CAPTAIN AMERICA Star Chris Evans Responds To Reports Marvel Studios Plans To Reunite Original Six AVENGERS

@lazlodaytona - there have been 23 movies in the infinity saga. There have been 23 projects in phases 4 and 5.

This is far worse than a lul.

@DrReedRichards - I don't get it either. The plan was probably already in motion before the drop in quality. It's not like the choice was made now to just play on nostalgia. The choice was made when timetravel was introduced in Endgame

@DrReedRichards - it's going to happen and everyone will go watch it

@xfactor - I do trust the Russos the most with it, but I do wanna see Benson & Moorhead take a go at it. Think if it's the former though, the original six will definitely return

@bkmeijer1 - Yeah. And look, I don't want to come off as sounding as a "Marvel apologist" here (you know me better than that by now but that's for anyone else reading this), but I think/guess that the whole Multiverse Saga thing came about at a critical time when Kevin & Co. were trying to figure out what they were going to do after the "IS" and how to handle all the IPs that they were going to have access to all of a sudden. And to them (and I would have done the same) the best answer was by introducing the Multiverse. That would allow them to add/modify/delete characters and stories as needed, knowing that it was going to be messy, with everything culminating in a "final act" that would reset the status quo moving forward. That's about the only way that you could introduce so many big names such as the F4, X-Men, etc. and all their associated "universes" in relatively short time and then move forward.

That being said, I think that Marvel knew that introducing the Multiverse wasn't going to be as simple as introducing time travel or the Quantum Realm or the cosmic side (which were not exactly easy, but they managed to pull those off pretty well), because the Multiverse includes all those concepts and a lot more. I mean the kind of stuff that astrophysicists are currently researching and debating and publishing papers on, etc. So what they should have done (and I don't know if they did, but I don't think so) was to write a sort of "MCU Multiverse Bible" laying down all the rules, structure, framework, etc. of the new MCU Multiverse, and they should have done it before "Loki" S1, and probably even before "Endgame". I think that they just though that moving forward the creatives would figure it out as they went along and that they would all be on the same page, but as it turned out due to the sudden pressure that they were under to crank shit out, content was being produced that was playing kinda fast and loose with the "rules".

So where does that leave us now and how to move forward? Well I think that Marvel is fully aware of the situation that they're currently in (how could the not be?) and it sounds like they have several plans to address the situation(s) (probably more than we know about). They're about half way through the MS so far, so plenty of time to get everything in order. And I have a feeling that that's going to start with "DP3". Feige said not too long ago that that movie was going to be key to the MS, and at the time we all thought that that was because it was going to bring in a shitload of characters from different universes, but what if between what happened in "Loki" S2 and what's going to happen in "DP3" Marvel uses that as a way to "clean house" so to speak as to how the Multiverse works moving forward? I mean, having DP act as the voice of the average viewer makes perfect sense, and depending on how deep and meta they go with that movie I could see it having WAY more precussions for the rest of the MS than we initially expected. I mean, if you're going to level-set, that's the place to do it.

Sorry, didn't mean to write another novel, but I could go on all day about this shit 😉.

@bkmeijer1 - Yeah, and I think that when Feige & Co. started planning the Multiverse as it would exist in the MCU, they knew that they were going to have 2 different (but not mutually exclusive) audiences: the GA and the fans/sci-fi fans/time-space geeks. So I think that they tried to lay out a basic concept of the Multiverse for the GA (which seemed to work because between Marvel and DC and the other purveyors of Multiverse stuff) it sufficiently brought the awareness of a Multiverse to the general public writ large (I mean hell if the late night talk show hosts are joking about it then you know that it's reached the GA (personally I'm still trying to convince my wife that there's a variant of me living in the garage who does all the shit that she yells at me about like leaving the water on in the pool, leaving the garage door open overnight, spending $200 on a Transformer, etc. - short version: it's not going well, but I MAY have sold her on "he's the one who's really good in bed 😳). To that end I'd say that they've been pretty successful.

Then beyond the GA version of the Multiverse I think that Marvel attempted to do a deep dive into the Multiverse, time travel, alternate realities, etc. for us sci-fi/science people who actually know what string theory, dark matter, etc. is and to that end I'd say that it's been rather hit or miss. And THAT, damn it, is why they need the f**king MCU bible! Actually, as we speak, there's probably (hopefully) someone over at Marvel working on that.

BTW, speaking of advanced concepts, are you familiar with things like manifolds or dual space? These aren't sci-fi topics, just super high level theoretical mathematical stuff that I studied during my PhD work. Short version: a manifold is where you create something that makes sense mathematically but physically doesn't. Like the Mobius strip is a manifold (hence the name of Owen Wilson's character in "Loki"). FWIW, OB is also a kind of manifold (Ouroboros), i.e. the snake eating its own tail. The Klein Bottle is another example. The overall concept is that you can represent things in dimension beyond just 2D, 3D, or 4D.

Along those lines, dual space allows to solve advanced computational geometry problems by projecting things from one dimension into another one. For example. imagine a point in space. Move that point perpendicular to itself in and it becomes a line, which exists in one dimension. Move that line perpendicular to itself in space and it becomes a plane, which exists in two dimensions. Move that plane perpendicular to itself then it becomes a cube, which exists in three dimensions. Move that cube perpendicular to itself and you're entering the fourth dimension which is time. Etc, etc. Pretty heady stuff. Beyond that it gets all theoretical. I had to take classes in this shit during my PhD so I went well down the rabbit hole... 😊.

@bkmeijer1 - Yeah, I'm with you man. For someone who's so deeply entrenched in Computer Science I REALLY don't like math. I can do it if I need to (even the really hard stuff), but I just don't find it that interesting (I'm much more of a visually oriented person anyway). Kind of a means to an end for me. Like my definition of hell would be having to work out ML model stats while sitting next to the Bay City Rollers and listening to "Shadow Dancing" by Andy Gibbs for eons and eons. So I definitely find physics MUCH more interesting, especially astrophysics. Like I could sit and watch YouTube videos with Neil DeGrass Tyson (although he tends to water things down a bit too much for me) or any other noted astrophysicists for hours and hours. Likewise I also find deep ocean stuff very interesting. Basically exploring areas of the unknown. Math we know. Not a lot of interesting areas to go with that. That being said, those 2 areas that I was describing in my last post I found interesting, but probably mores because they weren't just about crunching numbers.

Going back to the MCU stuff, I just reread your article on the science/fiction/fantasy of the MCU and I have a couple of suggestions if you decide to write up another article(s):

1. Keep in mind your audience. This is something that I've learned from teaching undergrad classes in CS. Don't assume a certain basic level of scientific knowledge. When I teach (which is kinda what you're doing here), I always start of by establishing a "baseline" and build from there. And while you kinda did that, it would be helpful in future articles to start off by summarizing the main concepts, basically as bullet points that can be easily digested by any of the readers. So like "Here are the rules of the MCU Multiverse as we know them so far: (1)... (2)... etc.". It's easy for some folks to get lost a bit when you start talking about superpositions and such, so summarizing for those who may have glossed over some parts would help.

2. Expand your explanations to include other aspects of the established MCU, including the "religious" aspects (the various gods i.e. Norse, Greek, etc.) as well as the cosmic aspects like the Celestials, Infinity, etc. Obviously this would require a few more articles, but as a reader of your first article I might find myself thinking "Okay, I get what the Multiverse is but where do the 9 Realms fit into this?". I understand that you're not trying to write an entire "bible" for the MCU, but when we're talking about how time and space work in the established worlds/universes in the MCU, explicitly stating how they work in those spaces may help to pull things together a bit more. Speaking of which...

3. IF you decide to write more articles and dive into some of the stuff that I identified above, pulling it all together is key. Again, going back to my teaching experience, when I knew that I was going to be covering a broad topic that couldn't be contained within a single class period (even when the classes were 3 hours - ERRRGGG!) I would be like "Okay we're going to go through this piece by piece and I promise you it will all make sense by the end." and then I would lay out the "knowledge bricks" and at the end step back and show how we just "built a house of understanding" (damn that was cheesy). But you get my point. So the high level summary is the key. Like, how everything fits together in the MCU from an astrophysics point of view, or as far as we know right now.

Anyhow, just some thoughts on all that. And, yes, Marvel had better get some frickin' physicists/astrophysicists in there (if they haven't already) to figure out the rest of this shit because seriously this could be the largest, most in-depth dive into the Multiverse/time travel/what the hell ever that's been attempted onscreen and they'd better not f**k it up.

@bkmeijer1 - Yeah, math is a means to an end, or "a necessary evil", so I deal with it when I need to. Fortunately the kind of ML/AI stuff that I do these days doesn't require me to have to directly do much of that directly, and most ML frameworks these days have functions built in to do all those model performance stats (i.e. precision, accuracy, recall, F-1 score, etc.) for you, so I can avoid all that. That being said, there are folks who really enjoy doing all that mathy stuff, so more power to 'em.

And writing an article for yourself is perfectly fine as well. It's the equivalent of thinking out loud and/or talking to yourself when working through a difficult problem, which I tend to do as well. Kinda like when I have to *shudder* grab a pen and paper and actually write out the math for something I'm coding that isn't working correctly or that I haven't wrapped my head around.

Another thought that I had after I posted that last post that I don't recall you touching upon in your article (forgive me if you did and I don't recall it) was how the basic laws of physics seem to behave in the MCU Multiverse. I mean, for example, gravity seems to be a constant (at least for what we've seen) between universes. And I'm trying to think of any examples where they've broken any of the basic laws of physics (I don't mean things like time travel paradoxes, etc.) and I can't think of any. Of course, there are "comic book laws" that they seem to follow, like every planet and universe so far seems to have just the right amount of breathable air and everyone speaks English (even the folks without universal translators). Well, with the possible exception of Groot.

Either way, like with sci-fi in general the MCU may just be "we stick to the laws of physics until we don't". I mean, how many times has GotG played fast and loose with space being absolute zero with no oxygen or sound? And don't even get me started with fire/explosions in space in sci-fi movies overall. 😳

@bkmeijer1 - Well I think that overall we both agree that (1) Marvel needs to get these rules (whatever they may be) of the Multiverse as firmly established ASAP, especially if they want to avoid people crying "plot holes" as they build toward the conclusion of this saga, and (2) once this saga is all said and done and the dust has settled, SOMEONE needs to sit down and hammer this shit out in a hard copy form that ties everything together and makes it all fit.

Hell, if Marvel is smart, they'll get this all figured out soon enough to get one of their "Assembled" shows out there to explain everything before the build up to the big end, but I don't know how high of a priority that would be for them. Ideally, if they had put together a sort of "Multiverse Bible" early on in the MS, now (or maybe after "DP3") would be a great time to roll something out. But you never know. They could surprise us. They don't have any other movies to work on next year, so actually putting out a 45 minute show that uses footage from the movies up to this point and having Kevin or someone breaking down how everything works in the Multiverse shouldn't be too tough to kick out.

@bkmeijer1 - Totally. Especially if they have some established astrophysicists on it to help explain the more "sciencey" parts so that the GA gets it (like Neil DeGrass Tyson, et al). On that note, when/if Marvel does a show like this, puts out a book, etc. they REALLY need actual scientists/physicists/astrophysicists/etc. helping to formulate things and firmly establish the MCU "laws" (or as close as you can realistically get given the fact that's all still comic book based science fiction) that all projects moving forward are beholden to (even when it comes to things like shrinking and the QR) and the sooner they do this the better.

That may not may a whole lot of difference to a lot of casual movie-goers who just want to be entertained, but we science geeks would greatly appreciate it. 😉

@bkmeijer1 - OR how about this: the have a panel of all the smartest people currently in the MCU (Selvig, Banner, Pym, Shuri, etc.) and they each have their own idea of how physics/astrophysics/etc. work in the MCU and they just sit and argue about it, confusing the audience even more and THEN have some actual astrophysicists come in and explain it "for real". That would be funny. Or even better: they're all arguing about it and then Reed Richards comes in and explains it, firmly establishing him as the new smartest guy in the MCU. BAM! There you go!

@bkmeijer1 - Actually, a shortened version would make for a pretty funny ad for "F4" when it comes out (presuming that (1) "F4" still happens within the MS, and (2) it has cosmic/space/time/ elements to it). If I were to script it out it would go something like this:

The scene opens like I said above with the above scientists all sitting on a panel arguing about the nature of astrophysics in the Multiverse. There's a subtitle that says something like "International Consortium on Multiversal Physics and Astrophysics". Hulk is talking about everything you do creating branching timelines and how altering the past becomes your new future, Selvig is positing that the laws of physics only hold within the 9 realms, Pym is going on about how the laws of physics are totally different in the QR, Shuri is talking about quantum mechanics, etc.

Then Neil DeGrass Tyson (because he's probably the most "TV famous" astrophysicist over here) comes into the room and says "No no no you're all wrong. It works like this:" and starts drawing on a whiteboard things like a wormhole, dark matter, etc. and they're all still arguing.

Then Reed (Pedro or whomever) comes into the room and says "No, it works like THIS." and then draws something impressive on the whiteboard (we don't see what it is), then turns and walks out of the room. Everyone in the room is in awe of what he sketched out and they say stuff like "Of course", "That makes perfect sense", "He's a frickin' genius", etc. Finally someone says "Say, who the hell was that guy?". And then we see Reed's complex time/space/multiverse diagram on the whiteboard dissolve into the "F4" symbol.

BAM! Instant movie hype! Marvel, DM me so I can tell you where to send the check 😊.

@bkmeijer1 - Well I was throwing that (admittedly cheesy) idea out there as a way to set Reed up as the new "smartest guy in the MCU" before the movie even comes out (and depending how the movie plays out he could be the returning "smartest guy in the MCU"). Not that the GA doesn't know who Reed Richards is, but just to establish his place with the current hierarchy in smarty-pants in the MCU. Saves from having to do that in the movie itself (of course that would require the majority of the GA to actually see said trailer).