End of Phase Three
*Heavy spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home*
Peter Parker’s second solo film officially concludes the Infinity Saga and sets up a what’s surely going to be an epic Phase Four. Tony Stark’s sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame causes Peter to question everything he does and ultimately influences him to hand over Tony’s gifted A.I. Edith to the mysterious Quentin Beck. Knowing that Beck, aka Mysterio, is a master of illusion and one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous villains, Beck breaking into a standard evil laugh after getting Edith was right on cue. The fight scenes that proceeded between Spider-Man and Mysterio were visually stunning and captured how manipulative Mysterio can really be.
Nonetheless, the young Avenger masters his “Peter Tingle” and successfully disarms Mysterio of Edith, but not before the master illusionist dies. MJ finds Peter bleeding and broken on the bridge, she confesses her true feelings for him, they kiss, everyone is safe and returns to New York, and Peter is swinging through the buildings. The credits roll on a seemingly pleasant end, until the first end credits scene. After Spider-Man takes MJ for a quick swing, a large television screen breaks into the news regarding Mysterio and the Elemental attack in London. The video reveals a frantic Beck speaking to the camera explaining that Spider-Man began to attack him without reason. The video cuts to Beck laying against the wall with Spider-Man saying “Execute” in the background. The news anchor passes the story onto none other than J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle. Jameson, played by J.K. Simmons once again, begins with his usual “Spider-Man is a menace” monologue, before breaking away to another clip of Mysterio. The injured Beck is again frantically speaking that he knows the identity of Spider-Man and, with a slight fake out at first, reveals that the web-slinger is Peter Parker. Thinking that was already a big enough cliffhanger as is, the movie concludes with another plot twist. While driving, Nick Fury and Maria Hill shapeshift back into Skrulls, indicating that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were never really with Spider-Man at all. The Skrulls in question are familiar to MCU fans: Talos and Soren from Captain Marvel. Talos calls Fury and starts to inform him that not everything went exactly to plan, but Fury ends the call prematurely. At first thought to have been laying on a beach, it digitizes and Fury is shown to be on a giant space craft with a whole crew of Skrull.
Peter Parker’s future
Wow. That was a lot of information to take in and process. With so much to unpack here, let’s start with the big one: What is Peter Parker going to do? If we reference the comics, there are instances where Peter’s identity has been revealed, most notably in the Civil War story. Siding with Tony and the Registration Act, Peter willingly tells the world that he is Spider-Man. His decision is ultimately a poor one as the web-slinger eventually switches to Captain America’s side, and once the war among heroes ended, his family becomes a target for people trying to kill him. In the subsequent story One More Day, Kingpin orders a hit on Spider-Man, but Aunt May is on the receiving end of it and nearly dies. This prompts Peter to strike a deal with the devil Mephisto, choosing to give up his marriage with Mary Jane in exchange for Aunt May’s life and erases the memory of people ever knowing Peter was Spider-Man.
If Marvel decides to go down that route, introducing Mephisto to the MCU would be an interesting one to say the least, and the person most suited to assist in bringing him onto the playing field is Doctor Strange. The Sorcerer Supreme already dealt with a spiritual or other dimensional being in Dormammu, so given his expertise in that field of study, he could have information regarding Mephisto. If Marvel decides introducing Mephisto isn’t in the cards, Doctor Strange could still be of some use to Peter. In the 2013 comic New Avengers #3, Strange used the Time Stone to erase Captain America’s memories. The only issue with that proposition is I’m not sure exactly if the Infinity Stones are still around in this timeline. According to an article on Screen Rant, the Russo Brothers explained that the “original” Infinity Stones that were thought to have been destroyed by Thanos actually still exist. “Thanos only reduced the stones to the atomic level. The stones are still present in the universe.” Well then. Mind you, this could be nothing more than Marvel keeping all options on the table, but what if it’s not? The Time Stone is borderline essential to Doctor Strange, what if he and Wong discover it’s not really gone? Not only could the Time Stone be the cure all for Peter’s problems, but also checks the box for a possible plot of Doctor Strange 2.
Another possible lifeline for Peter happen to be a pair he didn’t realize was helping him the entire time: Talos and Soren. After Peter seemingly freaks out upon finding out Nick Fury was never with him, the idea of the Skrulls impersonating as him comes to his mind. What would happen if Spider-Man was seen swinging around New York while Peter Parker is having a bagel in the park? It’s simple, maybe a bit too simple for Marvel’s liking, but this seems quite effective. Nobody would question seeing both of them out in the same place at the same time, and maybe Fury knew that? He seemed pretty uninterested in what happened with Mysterio and the (now fake) Elementals, so it’s possible that he has a solution to Peter’s problem?
Regardless of who helps him, the future of Peter Parker won’t get addressed until his third solo film. I think most of the Phase Four films will take place concurrently with the events of Far From Home or in the past like the Black Widow solo movie. When we do see Spider-Man back on the big screen, I think we’ll finally see the emergence of the Sinister Six. So far, we’ve been introduced to Vulture, Scorpion, and Mysterio (if alive). Tim Gettys on the Kinda Funny In Review of Spider-Man: Far From Home stated that Dimitri, Nick Fury’s agent who ends up driving Peter’s class in the balck van, is in fact the villain Chameleon. And who is Dimitri’s brother? Kraven the Hunter. Kraven would be the perfect villain for Spider-Man in the next film, acting first as a professional trained hunter to capture Spider-Man on behalf of, say, New York before he loses his mind in blood lust. Bringing Dimitri’s Chameleon and possibly Kraven into the fold would give us five members. At this point, I think it’s unlikely we see Norman Osborne and the Green Goblin. Instead, I could see Marvel electing to transform Peter’s friend Ned Leeds into Hobgoblin. It would follow the events of The Amazing Spider-Man #289 where Ned is brainwashed by the real Hobgoblin and takes his place. It’s difficult to predict how exactly Marvel will craft Peter’s story with the superhero’s status in the MCU remains murky with Marvel’s partnership with Sony slowly coming to its end. It’s quite possible that Marvel and Sony re-negotiate Tom Holland’s contract as the deal has greatly benefited both parties, but we won’t know for sure.
Moving into Phase Four
At the time of this article, Marvel has yet to announce its complete plans for the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We know that Marvel is working on filling the cast for The Eternals and the Black Widow origin film. It has also been confirmed that James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Ryan Coogler (Black Panther 2), and Taika Waititi (Thor 4) are all returning to continue their respective Marvel stories. Marvel also plans to introduce the Master of Kung Fu, Shang-Chi. Aside from those confirmed plans, it’s safe to assume that we’ll get sequels to Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange. After that, things start to get a bit tricky. Before we jump into how exactly will Disney integrate the Fox Marvel properties into the MCU, let’s talk about the Skrulls and a possible Secret Invasion.
With the emergence of the Skrulls in Captain Marvel and the twist at the end of Far From Home, it’s clear that the Skrulls are going to be major players moving forward. The easy answer to the future of the Skrulls is the Secret Invasion story. Throughout the many events that have spanned the Marvel comics, the shapeshifting alien race, the Skrulls, slowly planted themselves among us. The Skrulls have the ability to impersonate anyone to near perfection, making it extremely difficult to tell the difference (Peter Parker not knowing Nick Fury and Maria Hill were Skrulls in Far From Home). Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, stated that just like humans, there are good and bad Skrulls. We’ve only seen “good” Skrulls to this point, so this only leads to the inevitable future of encountering “bad” ones. As we move from each solo Phase Four film to the next, Marvel could expose hidden Skrull operatives until it culminates in a full-fledged Secret Invasion film that ends with the newly formed Dark Avengers. The Skrull invasion feeds into the Mysterio’s belief in Far From Home that the public will believe anything he wants them to. With the Skrulls possibly living among us since the events of Captain Marvel, so about 30 years ago, that would definitely create some serious trust problems with people.
Phase Four will likely see the rise of either the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, and I don’t think people are truly ready for that. After having finally completing the purchase of Fox’s Marvel properties, Disney has the opportunity to create the most complete Marvel cinematic universe. Feige has already said that it would be years before we see anything related to these characters, but it means they *are* coming, and most likely being discussed right now. With how complicated and recent the X-Men franchise is, I think Marvel will elect to hold the mutants in favor for the Fantastic Four. Introducing Marvel’s First Family shouldn’t be too hard a task, they could be in space during The Snap and were exposed to the cosmic energies? Or simply reinvent some sort of life-changing accident, and boom, the Fantastic Four. The MCU needs some sort of central stability and setting up the Baxter Building could be that stability. Plus, the addition of the Fantastic Four would also bring arguably the greatest Marvel villain in Doctor Doom and the eater of worlds Galactus. The death of Thanos left behind a quite large hole in the villain arena and Galactus certainly possesses the physical stature to occupy said hole. The Silver Surfer, the herald of Galactus, would help expand upon the cosmic side of the MCU, and could present a possible team-up with Doctor Strange. Reed Richards would be an obvious choice as the next “smartest person not named Shuri in the MCU”. There are many benefits for Marvel to fast-track the debut of the Fantastic Four in the MCU.
The X-Men, on the other hand, pose a different problem. Fox’s currently run of X-Men films ended with the recently released Dark Phoenix, a take on Jean Grey’s cosmic Phoenix powers. The film was not met nicely critically, and it’s safe to say Disney will probably look to revamp much of the franchise. There’s plenty of questions surrounding the MCU’s version of the X-Men, but the biggest one is when? Up to this point, Marvel has been near flawless at integrating new characters to this universe. Trying to install thousands of people who possess some sort of mutant power is something on a whole other level. If Marvel decides to jump head first into the multiverse concept, bringing the X-Men from a different Earth might be the easiest way. This could also help create a conflict between the X-Men and Avengers, leading to an “Avengers vs X-Men” movie similar to Phase Three’s “Captain America: Civil War”.
Another way to explain thousands of mutants suddenly appearing on Earth is to say they were always there, but hidden to the naked eye. By combining the use of his mutant detector Cerebro and telepathy powers, Charles Xavier might be able to erase the existence of mutants from all non-mutants. The wave of radiation from Thanos’s initial Snap could have additional ripple effects that might affect people’s perceptions, thus slowly revealing mutants back into the public’s eye. Not only would this be a pretty easy way to bring the X-Men to the MCU, but would also give Peter another option in trying to restore the secrecy of being Spider-Man.
With Spider-Man’s identity being revealed, a possible Skrull invasion, and the inevitable introduction of the Fox Marvel properties, the future of the MCU will be brighter than ever. There’s more than a few different routes that Feige and Disney can take, and knowing Disney’s current track record, I think we’re in some pretty good hands. Far From Home really threw a wretch into what many might’ve thought was possible in the MCU, and now that I’ve seen Marvel is willing to take it as far as exposing Peter Parker as Spider-Man, I know that nothing should surprise us anymore. Phase Four is the start of something new, and for the first time in nearly a decade, we have no idea what’s up Marvel’s sleeve.
Buckle up.
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