mcu ideas/predictions/etc

EXISTING FRANCHISES:

Doctor Strange:
- For Doctor Strange 2, the main villain carries over from WandaVision (either Nightmare, Mephisto, or Wanda herself)
- Evan Peters is part of the main cast as Peter Maximoff
- Many other universes cameo but the only one that the main characters spend a significant amount of time in is the Marvel Zombies universe
- Does well enough for Doctor Strange to eventually get another sequel which resolves the Baron Mordo arc and ends the franchise (although Doctor Strange stays around)

Spider-Man:
- Spider-Man 3 is not entirely Multiverse but it dominates the third act
- Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn is the primary villain
- We get glimpses of the Raimiverse and Webbverse and Tobey/Andrew offer Tom advice & show up at the last second to help during the final fight
- In the Raimiverse Peter and Mary Jane are happily married with a teenage daughter named May Parker who crosses over and becomes Spider-Girl in the MCU
- Meanwhile in the Webbverse, Andrew has become very depressed and mainly uses the Spider-Man persona as a way to let out aggression. He meets the MCU Gwen Stacy (still played by Emma Stone) while visiting the MCU which gives him hope. Emma then goes on to star in a Spider-Gwen movie where Andrew plays the male lead
- Going forward Marvel cuts a new deal with Sony where Tom appears in the Avengers films but his solo films are pretty much independent from the MCU (although canonical)

Black Panther:
- Despite T'Challa not getting recast, a new character is introduced to take up the mantle of the Black Panther
- However, Black Panther II performs below expectations because not everybody will be satisfied by whatever they choose to do
- As such, the story of Wakanda mainly continues on television, although the new Black Panther is featured most prominently as a member of the Avengers

Captain Marvel:
- The point-of-view franchise for the cosmic side of the MCU moving forward, receives at least a trilogy
- Introduces the Shi'Ar and Cotati as major players in the galactic wars
- Monica Rambeau stays as the primary sidekick in all future Captain Marvel films and also shows up in the Avengers films
- Ms. Marvel also continues on her own show that is very successful and focuses on low-level Jersey City threats; she does NOT join the Young Avengers but forms the Champions at some point after Avengers 5
- It will be confirmed in CM2 that Carol and Maria had a relationship but broke up during the blip (hence Monica's apprehension towards her)
- Secret Invasion is essentially part of the franchise
- Eventually builds as a franchise to Empyre

Avengers:
- Avengers 5 isn't released until 2025 and is based on Secret Wars as the conclusion of the Multiverse arc that spans WandaVision, Spider-Man 3, and Doctor Strange 2
- The new team is branded as the New Avengers and mainly focuses on Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Captain America (Sam Wilson), the Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man/The Wasp in addition to new characters from Phase 4
- In terms of how the remaining current Avengers who haven't been written out yet have their arcs concluded:
- Hawkeye retires at the end of his series
- Thor gets another film to close out his and Loki's arcs (so Taika gets a full trilogy) and the events of Thor 4 keep them from appearing in Avengers 5. Valkyrie is the main way the franchise continues as she joins the Avengers and eventually gets an Asgardians of the Galaxy franchise to herself
- Hulk gets a prequel film or series that takes place during the Blip where he deals with Leader. He symbolically passes the torch to She-Hulk who joins the Avengers
- Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy conclude their arcs in Vol. 3, except for Mantis and Gamora who joins the Asgardians of the Galaxy
- Armor Wars serves as the sendoff for War Machine

NEW TEAM-UP FRANCHISES:

Thunderbolts:
- Film franchise that is set up as Marvel's equivalent to Suicide Squad except with characters we've seen before
- Yelena and Taskmaster are brought in from Black Widow
- Baron Zemo is brought in from Falcon & the Winter Soldier
- Swordsman is brought in from Hawkeye
- Ghost is brought in from Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Songbird is the point-of-view character of the franchise

Young Avengers:
- The biggest commercial success of all of the upcoming team-up franchises
- Starts as a miniseries before becoming a film franchise
- Wiccan and Speed are brought in from Wandavision
- Patriot is brought in from the Falcon & the Winter Soldier
- Stature is brought in from Ant-Man 3
- Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) is brought in from Hawkeye
- Kid Loki is brought in from Loki
- Miss America is brought in from Doctor Strange 2
- Iron Lad is newly introduced although is a younger version of Kang the Conqueror
- Hulkling is NOT part of the first wave but eventually crosses over after first appearing in the Captain Marvel franchise

Agents of Atlas:
- Premise: Jimmy Woo bands together Asian superhumans to face more local threats while the Avengers are disassembled/occupied elsewhere
- Shang-Chi leads the group in addition to helming his own franchise
- Sword Master is also previously introduced in a Shang-Chi film
- Amadeus Cho is newly introduced but has the familial connection with Helen Cho (the scientist who helped Ultron)
- Silk is brought in from a solo film produced by Sony
- Aero and Wave are brought in after originating in their own miniseries

Midnight Sons:
- Premise: A team of darker heroes taking on supernatural and monstrous threats
- Doctor Strange is brought in from his own franchise
- Blade is brought in from his own franchise
- Moon Knight is brought in from his origin miniseries
- Ghost Rider is brought in from Doctor Strange 2
- Agatha Harkness is brought in from WandaVision

Champions:
- Premise: basically the Young Avengers except explicitly social justice oriented
- Ms. Marvel is brought in from her series
- Ironheart is brought in from her series
- Amadeus Cho is brought in from the Agents of Atlas franchise
- Nova (Sam Alexander) is brought in from the Nova film
- Joaquin Torres is newly introduced and takes up the Falcon mantle

OTHER NEW FRANCHISES/ONE-OFFS:

Eternals:
- Only gets one film due to underperformance despite critical success
- Young Thanos cameo and introduction of genetic meddling in humanity which sets up both mutants and Inhumans
- One or more of the Eternals end up being evil and most of them die
- The only characters to reappear in the MCU are Ikaris (Richard Madden), Sersi (Gemma Chan), and Black Knight (Kit Harington)

Fantastic Four:
- Goes for a "fun MCU" vibe like the Spider-Man or Ant-Man franchises
- Moves quicker through the typical story beats faster than previous attempts: Reed and Sue are already married and Franklin and Valeria have already been born (though without powers) at the start of the first film
- The Future Foundation is established by the end of the second film and that becomes the primary outlet through which the rest of the franchise operates
- Doom is to the first FF film as Loki is to the first Thor film; he is defeated, comes back as the villain in the following Avengers film, and then becomes more of an anti-hero

Inhumans:
- Another TV adaptation, although no reference to the failed ABC version
- In order to avoid overlapping with story beats with mutants, leans heavily into the Royal Family internal political drama with a lot of class commentary
- Starts as a prequel with Attilan on another planet, before an eventual Attilan revolution that displaces them to Earth as an antagonistic threat to the other superhumans there

Nova:
- Premise: A pair of soldiers become an unlikely duo with a older/younger brother dynamic as they defend their home planet
- A single film that features both Richard Rider and Sam Alexander
- The destruction of Xandar (the planet featured in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, where the Power Stone is being kept) is the climax of the film and Richard dies

Power Pack:
- Premise: four children get superpowers and do a Disney Channel-esque sitcom
- Aimed at a younger audience than the rest of the MCU and pretty distant, although with the potential to watch the children grow up over time (like Boy Meets World) and eventually cross over

Captain Britain:
- Premise: Merlin the Wizard has given the Braddock family mystical powers to use to defend Britain and the alternate magical dimension the Otherworld against threats based on Arthurian mythology
- Very European aesthetic and the first Western fantasy property to be introduced into the MCU
- First introduced in Doctor Strange 3, then takes over as the primary exploration of magic in the MCU
- Betsy Braddock, the sister of Captain Britain, becomes one of the founding X-Men after her mutation activates in the post-credits scene of the first film
- Eventually turns into a broader Excalibur franchise based on the Claremont run of the comics