Even before Jonathan Majors was fired as the MCU's Kang the Conqueror, there was already a great deal of speculation among fans about where the Multiverse Saga is taking them as the next Avengers movies near.
On the one hand, we have a Multiversal epic like Deadpool 3. However, other movies and TV shows - Thunderbolts and Daredevil: Born Again, for example - look set to tell much smaller-scale, likely self-contained stories which feel somewhat inconsequential to the impending threat of a war with Kang and his Variants.
According to The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez, Marvel Studios is looking to tell a wide range of stories in this Saga that don't necessarily all tie into what's down the line.
Among those are supposedly "arcs like Devil Reign, the rise of the Midnight Suns, the coming of Mutants," all of which we're guessing lay the groundwork both for what comes after Avengers: Secret Wars and ensuring Marvel Studios has plenty of new characters to pit against Kang.
Perez would later hint that World War Hulk is among those projects, though we remain unsure how a story that big can be squeezed in before Avengers: The Kang Dynasty Avengers 5. Then again, we wouldn't be surprised to see yet another wave of release date delays.
"Not every film in the Infinity Saga focused on the Infinity Stones or Thanos, and it'll be the same across 5 and 6," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said earlier this year. "But we're gearing up. People will get a taste of this in a big way in Quantumania as we lead to Avengers: Secret Wars, which I'm extremely excited for."
"You know, I'm coming up on 23 years at Marvel. That's a long time. It's not quite half my life, but it's almost half my life. [Laughs] Many of us have been together for a decade or more. And we only do it because we are so excited and in love with the potential for what we can do ahead."
"The storylines that weave together through Phase 5 and 6 into Secret Wars and the opportunities that the multiverse brings storytelling-wise, it's a whole new aspect to the MCU," the executive concluded.
Do you think the Multiverse Saga can be salvaged as we head deeper into this era of storytelling?