggressively average films to grace cinema screens. Designed to offend no one, it seems unlikely to stick with anyone either. Indeed, the movie is full of shots referencing older works and more memorable moments in the franchise. Even the two lead characters are ultimately visual stand-ins for things audiences already liked from earlier films. This duo is IP-mining the safe and familiar at its most calculated. Such is where Star Wars is now: turtles all the way down on everything being a facsimile of a facsimile of substance.

Though in a way, it seems perfect as a meta-text on the status of Star Wars. Disney made a movie to match the climate of the audience. There is a lack of fanfare for the newest theatrical release and this is a film thoroughly lacking in excitement or intrigue. Even the mostly great musical score from Ludwig Göransson does little to add thrill to this empty house.

While we now only have a year to the next Star Wars theatrical release, one has to wonder if anyone cares. Even if Star Wars: Starfighter is good, it feels as though excess has diluted the thrill and special feeling this franchise once had. This seems like the direction for most major media franchises too.

Perhaps its time to look back at what The Last Jedi said about letting the past die, letting the Jedi end, and moving on. Maybe the status of the franchise is because the fans couldn’t heed Rian Johnson’s portents that it was time to do something different, and this is what has been wrought.

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2026 is home to yet another hot horror breakout in Obsession. Coming courtesy of director Curry Barker (no relation to famed horror icon Clive Barker), who is part of a continuing trend of comedy directors/creatives moving into the horror space, Obsession is one of 2026’s most harrowing watches yet. Anchored by a star-making and darkly captivating performance from Inde Navarrette, it readily stakes a claim for best film of the year so far.

It isn’t because of some vastly original story. Obsession plays in the well-trodden territory of the “monkey’s paw” tale, wherein protagonist Bear (Michael Johnston) has a crush on his co-worker Nikki (Navarrette), though the feelings are seemingly unrequited. “Seemingly” is a key term because Bear is too cowardly to ever fully express himself to Nikki. Regardless, Bear happens to buy a strange, kitschy trinket, the One Wish Willow, and uses it in his disappointment, wishing that Nikki loved him more than anyone else in the world. One can guess where things go from there.

Yet where Obsession shines is in Barker’s pitch-perfect execution. From the moment the wish is used, Barker uses camera framing to create tension, cutting to a wide shot of Nikki standing on her porch in shadow as Bear watches through his car window. This creeping sense of dread is arguably never fully released until the final moments of the film, a testament to Barker’s craft behind the camera.

Obsession is masterful in its balance of tone. Much of the movie aims for a dark off-kilter humor, scenes vacillating between cringe laughter and uncomfortable creepy horror in mere seconds of holding a shot longer than normal. Barker’s instincts are exactly where they need to be, with multiple sequences causing one’s face to scrunch up in discomfort at what’s onscreen before breaking out in goosebumps as the moment escalates.

Much of this works also due to Navarrette’s aforementioned performance. It is not hyperbole to suggest this is an Oscar-worthy turn. She runs a gamut of emotions and places throughout the runtime, alternating between cutesiness, extreme anger, deep pain, and also pulling in a jarring physicality when her character does some bizarre body movements.

She commands attention whenever onscreen, working in perfect combination with Barker’s framing in each shot. One such moment of a closeup on her face cast in shadows is played to perfection as it takes on an intentional uncanny valley look, yet seemingly without special effects. It’s just performance and framing and is super unnerving. Navarrette should launch into the big-time after this one.

While not quite as showy, Johnston does a more than passable job as Bear. His character is this perfect mix of dorky nice-guyness, yet continuing down a wrong path despite all the warning signs. A lesser performer might not commit to the bit and give him more animus one way or the other, but Johnston resists such temptation.

As one might guess, Obsession aims to be a commentary on the entitled nature of the “I’m a nice guy, why won’t she date me?” mindset. This skewers the violation of consent that happens in romantic dynamics at times and the way relationships can become controlling and consuming. Ultimately, the thematic commentary is a weaker aspect of Obsession, as Barker is more concerned in ramping up the visceral experience than anything too searching. Johnston’s Bear also arguably needed to be written a little meaner to justify the morality at work. The film also runs slightly too long, starting to lose a tad of steam midway through the second act.

Such flaws are minor in the end. Obsession is an unrelenting piece of horror filmmaking and goes to some wild places along the way. Despite the conclusion almost being foregone if you have any familiarity with “be careful what you wish for” tales, Obsession still manages plenty of surprises en route.

With news that Barker has the keys to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise, there is hope he might bring quality back to that series. Even if we’d prefer he keeps writing his own ideas. But we’ll try not to obsess about the future too much.

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