When Kevin Feige took the stage at 2022’s San Diego Comic-Con to announce the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was revealed to the world that the next overarching saga, called the Multiverse Saga, was moving full-speed ahead towards an Avengers: Secret Wars film. Immediately, the internet did what the internet does best and began to speculate about the finer details of what could occur leading up to this massive event film, and who could appear in the multiversal crossover itself. However, perhaps an even bigger question became apparent that day: what comes after Avengers: Secret Wars?
Titled after multiple Marvel Comics events of the same name, the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars film could take a couple of different paths in what type of story it tells. The original 1984 event, for example, focused on a being known as The Beyonder transporting the heroes and villains of Marvel Comics to a location called Battleworld to fight each other. However, after the introduction of incursions to the MCU in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s far safer to assume that the film will take more inspiration from the 2015 Secret Wars event.
Given that this event brought about somewhat of a reboot in the Marvel Comics world, the odds that the MCU could be heading towards a reboot of its own are higher than ever. Here’s why, and how, the Marvel Cinematic Universe could reboot after 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
What Is Secret Wars?
In 2015’s Secret Wars event, the Marvel Comics multiverse collapses in a long series of incursions until eventually, all that remains is a single Battleworld made up of broken pieces of Earths from across all realities. When the conflict is brought to a conclusion, the multiverse is recreated, and this led to a soft reboot for the brand on a newly-recreated Earth that allowed Marvel Comics to entice new readers with an easy jumping-on-point.
While the MCU has adapted many famous events from the comics, most of them never quite follow the source material exactly. Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War are examples of films that adapt events from the source material, that also change many of the key events and players in said stories in order to fit the narrative. However, the core premise is almost always very true to the source material, so it’s safe to say that the aforementioned destruction and recreation of the multiverse is something viewers will get to see when Secret Wars hits theaters.
If the MCU really does adapt this core component of the story, it will provide the series with the interesting opportunity to have somewhat of a creative reboot. In a newly created world for their movies to be set on, Marvel Studios would have the opportunity to alter some of the things about their stories and characters that haven’t been working, while bringing forward the things that have. Beyond this simple opportunity for a simple creative refresh, there are a couple of more specific reasons Marvel may want to consider this reboot.
A Unified Marvel Roster
Those who are familiar with the real-world history of the rights surrounding many of Marvel’s most famous characters will know that along with the upcoming introduction of the Fantastic Four to the MCU in 2025, Marvel Studios also regained the rights to the X-Men in Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. In fact, the MCU has already taken advantage of this to slowly introduce the concept of mutants to the universe and has even brought some familiar faces from Fox’s X-Men films back in multiversal adventures.
In the comics, the X-Men and Fantastic Four are core parts of the Marvel Universe and have been around since the brand’s earliest days. By introducing them nearly two decades into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they are already significantly late to the party and have likely missed the boat on opportunities such as Tony Stark and Reed Richards sharing the screen.
In a creative reboot, Marvel Studios would have the opportunity to do something it was never able to do when initially launching the MCU in 2008: Have all of its heroes together from the start, allowing for more creative freedom with on-screen character team-ups, and more storylines to be adapted in the future.
Too Much Catch-Up
Along with storytelling freedom, there is another more practical and business-oriented reason why a reboot may be a good idea. The MCU has been going for a long time now, and by the time Avengers: Secret Wars hits theaters, there will be almost 50 movies released since 2008’s Iron Man. Back in the days of films like 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, there were less than half of that number, and even then, many people considered the MCU’s length to be too daunting to be able to keep up with all the releases.
If the MCU eventually gets so large that viewers are forced to sit through over 50 films (and over a dozen television shows) to get the complete story, newcomers to the franchise may get turned off from trying to dive into such a time-consuming task. Having a more defined break in storytelling from the past after Secret Wars would make it much easier for younger moviegoers who didn’t grow up with the older MCU entries to become invested in the world and its characters. After all, movies are supposed to be fun, and not a chore—and if Avengers: Secret Wars does not take advantage of its unique opportunity to start a new era for the MCU, it could spell doom for a franchise that many already think has gone on for too long.