CinemaCon is in full swing and there have been a ton of huge announcements so far. Disney took the stage on Wednesday morning and while there were some nice updates on big franchises like Avatar, everyone is clamoring to know what the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe holds. Disney mostly stayed focused on upcoming releases like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder, but MCU godfather/producer Kevin Feige teased that planning for the future of this iconic cinematic universe is on the horizon.
Feige specifically told the audience that he will be heading to a Marvel Studios retreat directly after CinemaCon to work on the next ten years of the MCU. That is not much to go off of, but it is just enough to get any fan of this epic franchise theorizing. Right now the MCU is in its most ambitious phase yet, dealing with the multiverse. Spider-Man: No Way Home was a full-circle moment not just for long-time fans of the franchise, but for Feige himself. Feige started out his historic career as an associate producer on Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and helped produce that entire trilogy before taking on what would become the MCU. No Way Home reunited Feige with Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Multiverse of Madness will see the producer reunite with Raimi.
These last few years have been huge for Marvel, and it is only going to get bigger with other upcoming releases like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and Blade. On top of that, the MCU will also continue expanding with all the Disney+ series like Loki Season 2, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Echo, Ironheart, Iron Wars, and What if…? Season 2. What the next ten years look like after that is anyone's guess. What could possibly be more exciting and grander than the multiverse? Thankfully that is not our job to figure out — though any Marvel fan could only dream of being part of this retreat.
In all seriousness, Kang the Conqueror will be the MCU's next big threat. However, now with both the timeline and multiverse broken, who is next? Doctor Doom? Magneto? It's possible that The Fantastic 4 and the X-Men will be on the table, as well as plans for the Young Avengers. Fans have been theorizing for years about how the MCU would introduce these iconic heroes and unless the Multiverse of Madness has something to say about that, the next phase of films seems like a fitting time to introduce these teams. We already had a taste of the X-Men with Patrick Stewart’s Professor X supposedly being in the Multiverse of Madness trailer.
Whatever the case may be, Marvel fans have been eating well since the release of WandaVision all the way back at the beginning of 2021. Multiverse of Madness and Love and Thunder look to continue this exciting nerdy wave. We won't know what is being planned at this retreat for a while, but we are sure to know more about the MCU’s future soon — if and when Doctor Strange fixes the multiverse.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on May 6, and Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theaters on July 8.