Thor: Ragnarok

To say that Marvel Studios bigwig Kevin Feige has had big plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a modest understatement.  Spread across three different “Phases,” the first 22 MCU films have told, so far, a lush narrative that encompasses not only super-powered beings, but cosmic and mystic ones as well.

Now, as audiences gear up for the next installment, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the next film up will play a large role in the shifting narrative to come.  That would be this November’s ‘Thor: Ragnarok,’ and it’s a film that could finally tie together the three above-mentioned aspects of the heroes of the MCU.

Thor, having cinematically come from the super-powered background of ‘The Avengers,’ will see his tale move firmly into outer-space in ‘Ragnarok,’ and Doctor Strange will appear in the film as well, meaning the mystical is very much present as well.  While we don’t know exactly how the film will alter things moving forward in the MCU, Feige in a recent interview teased a little about it:

“I think that we are finding ourselves as we complete Phase 3 and finish this 22-movie narrative that it’s working out that way. We did three Iron Man films, three Captain America films, three Thor films. Things change drastically in ‘Ragnarok’ and then build directly into ‘Infinity War.’”

As for plans in the MCU post-Phase 3?  Well, Feige sounds like, understandably, he just wants to get through this section first:

“This original 22-movie arc ends with the untitled Avengers in May of 2019 and then two months later it will be Peter and Spider-Man (on July 5, 2019) that usher us into the aftermath and how things proceed from there. We’re on day 73 of 90 on ‘Infinity War’ right now and then we shut down for three weeks and then we start filming untitled Avengers. It is a very big undertaking; both what’s on the screen and what’s going on behind the scenes to make it possible. It is very ambitious.”

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ opens on November 3, 2017; ‘Black Panther’ will open on February 16, 2018; and ‘The Avengers: Infinity War’ will open on May 4, 2018.