The Ever-Expanding Universe of Marvel

By Jalen Senal

“I love you 300” is a famous quote from the film Marvel’s Avengers Endgame that was released the year 2019 distributed by the Walt Disney Motion Pictures based on the Marvel superhero comics. – Avengers. But the reason that the line gained quite some popularity is because Robert Downey Jr. who played Tony Stark is the one who uttered the line at the end of the film that broke the hearts of millions. MCU is one of the most popular superhero movie franchises around the globe. Have you ever wondered? What made it special? Today, we will dwell on the ever-expanding universe of Marvel Superheroes.

Marvel Cinematic Universe is a franchise and a shared universe that produces superhero films made by Marvel Studio. MCU is a product from Disney and Marvel that brought us characters such as Iron Man, Spiderman, etc. Films and characters were mostly based on American Comic books published by Marvel Comics. Cinematic universe is a collection of interconnected and interrelated films that can exist simultaneously. Aside from Marvel there are other Cinematic Universes in existence such as DC by Warner Brothers and is considered to be the rival of the MCU when it comes to producing superhero films. MCU started way back in 2008 when it released its first Iron Man film. Tony Starks’ journey in becoming the Iron Man helped the universe set the course for the Future of the MCU. It became the 8th highest grossing film in the year 2008 earning over $585 Million. After a month Incredible Hulk was released introducing the Green Monster as Bruce Banner’s alter ego. Hulk was created due to exposure from heavy doses of gamma radiation. After 2 years, another Iron Man film was seen in the big screen. Introductory films for Captain America and Thor were publicized both in the year 2011. Year 2012 is the year where the Avengers was formed in order to protect the planet from the intergalactic threats of Alien invaders in search for the Tesseract. The team consists of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Hulk. They were formed by the S. H. I. E. L. D. headed by Nick Fury. Same year when the Battle of New York (aka Attack on New York) occurred. It was a major clash of Avengers against Thor villainous brother – Loki along with his borrowed Chitauri army. It is then that Stark decided to build an Army of Machines to aid the Avengers in their duty. He created them with the help of Bruce Banner, including a rather prevailing one, he named it Ultron. Things turn haywire and Ultron threatened the Avengers in destroying the world and planned to wipe out the entire human race. This was the 2015 MCU film Avengers: Age of Ultron. According to critics, the film may be the most important film in the entire MCU. It did quite well and was the highest grossing film of 2015. The MCU also introduced the intergalactic team of outlaws who joined forces together to protect the galaxy from threats. Antman portrayed by Paul Rudd became the new superhero in the same year as the Age of Ultron. MCU released Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange at a different date in the year 2016. Civil War highlighted the clash between the Avengers two opposing faction- one lead by Steve Rogers who fights to save the one person he has left in this world – Bucky Barnes aka the “Winter Soldier” and another lead by Tony Starks who is desperate to Avenge the murder of his parents. Stephen Strange who eventually became Dr. Strange, a sorcerer supreme who serves to protect the earth from all kinds of magical and mystical dangers were also added to the MCU the same year. After the events of the film Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker aka our friendly-neighborhood Spider Man was now a full pledged hero. 2017, the Asgard was destroyed leaving the Asgardian homeless and now floating in space in Thor’s Ragnarok film. Hela was also presented to the MCU fans as the eldest daughter of Odin and as Thor and Loki’s eldest sister. Thor became the king and Loki finally sided with good. In the post credit scene of the film, they showed Thanos captures the Asgardian refugee ship. Another MCU hero was born in 2018 when they launched the Film Black Panther starring Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa the King of Wakanda. Bucky Barnes can also be seen in the film and the Wakanda Locals referred to him as the “White Wolf''. In Marvel’s Avengers Infinity War in 2018, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and the rest of the avengers assembled in search for the Infinity Stone and to stop Thanos – their most powerful enemy yet, from wiping half of the existence in the universe creating balance. But, despite all the efforts and the forces of earth’s mightiest heroes they failed at defeating Thanos. Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones after wiping entire half the galaxy with his snap. In July 2018, the Ant Man movie finally got its sequel introducing wasp and the other side of the quantum realm. Ant Man and the Wasp was set after the clash between Captain America and Iron Man.

After the infinity War and Ant Man 2 Captain Marvel debuted as the latest character from the MCU in 2019. It revolves around the story of a former US Air Force pilot who gained abilities upon being exposed to one of the infinity stones, the tesseract. Contrary to what the comics told that Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel attained her superhuman abilities after being exposed to radiation from an explosion of the Kree weapon called “Psyche-Magnetron” becoming a human-kree hybrid. Marvel’s Avengers End Game premiered the year 2019 being the second to the last movie of the third phase of the MCU. A lot of deaths occurred in the film including Natasha Romanov’s (aka Black Widow) and Tony Stark’s (Iron Man). The story took place in 2023 “five years later” after the Infinity War. The Avengers travelled through time to collect the Infinity Stones before Thanos destroyed each piece. In the End, Tony Tricked Thanos by not taking the new Infinity Gauntlet but the Infinity Stones. He snapped and erased Thanos and his Army and restored everything that Thanos wiped, killing him in the process. Fans grieved upon the death of Downey’s character. Concluding the third phase of the MCU, Marvel released Spiderman: Far From Home in theaters as the sequel of MCU’s Spiderman starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker. It is rumored that the 2021 upcoming Spiderman film titled Spiderman: No Way Home will include the first two Spider Man; Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Fans are thrilled to see this kind of interaction between the three actors who starred as Peter Parker.

The Fourth Phase of the Universe started with the “WandaVision'' series followed by “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and then''Loki ``. WandaVision changed the Magic in Marvel, she planted a seed paving way for new teams of superheroes and changed the trajectory of SWORD hence altering the entire MCU forever. Falcon and the Winter Soldier follows Sam Wilson played by Anthony Mackie and Bucky Barnes played by Sebastian Stan who are both struggling individually with their identity as a Human and as Heroes. Falcon struggled taking up the role of being the new Captain America. While Bucky faces all of his past life issues after being resurrected, brainwashed, and being an assassin known as the “Winter Soldier”. The Loki series introduced the concept of the Time Variance Authority and their leaders the “Time-Keepers”. At the end of the series, it was revealed that the existence of TVA was false. Black Widow was also released this year followed by Shang-Chi and the upcoming films like The Eternals and the Third Spiderman Film in the MCU. MCU has a lot of films lined up for the year 2022 to 2023. Marvel announced the release dates of their upcoming future films The Eternals (5th November 2021), Hawkeye (TV series), Spider-Man: No Way Home (17th December 2021), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (25th March 2022), Ms Marvel (TV series), Thor: Love and Thunder (6th May 2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (8th July 2022), The Marvels (11th November 2022), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (17th February 2023), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (5th May 2023). I’m sure fans are all thrilled to see these new films that will add up to the Universe expanding it as graciously as possible. According to Marvel Studios, it is unlikely for the MCU to end anytime soon. As a fan, it is pleasing for me to know that there will be a lot of Marvel Films to look up for. And if you still haven’t watched any of these films, spoiler alert, it is highly addictive.

If you ever consider to watch these films in chronological order, here’s the list;

• Captain America: The First Avenger (takes place during WWII)

• Captain Marvel (takes place in 1995)

• Iron Man (takes place in 2010)

• Iron Man 2 (takes place after Iron Man)

• The Incredible Hulk (time unspecified, pre-Avengers)

• Thor (takes place six months before Avengers)

• The Avengers (takes place in 2012)

• Iron Man 3 (takes place six months after The Avengers)

• Thor: Dark World (post-Avengers, pre-Ultron)

• Captain America: Winter Soldier (post-Avengers, pre-Ultron)

• Guardians of the Galaxy (sometime in 2014)

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (after Guardians)

• Avengers: Age of Ultron (takes place in 2015)

• Ant-Man (takes place in 2015)

• Captain America: Civil War (post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War)

• Black Widow (takes place right after Civil War)

• Spider-Man: Homecoming (post-Civil War, pre-Infinity War)

• Doctor Strange (takes place in 2016)

• Black Panther (takes place in 2017)

• Thor: Ragnarok (post-Ultron, pre-Infinity War)

• Avengers: Infinity War (takes place in 2017)

• Ant-Man and The Wasp (ambiguous, but fits nicely between IW and Endgame)

• Avengers: Endgame (starts in 2017, finishes in 2022)

• Spider-Man: Far From Home (eight months post-Endgame)

• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (set in the present day of the MCU)

Also, if you want to watch it in release order instead here’s the list of MCU Phase 1 – 4: Phase 1

• Iron Man (2008)

• The Incredible Hulk (2008)

• Iron Man 2 (2010)

• Thor (2011)

• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

• Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)

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Phase 2

• Iron Man 3 (2013)

• Thor: The Dark World (2013)

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

• Ant-Man (2015)

Phase 3

• Captain America: Civil War (2016)

• Doctor Strange (2016)

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

• Black Panther (2018)

• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

• Captain Marvel (2019)

• Avengers: Endgame (2019)

• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Phase 4

• WandaVision (TV show)

• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV show)

• Loki (TV show)

• Black Widow (2021)

• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

And, here are the upcoming Marvel Movie to watch out for.

Phase 4 (upcoming)

• The Eternals (November 5, 2021)

• Hawkeye (TV show – November 24, 2021)

• Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 17, 2021)

• Ms Marvel (TV show – expected early 2022)

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)

• Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)

• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11, 2022)

• The Marvels (February 17, 2023)

• Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)

• Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (July 28, 2023)

• Blade (TBD)

• Fantastic Four (TBD)

• She-Hulk (TV show – TBA)

• Moon Knight (TV show – TBA)

• Secret Invasion (TV show – TBA)

• Ironheart (TV show – TBA)

• Armor Wars (TV show – TBA)

• Wakanda series (TV show – TBA)

You can stream Marvel Films and TV Show on Disney Plus.