The MCU Phase 4 ended with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special a few weeks ago, and we’re about to discover the next chapter of the story. While we wait for the MCU Phase 5 to start, we’re witnessing a steady flow of exciting leaks detailing Marvel’s purported plans for the upcoming movies and TV shows. The latest one comes from an insider claiming that one of this year’s MCU movies will deliver the first live-action incursions, which will look “absolutely terrifying” on screen.
As a reminder, we last talked about incursions after Doctor Strange. But we can’t explain anything before warning you that big spoilers might follow below.
What are incursions?
We learned about incursions during Multiverse of Madness when Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) became the prisoner of Earth-838’s Illuminati. Reed Richards (John Krasinski) explained that 616-Strange’s presence in the 838 timeline is risky. He’s confusing and destabilizing reality.
The greater the footprint 616-Strange leaves behind, the greater the risk of an incursion. An incursion occurs when the boundary between universes erodes. The realities collide, and this results in the destruction of at least one, if not both universes.
838-Richards might not know the complete rules of incursions, but he tells 616-Strange that 838-Strange caused an incursion while dreamwalking. That’s when 838-Strange took over the body of one of his variants from a different reality. 838-Strange caused that world’s destruction, which is why his peers killed him.
As we explained at the time, these incursion rules come with side effects. Other 616 characters might have triggered incursions, not just Strange. And we speculated that incursions might lead to Avengers: Secret Wars. That was at a time when the Avengers 6 movie wasn’t even confirmed yet.
But Multiverse of Madness did end with a great cliffhanger. Clea (Charlize Theron) appeared in 616-Earth to recruit Strange to fix an incursion. Because, apparently, you can fix them.
The Marvels will deliver the MCU’s first incursion
This brings us to an exciting rumor detailing Marvel’s first live-action incursion.
“Incursions are going to look absolutely terrifying in live action,” a Marvel insider called The Watcher said on Twitter. “One of this year’s movies grinds to a halt when one starts.”
Initially, the leaker did not reveal which of this year’s MCU movies will feature an incursion. As a reminder, we’ll have Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels in theaters this year. At least two of them could feature incursions: Quantumania and The Marvels.
But then the same leaker revealed the title in a different tweet. The Marvels will supposedly be able to delay the incursion, but it will split them up.
This is likely the incursion that Clea warned Strange about since all these stories are connected. But that’s just speculation on our part.
The Marvels plot leak
While we can’t verify any of the MCU leaks that appear online, the incursions tidbits above happen to match a big The Marvels plot leak from a few months ago.
The leak indicated there would be an incursion in the movie, with the three Marvels working together to fix it. But Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) will be stuck in a different reality:
In addition to Dar-Benn [Zawe Ashton] destroying planets, her creation of portals makes the universe unstable, increasing the likelihood of an incursion, which is another reason they have to stop her. An incursion happens in the climax – Carol Danvers [Brie Larson] fights Dar-Benn while Monica and Kamala [Iman Vellani] try to fix the incursion. Monica ends up flying through this ‘tear’ in the universe and fixes it on the other side, and ends up stuck in that other universe.
If The Watcher’s claims are accurate, the Marvels will temporarily stop the incursion’s progress. Stopping the incursion completely might take extra effort.
The Marvels opens on July 28th. We expect to see the first teaser for the movie in the coming months. But if the film features the MCU’s first incursion, it’s unlikely we’ll see any footage from it in the trailers. Or, if we do, we won’t know what we’re looking at.
