- Marvel movies and TV series are currently delayed on account of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
- Some productions are rumored to resume in the near future, assuming the pandemic permits it, and a variety of rumors have popped online in the past few weeks.
- An exciting report says the Avengers’ most formidable foe could show up again, although it’s unclear where he might land next.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is on pause right now because the novel coronavirus has made it impossible for new movies to launch in theaters or for new productions to continue their work. As some countries and US states have started reopening, there’s been increased chatter about Marvel’s plans for MCU Phase 4 and beyond. Sadly, the number of new COVID-19 cases has been growing at a much faster rate that could lead to further delays when it comes to new movie releases. But that doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been seeing more leaks about the future of the MCU. The latest new report is actually quite exciting, as it tells us the Avengers might meet their most formidable foe once again.
When the Avengers: Endgame credits rolled, we knew this would probably be the last time we saw some of our favorite heroes in an MCU adventure. Black Widow, Iron Man, and the first Captain America have all either died or retired. Thanos died twice in the film, which seems fair for Marvel’s biggest, baddest MCU villain to date.
In the months that followed, we learned that Natasha will be back again for the Black Widow prequel, and we also heard rumblings that Robert Downey Jr. might be considering a return to the MCU. Separately, reports claimed that a younger version of Thanos could appear in The Eternals.
We’ve also noted that bringing back any of the characters who died in Endgame would do the film a disservice. Marvel now has to come up with a new Avengers team as well as new villains to match them, rather than focusing on the past. That’s why we don’t have an Avengers 5 movie coming in Phase 4. The new team needs to be fully formed and a Thanos-like threat has to be introduced. In fact, a report said recently that Marvel’s greatest villain will soon be introduced or foreshadowed.
This brings us to Jeremy Conrad’s latest Marvel scoop that says that Marvel isn’t entirely done with Thanos:
I learned tonight from one of my most reliable sources that Marvel Studios is beginning to talk about some way to have Thanos featured in a movie again in the future. It’s not definitely happening, it’s just something ‘in the cards,’ but the big purple guy still looms large in their minds. There’s no specific storyline or anything like that mentioned, so I have no idea how it’ll work. But with time travel and the multiverse now a thing in the MCU there are infinite possibilities of how we can see Thanos again.
It was the same Conrad who said that Dr. Doom will be the replacement for Thanos, and that might still be true. After all, Conrad has a solid track record. But the audience might once again be treated to the villain who lurked in the shadows for 20 MCU films before finally appearing in Infinity War and Endgame.
Thanos hadn’t really appeared on screen all that much before Infinity War. We knew he was coming, we just didn’t know when it would happen. That gives Marvel plenty of space to maneuver and explore the Mad Titan some more, assuming it’s all relevant to the next overarching storyline. We might not necessarily see Thanos face the Avengers in an epic confrontation like he did in Endgame, but he may still interact with some of them. Well, a version of Thanos at least, given that he’s definitely dead in the main MCU timeline.
This is all speculation at this point, and there’s no telling when or where Thanos might appear. Conrad speculates that The Eternals is one possibility. He could also show up in some capacity in Nova, where we could see the destruction of Xandar that happened off-camera in Infinity War.
