Marvel To Announce Five-Year MCU Plan 'Soon' After Spider-Man: Far From Home

Marvel's got five on it — five years mapped out on its cinematic universe schedule, that is. 

Speaking in a recent interview with IGN during the press circuit for Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios' head honcho Kevin Feige revealed that the company has a five-year plan in place, but that nothing will be announced until after Spider-Man: Far From Home releases on July 5. While many had their fingers crossed that Marvel would drop big news after Endgame opened in theaters on April 26, fans will indeed have to hold out until Far From Home has its time in cinemas this summer to know what's in store. 

Feige mentioned that the detailing of the next few years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will come "soon" following Far From Home's debut, but such a massive unveiling probably won't come as quickly after the Spidey sequel as fans would like. One could understandably theorize that Marvel would make the announcement at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, since the event takes place after Spider-Man: Far From Home launches (it runs from July 18 to July 21) and the gathering is the number-one place for studios to publicize future films. However, Feige said that he can't confirm or deny whether Marvel would even attend SDCC let alone say if the studio would present its five-year plan there, as doing so would spoil Avengers: Endgame. 

"I don't wanna be annoying, but I think it ... in a certain way, that is also sort of a post-Endgame spoiler," said Feige. "I will say all of the post Comic-Con, post Spider-Man: Far From Home stuff ... Here's an exclusive. We're gonna keep making movies. We're gonna still keep making movies after these two. And we will talk about them soon after Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out ... We have built and fleshed out our five-year plan of where we're heading, the first few years of which we'll be announcing, as I said, relatively soon, after these next two movies."

This major movie plan is believed to include the Black Widow solo film, directed by Cate Shortland and starring Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, and Rachel Weisz; the Black Panther sequel; the potential Captain Marvel sequel; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which recently welcomed its director James Gunn back into the saddle after the Walt Disney Company fired him; The Eternals, said to have Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani on board and possibly feature the first openly gay male superhero lead in a film; and Shang-Chi, directed by Short Term 12 filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton. Marvel hasn't commented one way or another about these possible Phase 4 movies, but this is the most plausible film slate sketch we've pieced together without any explicit confirmation from the studio. 

It isn't just standard Marvel films for which this plan accounts — it also includes movies that will feature heroes and villains Marvel's parent company Disney recently acquired from Fox in the multi-billion-dollar merger deal that went through in March. Feige noted that we're still quite some time away from learning what Marvel will do with characters like Deadpool, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, but he did hint that those plans might come as part of the back half of the five-year proposal. 

"Probably," Feige said when asked if it would be a few years before Marvel announced anything regarding Marvel-made X-Men and Fantastic Four franchise reboots. "Probably, only because, as you've heard me say before, until it was all done, we literally couldn't do anything. So essentially, it's sort of Day One."

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to hear that Marvel is holding its cards close to its chest until after the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, as Feige has said that's been the studio's intention from the get-go. He told ComicBook.com in a sit-down for Captain Marvel that there would be no announcements for "anything post Avengers: Endgame or Spider-Man [Far From Home] until post Endgame and Spider-Man."

This has all  sparked a conversation about the length of time that may be left between Far From Home and the next Marvel movie. Deadpool comics co-creator Rob Liefeld previously pointed out that Endgame and Far From Home could be the final Marvel films for a while, since there are no MCU projects currently in production. Additionally, fans might have to wait about a year from the launch of Far From Home until the debut of another Marvel superhero flick, based on information that's currently available. To our knowledge, Marvel's content calendar has May 1, 2020 carved out as the launch of the next MCU entry — and if that's the date Marvel is sticking with, there will be a gap of 10 months from Spider-Man: Far From Home and the 24th movie in the MCU. Can fans hold out for that long? Let's hope.

There are a ton of questions Marvelites have walking into Avengers: Endgame, not to mention the mysteries that might be left to unravel once that film's credits play, so it's best to save the headache and avoid theorizing too far in advance with so few details on hand. If you, valued reader, are beginning to look more and more like Charlie Kelly trying to catch Pepe Silvia as you attempt to crack the case on Marvel's five-year plan, we advise you step back, take a deep breath, and wait as patiently as you can until Marvel executives comes forward and dishes up all the juicy (and official) details themselves.