Kevin Feige teases the multiverse will be key to the MCU’s future. Wrapping up the 23-film Infinity Saga with Avengers: Endgame (with Spider-Man: Far From Home acted as an epilogue), the Marvel franchise is on the brink of transition as they prepare to kick off Phase 4 next year with Black Widow. While the Scarlett Johansson and Cate Shortland project a more grounded, Earth-based film, fans can expect the shared universe to tackle more unusual concepts as it progresses.

The idea of the multiverse is not new to the MCU. Far From Home introduced the concept, although it turned out to be nothing but a ruse from villain Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to trick Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland). Nevertheless, it prepared the public for the possibility that the franchise will ultimately explore the concept down the road. And if Feige’s recent comments are any indication, it won’t be too much of a wait.

Appearing at Brazil’s CCXP (via Comic Book) to lay out Marvel Studios’ plans for Phase 4, Feige talked about the multiverse and how it’ll be the next step in the MCU’s evolution. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will play a pivotal role in fully opening the franchise to the concept, and even shared that it will affect some of the upcoming projects in their announced slate of movies and Disney+ series:

It’s not surprising that this is the way to go for the MCU moving forward. Over the years, they teased its existence with Doctor Strange and Ant-Man films. It also came up numerous times many of the theories with regard to the imminent arrival of the X-Men into the MCU, as well as the rumored incorporation of the separate Sony Spider-Man franchise. It was in Endgame, however, that it became clear that the franchise is fully diving into the concept with the alternate timeline branches created following the Time Heist.

“When we first started the MCU, it was all about Tony Stark. Introduce the world to Tony Stark and that Iron Man armor. Then [we] went on to teach people what Asgardians were and learn about super soldiers then bring them together in Avengers. I’ve always loved space movies and I’ve always loved big intergalactic tales, which is why we did Guardians and the audience came with us so we could do a movie like Endgame. I always wanted to do time travel, which we finally got to do in Endgame. The multiverse is the next step in the evolution of the MCU and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is going to crack it open in ways that will have repercussions for a Disney+ series before it that’s not WandaVision and for movies after it in a big fun way.”

In conjunction with that, it’s thought Feige’s comments about the multiverse and its connection to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness tying into another Disney+ series (besides WandaVision) are about the Loki series starring Tom Hiddleston.  Not only does it fit the timeline he gave (it’s expected to release prior to the sequel film), it also fits with what happened to the God of Mischief in Endgame - escaping the Avengers with the Tesseract/Space Stone and creating a branching timeline. On top of that it makes sense that the concept will be more prevalent after the Scott Derrickson-directed sequel. In any case, this only means one thing: the MCU is set to be bigger and more complicated than ever.

More: Doctor Strange 2 Can Completely Change The MCU

Source: Comic Book

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