you'll hear it time and time again on the internet the MCU fell off after end game things haven't been as good since Iron Man left phase four was underwhelming and more recently Thor love and thunder sucked Quantum Mania sucked secret Invasion sucked whether or not you agree with these sentiments you can't deny that these sentiments are growing amongst the fans and Casual audiences of this Cinematic Universe but why is that that's a question that's a question certainly the argument could be made these films have simply gotten much worse there are your aforementioned films like love and thunder a sequel that Pals in comparison to tiger waititi and Chris Hemsworth's previous teaming in 2017's Thor Ragnarok [Music] there's also films like shangshi which I don't love as much as some but I still think was a worthy introduction to the character ha ha ha ha ha a movie that wouldn't have been out of place quality wise amongst the earlier Marvel phases no way home was beloved and people seemed to gravitate towards shows like one Division and Loki Independence Authority style this quality MCU in the mix you know where to look certainly an argument can be made for oversaturation there were more hours of phase 4 programming than the first three phases combined even hardcore fans are going to struggle to keep up with all of that but an abundance of films TV shows and special presentations alone can't be the sole reason the MCU has fallen off no I actually think it's a symptom of a much more embedded issue but as far as I can tell no one is really talking about mcu's biggest enemy now is time itself and that's not because Kang the Conqueror is around the corner Ed [Music] what do I mean by this well first off let's cast ourselves back to the first three phases of the MCU answer this who were the three most important Heroes I'd wager that most of you would say Iron Man Captain America and Thor Iron Man kicked off everything in 2008 with uh yeah Iron Man he returned two years later in 2010's Iron Man 2 but not before making a pit stop in The Incredible Hulk he had a little break in 2011 before playing not so well with others in 2012's The Avengers he then concluded a Trilogy with 2013's Iron Man 3 sat out exactly one year and came straight back to bat by creating chat GPT with legs in 2015's Avengers 2. from 2015 until his death in 2019 he never skipped to beat making a key appearance at every cap movie a spidey movie and finally two climactic Avengers movies Tony ended up sitting out for only the years 2009 2011 and 2014. the years he appeared he always cracked wise kicked ass and forwarded a key relationship from at least one other Avenger I Iron Man Captain America actually had a relatively short stint in the MCU compared to a whole host of other characters who hit a decade and change but his eight years burned Brides he made an appearance every single year and if it wasn't an integral lead he was a very funny and memorable cameo prove that it's not about simply inserting a hero into as much as possible it's about the time that we spend with them cat popping up in 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 and 2019 ensured that he never went away until it was time to say goodbye [Music] for a cat Fanboy such as myself it was pure Bliss uh Good Times Thor kicked off his run with three consecutive appearances from 2011 to 2013 all involving his brother Loki that duo was so key to the earliest successes of the Crossovers and whilst he then popped up once from 2014 to 2016 he ended his initial run with another Trio of annual films in 2017's Thor Ragnarok 2018's Infinity war and 2019's end game I like to think of it as his pain Trilogy 2011 to 2013 is like the classic four with Loki 2017-2019 Thor is the iteration where he loses everything and learns to bounce back it's truly awesome truly awesome indeed latest and along the line of bastards and he'll be the latest to film my Vengeance fate wills it so just let me do something good something not only were they seen regularly but they crossed over regularly we were given ample time to see them working together as a team or being opposed every couple of years at the very least the Trinity met in 2012 and then again in 2015. Captain Tony got crucial chapter between them in 2016 even though all three were largely separated in 2018 that was kind of the point probably Steve Rogers Maybe [Music] they fully reassembled in 2019 and that Unity that was forged in 2012 and 2015 was what came to its satisfying conclusion here just as long as we're all in agreement when cap Tony and Thor walk up to Thanos for one last battle everyone got chills because we'd seen these guys go through so much to get here and they were more united than ever before against this purple nut sack thank you picking up the ham the Ham's so good because of Thor's Glee at witnessing it but it wasn't just the core Trinity that were well acquainted with audiences black widows introduced in 2010 with Iron Man 2 popped up two years later in a leading role of the Avengers in 2012 and then came back in another two years later for the Winter Soldier by the time we came to the consecutive sandwich that was Ultron and Civil War Widow had made five meaningful appearances in six years the Hulk didn't appear in Civil War but when we last saw him his absence was woven into the story as he was seemingly sent off careening into space he then got the Black Widow Winter Soldier treatment with a supporting but highly effective role in another title character's movie this made sure that even though he had no Solo movie audiences had seen him in 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 and 2019. I see this as an absolute win even a character like Hawkeye who skipped all of the solo movies in phase two and wasn't seen from Avengers to Avengers Age of Ultron only missed two summers of MCU and on top of that even if we didn't see him we knew that he would relatively pop up in the second Avengers movie he wasn't in limbo even if he was off screen plus as a side note he was very nearly in Captain America the Winter Soldier anyway in a correlated sequence that would have explained away cap stealth outfits outside of the core 6 it always felt like when a character arrived they were there to stay Scarlet Witch was first shown on screen in a 2014 post-credits scene was then key in 2015 and 2016. sat out for exactly one year and then made the heartbreaking decision to kill the love of her life in 2018 before you guessed it avenging him in 2019. [Music] you took everything for me that's five appearances Sam Wilson's the Falcon appeared in the 2014 debut Captain America the Winter Soldier twice in 2015 with solid cameos at Age of Ultron and Ant-Man before another key part in 2016 Civil War 2018's Infinity war and 2019's end game if we substitute two 2015 appearances for that 2017 Gap he got a string of rolls right up to his eventual appointment as the next Captain America foreign even if we strip out the years that were cameos most of these characters only set out for a year at a time and they got plenty of years where they were making consecutive appearances compare these examples to the later examples after end game there's lots of Heroes introduced each year with no obvious returns lined up they used to be a handful of key characters popping up every two years at most developing the overarching story in addition to their personal growth now it's more like three or even four years when we'll see someone next and in between time we're seeing more and more Heroes introduced on top of that well it used to be a couple of projects in between is now a slew of projects half of which are television shows totaling three or four hours a piece what used to be an appearance in either a team up film or a solo film with cameos a rare a thing is now often multiple years without so much as a hint of a solo project Captain Marvel got a solo film and an Avengers appearance in the same year now it's been four years until her next sequel Doctor Strange popped in Infinity war end game and no way home but his solo sequel came a whopping six years after the first that's an awfully long time to go without any kind of introspection from the master of the Mystic Arts I get scared [Music] shangshi is almost past two years with no sequel in sight if that even happens by 2025. in spite of being a huge success he hasn't even been mentioned the Eternal saw a whole new supergroup introduced when there was already enough going on and they haven't had any concrete sequel chatter that's been two years there's definitely nothing happening in 2024 and even 2025 seems unlikely neither Hawkeyes popped up in almost two years again nothing planned filming wise 2024 so that's probably looking unlikely for close to four years Moon Knight is already over a year old with no SQL Series in sight he was a big deal to bring into the fold but it just feels like he's been as forgotten as almost every other Disney Plus show when can we expect him to return She-Hulk is also just over a year old and there's no follow-up Series in science okay now get back to the show werewolf finite might see its kijio absence for the rest of time Nick Fury went away completely for three years I need to return in the lackluster secret Invasion maybe well probably white Vision flew away over two years ago and hasn't popped up ironically Scarlet Witch returned just over a year later from one division to Multiverse of Madness that actually felt like the first three phases in terms of timing but that suffered because many people felt like they were missing a crucial piece of the puzzle as she broke bad after ending her series with the promise of turning over a new Leaf the Black Panther sequel is a little different because obviously it had to try and handle the tragic passing of the late great Chadwick Boseman however now that Leticia writes shuri has taken up the mantle it's unclear when she will next appear the Bozeman Panther appeared in 2016 2018 and 2019 but unless sure he makes an appearance before the next Avengers movie we won't see this character until 2026 four years after will come to Forever and after she just got made the New Black Panther the core six Avengers presence were felt the first three phases and we never had to endure their absence for very long now we're being bombarded with so many new characters it's easy to forget a Moon Knight or a black widow 2.0 or whoever the members of the eternals were called I went through my childhood to teenage years with the MCU and partly why my friends and I got so sucked in was because we really got to know the main Heroes by the time Guardians Volume 2 came out I went from school to UNI and that was only three years that felt like a sizable Gap at the time considering how custom we were to having the Avengers making annual or biannual appearances but of course they could kind of get away with it because they were in their own sort of bubble imagine being 10 when Doctor Strange one comes out and then 16 by the time Multiverse of Madness comes out that's not going to allow you to grow up alongside the heroes the same way I got to with Iron Man Captain Thor that was a huge part of the old mcu's charm that was part of the fun checking in on them every year things moving forward new alliances forged battles won and then ultimately Alliance is broken battles lost there was Ultron to look forward to the Civil War the Ragnarok the rise of Thanos whereas now it's triple the amount of content with triple the amount of characters we check in on so many people that everybody gets put on hold for longer stretches just so everyone one can be serviced I don't feel like we're in a living breathing world anymore we're just giving everyone else a small chance to shine before we got to go to the next new thing I think this could also be why the mcu's oversaturation feeling didn't really start to kick in until the second half of 2021 leading into 2022. the first four projects all featured characters we'd see a lot of in the old era Scarlet Witch Vision Falcon the Winter Soldier Loki and black widow even though that content was enough for two whole years squished into six months the problem wasn't so apparent because we were used to seeing familiar faces regularly the new Captain America hasn't been seen for two years already when Captain America was the Falcon he ironically had a far more consistent presence than he does now even Spider-Man went from popping up a lot to there being only mutterings of his fourth Solo movie it's almost the two-year anniversary of no way home I would have expected his fourth movie to be imminent going by the old ways 2017 2019 2021 sure two years gap for Loki and three Point O doesn't seem two different old phases but when you compound it with the fact that now a Gap like that is filled with hours upon hours upon hours of MCU it feels like double that time we've had a whole last Thor movie since Loki last popped up Duo used to be Inseparable instead of forging ahead with the cool buddy cop Joe and Captain the white wolf that'll be starring in two separate feature films in 2024. there's also less excitement doing it all this way sure it sounds cool to introduce every single bloody Marvel character left unadapted but remember how many years went by in the early stages of the MCU where we yearned for Doctor Strange and black panther for years we only had a reference to wakanda in Iron Man 2 and a casual name drop to Doctor Strange in cap two and everybody was losing their minds by the time they were introduced it felt like a massive massive deal imagine if Moon Knight got the same kind of build up instead of just dropping by after we've already met the Eternal Shang Chi a new Hawkeye and a new black widow like six months prior after end game Marvel should have picked a new core Trinity and ensured that these characters were making regular appearances and bringing people together let's say it was I don't know Doctor Strange Captain Marvel and shangshi you'd have a powerful character on Earth to cover the Mystic sides a powerful character in space to cover the cosmic side and a new character for audiences to ReDiscover the MCU the strange has popped up a decent amount In fairness but he's also not been driving anything he's starting two Multiverse movies that were so loosely connected their biggest bridge was the fact that one of their stars and one of their directors are a golden comic book pairing who haven't collaborated since 2007. Captain Marvel made a really brief cameo in Miss Marvel but otherwise hasn't been seen in four years her presence hasn't been felt whatsoever shangshi's Solo movie and that was two years ago in the phase one to three era his second movie would be upon us by now he probably would have properly met some Avengers by now we'd know him through and through pick whichever three characters you want for argument's sake imagine the last couple of years have been structured around one or two solo films for each of them we are approaching the end of their trilogies to make way for new characters at this point a team up film has been in there somewhere to keep the Dynamics alive and push us into the next epic chapter if you're a kid watching phase four to five you've now got your own version of cat Iron Man and Thor Heroes you know really well who have been through some really interesting battles and changes the world's been growing as you have the decision to not do an Avengers movie at the end of phase four was a no win scenario I understand why feige was resistant people would have bemoaned the MCU growing style for doing another Avengers movie just three years after one entitled end game but at the same time none of the new powers that be have formed any kind of meaningful team imagine if quantum Mania had been an Avengers movie in the same sense of Civil War having all those characters in the 2016 crossover didn't detract from the fact that it was Steve Rogers movie what if Scotland was the clear lead of quantumania but a newly formed team of Avengers crashed into the quantum realm with him what if the new cap strange shangshi Miss Marvel and more were introduced to Kang and vowed by the end of the movie to stop his variants as the next era of the Avengers we'd be at a point where something essential had happened to Tire phase four slash kickoff phase five The Cinematic Universe in some sense was a lie it wasn't really a universe with lots of stories that happened to share the same space it was really one big ongoing story with a handful of core characters that you saw sometimes annually but at most every two to three years it was always clear where they were heading or when they would pop up next the first four years were all heading towards the formation of the Avengers and the next seven years were leading up to a climactic battle over the Infinity Stones we either got character drama like Civil War or we got a movie introduced in the Infinity Stones every single time in that time period And I think that's ultimately why there's this persistent feeling that the MCU has fallen off or isn't as strong as it used to be it's because the story they set out to tell finished everything that was truly connected was tied off now we have a true Cinematic Universe with countless Heroes all off doing various things no end game in sight no mcguffins persisting most characters vanish in between hours and hours of other stories as often history as the women will truly see them again we knew from 2008 to 2012 the Iron Man Would One Day meet four cap and Hulk but who knows if the cast of werewolf by night will ever meet the TVA or the Marvels or the guardians or the ten Rings more to the point why would they my most anticipated MCU movies are undoubtedly Deadpool 3 the Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars Deadpool 3 has somehow managed to feel like it was always building towards its MCU placement without even trying oh having Wade go back in time to save Vanessa ended up being the perfect setup to fold in the TVA the inclusions from Doctor Strange and the supposed next Thanos in Kang if the rumors are returning to Earth 838 are true their Multiverse of Madness will feel like the perfect setup also going to a world where Magneto is heartbroken over what happened to Wanda and decides enough is enough not to mention the death of Xavier [Music] the way the time travel in Deadpool 2 and the Multiverse hopping in both Loki and strange has all gone down makes it feel like this was always the plan even though it so wasn't but that's just great dare finish that sentence don't do it I'm sick of it it will be the lead-in for a whole new team the X-Men to end up meeting the MCU Heroes we know and love and that's super exciting to me in 2014 I saw the Winter Soldier Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and I never thought that all three of those movies will be chapters in a Multiverse Saga only a character like Wade Wilson could wing it and end up connecting the dots this well the re-emergence of the X-Men and the idea of crashing universes will lead right into the Kang Dynasty that is a Full Tilt Avengers movie so we'll at least see a bunch of these limbo characters from phase four to five meeting up and unifying for a common goal that and Secret Wars could be an awesome spectacle involving all of our favorite characters whilst hopefully still leaning on the storytelling in the same way Infinity war and end game did but amongst all that Marvel needs to show some real Focus how is Captain America 4 going to lead into all of this how is the cosmic side the mystical side the supernatural side going to feel essential I'm not saying every single movie needs to be a trailer for the next one because that's not what phases one two three were anyway they just need to feel like they're not content that are shotgunned onto Disney plus they need to give us a reason to care again to make each movie feel like an essential chapter of a larger whole as much as an Agatha Harkness show could be good and wealth by night was fun there needs to be more streamlining focus on characters like Shang Chi and return to giving the interpersonal relationships between these Heroes the time they need so that when we get to the next Infinity War we'll be just as ready simply put the MCU just needs more time a big thank you to my full fat tier Patron Dr TK and Nathan Shaw if you'd like to donate money to my patreon you can find me at patreon.com 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