Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

By George Robbins

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, is a very expansive cinematic franchise and it has easily become one of Disney’s most profitable purchases with a large potential for the future. Almost every film in the MCU has been seen in a good light by fans and positively smashed through projected numbers at the box office. It is because of this that the series has been able to release multiple films each year for 12 years and still be able to make more that they know people will end up going to see. This has led to the MCU being established as a very long term franchise that can stay around for many years to come simply due to the amount of source content that is available to them. Being able to make films based on so many heroes and villains from the MCU is something that no one expected and that made it all the more sweet.

The MCU has produced countless films that people have referred to a genre-defining because they most certainly leave a lasting impact. Without the MCU, there was no way of bringing in heroes other than the movies that were being produced here and there in the past. The first ‘Iron Man’ movie completely changed the way that comic book character movies would be done because it gave a solid foundation to a universe many are fans of. Every other film made about a Marvel character up to that point was made independently to try and bank in on characters many people didn’t know much about. Some people may not have even realized that ‘Iron Man’ was not the first film to release which ended up featuring a Marvel character and it only started the hitherto MCU because no other movie had enough of a foundation to do it.

Other Marvel movies that people may have heard about but never thought much about were the ‘Punisher,’ ‘Ghost Rider,’ and ‘Daredevil‘ movies to name just a few. None of those films were ever really able to produce a solid start for a shared universe in the same way that ‘Iron Man’ did because they focused too much on the characters and not how they interacted with a large majority of the world around them. For the most part, the worlds those characters live in can be categorized as separate universes all on their own and this self-containment made it difficult to produce something useful out of the films. Therefore we really do have to be thankful for the release of ‘Iron Man’ for a number of reasons and we really need to appreciate just how well made the movie was. If the film was not as good as it was, we never would have had the MCU begin.

When the MCU began, the question would be just what characters would be able to helm the starting part of the MCU and so they picked characters that could possibly have good chemistry. That doesn’t mean that they all started off being able to work together as ‘The Avengers’ showed. The movie showed that the characters may not have a lot in common and are easy to argue with one another but they all knew what needed to be done and who should be left to what. It is because of this that everything worked out as it did and without the characters that they chose for Phase 1, they never would have been able to succeed the way that they did. Thus, when Phase 2 was announced, no one was sure how that would end up turning out.

While Phase 2 managed to keep things relatively similar to Phase 1 with the characters being shown on screens, it was also the perfect opportunity to expand upon the already growing universe. Hence we were eventually introduced to the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ even though they would not appear for the rest of the heroes until the end of the saga. It is largely due to this that we would be able to root for these characters in their own environment in a different part of the universe while other characters interacted together on Earth. The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ were unique because unlike other heroes who had been shown on screen by that point, they were a team comprised of five unique individuals. In fact, it would be easy to compare their first movie to ‘The Avengers’ in their own rite because it was a group with nothing in common coming together for a common purpose.

Despite the vast differences between the characters, they all found a common goal to fight for against the evil Kree Ronan the Accuser who was planning on wiping out entire worlds. Even though they were very wary of one another to begin with and they each wanted to succeed with their own goal, they worked together to succeed. Unlike The Avengers, they were a much more ragtag bunch of misfits that worked on their own and didn’t really have anywhere to go on their own. Thus they ended up becoming dependent on one another to the point where they became an effective team the likes of which can kind of rival the Avengers. It is due to this that people found themselves pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the movie and were looking forward to seeing the characters again.

Eventually we ended up with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ which further increased the size of the group the same way we saw things happen by the end of ‘Age of Ultron.’ This made it even more apparent that they are a force that nobody was anticipating and that they would most certainly be mirroring the Avengers in some capacity. After the end of ‘Endgame,’ people were wondering where the Guardians would be going from that point forward and that answer came in the form of the announcement that they would be in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder.’ After that, they are meant to get their own movie with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ which director James Gunn promised would change the Guardians forever from that point forward. The upcoming Thor film will be starting filming in January of this upcoming year in order to be ready for its 2022 release window.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ is supposed to release around the same time as the next Thor film because of their presence in the upcoming film, but it is unknown if that will remain the case. James Gunn was temporarily let go as director of the upcoming third entry and as a result, its release date was pushed back in order to deal with that whole situation. Eventually, after the protesting of the cast and crew, Gunn was hired back on as the director of the next film, but it has become more complicated because of the pandemic. They weren’t sure about the new release date to begin with so it wasn’t much of a surprise when they said that it would be releasing much later than originally anticipated. With the release now being much later than anticipated, no one knew when they would end up filming for the movie.

We now know that they intended window for filming is near the end of 2021 to try and make sure every other film being worked on will be finished and they can start. Unfortunately this doesn’t leave us with a definitive release window, but it is a strong possibility that the window will now be some time in 2023. If ‘Love and Thunder’ will be releasing in 2022 with a January 2021 start date for filming, this is a fair assumption to make, but we could still see the movie release in late 2022. Either way, we know that it will be starting filming around the same time of year next year round. That being said, everything is still open to change because of the pandemic and filming schedules and releases definitely belong at the top of the list of things that can be affected in some way.

With every movie in the MCU essentially being pushed back because of the long delayed possible release of ‘Black Widow,’ we will be seeing a lot of changes being made on the fly. There are a few MCU films that will be worked on this upcoming year and it will not be easy for the crews to get them done because we don’t know when this pandemic will end. It is because of this that we will not know until we get closer to the start date for production whether they will actually be able to start on time. Leaving it open as just “the end of 2021” affords a decent window where they can actually start working on the film in earnest. Hopefully things will end up working out and the MCU timeline doesn’t get further pushed back as pretty much everything has been delayed by about a year.