After nearly two dozen installments, the current era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set to end with Avengers 4. Spider-Man and Black Panther will still be around, and Captain Marvel is just getting started (reportedly with a cameo in Avengers: Infinity War), but the new phase of the MCU—which Kevin Feige has admitted might not even be called that—is otherwise very much up in the air (or possibly in space). There are nine films still scheduled for release through 2022, and yet Marvel chief Kevin Feige says there are currently no plans to tout any of them at San Diego Comic-Con this year.
As Feige tells Den Of Geek, Marvel “won’t do anything until after this time next year.” The Marvel Studios president points to the big announcement in 2014 that laid out phase 3 of the MCU as an example of what he won’t be doing at SDCC: “We did a very big announcement in 2014 where we announced a lot of movies, and we added a few movies to it after that announcement. But it really felt important that we deliver on that before we do a big showcase of whatever is to come.” Last April, Feige said the studio wants to do something “very different” after phase 3 wraps, though he didn’t offer any real hints as to what the new direction would be. A Marvel cosmic universe idea has come up in reports about the future of the franchise, which James Gunn has already said would not be modeled after his Guardians Of The Galaxy movies.
There are still two MCU releases left in 2018—Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man And The Wasp—as well as the first Captain Marvel solo outing and Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel, which Feige believes should tide fans over until after May 3, 2019, when he’ll be free to talk about the next stage of the shared superhero universe.