How Will The MCU End

How Will The MCU End?

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With Phase 4 just beginning, an end just doesn’t seem likely for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, is an ending seemingly in sight for the MCU?

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How Will The MCU End

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has an iron grip on pop culture, but all good things must come to an end at some point, including the beloved franchise. Since 2008, Marvel has been weaving a seemingly never-ending tapestry of continuously adapted storytelling, with the first major chapter culminating in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, bringing what franchise architect Kevin Feige refers to as “the Infinity Saga” to a close. However, the first three phases were only the beginning, as Phase Four is set to expand the MCU in ways we’ve never seen it open up before.

Now already fans have been introduced to Chaos Magic and the Multiverse, courtesy of shows such as WandaVision and Loki, as well as a new Captain America by the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. With Loki two episodes in, the show is already playing around with the way the timeline is structured in the MCU, opening up the gates for even more mind-blowing and unexpected storytelling opportunities in the future. However, as stated by Owen Wilson’s Mobius in the most recent episode, the Time Keepers are locked away unfurling the story of the end of the universe, which means at some point everything will come to a close.

With so many great stories already told, and so many more to come, it seems like the MCU could continue on forever if it really wanted to. But realistically, be it either naturally or unexpectedly, the long-running multimedia superhero series will eventually come to a close, which is a puzzling thought considering there’s no indication of just how it might all end. How could this blockbuster franchise, that has changed cinema as fans know it, eventually come to the end of its lifespan?

Will The MCU Ever End?

How Will The MCU End

The success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been absolutely unprecedented until this point, and a far cry from what anyone could have expected the franchise to become back in 2008. Both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame broke the $2 billion threshold, two of the only three films in history to do so. As of right now it would seem like the franchise’s massive critical and commercial success would guarantee it to go on for quite some time, but real-world trends and logic dictate that at some point Marvel won’t be a constant at the box office.

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On one hand, if the quality of the projects doesn’t decrease to the point of them losing the admiration of fans, there’s no reason why the MCU should end soon. However, superhero fatigue is a very real worry of many comic book fans, and with the rising popularity of the genre, it seems that there’s no real way to avoid the abundance of superhero projects hitting screens. Just like the Western boom of the 50s and its subsequent collapse throughout the 60s, there’s a very real possibility that audiences could grow tired of the over-saturation of superhero stories, parodies, and homages on-screen, despite the many attempts to make them feel unique and stand out.

Why And When The MCU Could End

How Will The MCU End

If superhero fatigue is a real problem, it certainly hasn’t grown to the point where it can genuinely threaten to topple an entertainment titan like the MCU. It was only 9 years ago that the superhero boom truly escalated with the release of The Avengers; since then the genre has only grown in popularity with the culmination of the MCU’s Phase 3 being the closest thing fans have gotten to a crescendo. If box office trends are any indication, the franchise is set to keep going for years to come.

With that being said, nothing lasts forever, and there will realistically come a day when there aren’t any new MCU films playing in theaters. If superhero fatigue is the driving force behind the collapse of Marvel’s interconnected tapestry, then taking a look at the popularity of the Westerns of the past could be an indication of how long it might take for the audience’s sensibilities to change. While the Western experienced the height of its popularity in the 50s, the genre was a cultural mainstay from arguably the 40s to the 60s, a near 20 year period of uninterrupted cinematic domination. If the MCU is even remotely comparable, that means we won’t see major conversations about the end of the journey until around 2028, potentially around the conclusion of Phase Six.

The Problems With Ending The MCU

How Will The MCU End

For most fans and analysts of the MCU, the assumption is that the franchise will end as a result of fatigue or audience disinterest. But if this isn’t the case, what could an organic ending for the overarching story possibly look like? In just four phases, Feige and the multitude of filmmakers (both original and replacements) involved have introduced dozens of different storylines, some of which have already received proper resolutions and many of which have been spun-off into different plot threads entirely. By the very nature of the franchise being a massive, collaborative effort, there’s no real way for it to end with a completely satisfying resolution that would tie up every loose end.

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How Will Marvel End The MCU?

If a true “ending” is being discussed for the future of the MCU, chances are it will be unlike anything comic book and movie fans have ever seen on-screen before. Not many series based on comic books have had natural proper endings; Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy and Raimi’s original Spider-Man franchise come to mind. But while those endings only had to wrap up the story of one core group of characters, the MCU has the insurmountable task of wrapping up an entire universe worth of narrative in a way that pleases hardcore comic readers as well as casual film fans. Luckily, comic books have long ago found a way to bring about an “end” to traditional narratives, even if they don’t always use them in the right way: the multiversal reboot.

Marvel’s most recent company-wide reboot, Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars, is the perfect crash course on how to send off a series in a way that concludes the arcs that came before it while looking towards the future. With the MCU set to introduce the Fantastic Four in the near future, the possibility of seeing Doctor Doom rewrite the fabric of reality in his image might be more likely than anyone knows. Even if the story isn’t adapted in its entirety, the idea of one character rebuilding reality from scratch opens up infinite possibilities, including one in which the MCU as we know it “ends” but the universe within is rebuilt anew, with the promise of even more stories in the future if the demand is there. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is showing no signs of slowing or stopping anytime soon, it’s always fascinating to think about what the future holds for the endgame of one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons ever.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/marvel-cinematic-universe-end-finish-how-why-when/

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