5 things we want to see in Marvel’s Phase 5
By Shaun Stacy
A greater sense of connectedness
One of the largest hiccups when the MCU first shifted into high gear, was the wishy-washy links between its television shows and films. While it isn’t unusual for film characters to just be featured in movies or television characters only be featured in other shows, what was unusual is that they were calling themselves the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when not everyone was included in that universe all of the time.
Early on in Agent’s of SHIELD‘s run, the series had strong ties to the MCU films, with a resurrected Coulson leading a team of agents who occasionally would come across film characters such as Maria Hill, Lady Sif, and even Nick Fury himself. Then, as the show went on, it seemed to distance itself from the MCU films and vice versa. Audiences didn’t get why “The Snap” never affected Agents of SHIELD, or why none of the members of Coulson’s team were featured in Avengers: Endgame.
The only connectedness that stayed in place was for the Marvel Netflix shows, which included a series dedicated to the main characters of each series teaming up. Additionally. the main and supporting characters occasionally appeared in other series, whether it be Luke Cage appearing in the series finale of Jessica Jones, or Misty Knight teaming up with Colleen Wing in Iron Fist. Part of what made these shows exciting and interesting is the possibility that almost any character could show up anywhere, and that there was a familial bond shared among characters who previously never met but it totally made sense that they would bond.
While we got to see some of this in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, when the Guardians of the Galaxy teamed up with the Avengers, there are certainly more opportunities coming down the pipeline to have more crossovers for the MCU characters.
Similar to the DCTV Arrowverse’s annual crossover, heroes could team up from across all of the Disney+ platform of Marvel shows to combat a new common evil. Comic books are known for their frequent crossovers, so it just makes sense that that translates into the live-action projects. Teams and heroes shouldn’t be separated at all times, whether they’re on a show or in a movie if indeed they are all supposed to be part of the same world.