I think you have the right of it.
Awesome! No sarcasm.
I can tell you from memory what movies are in Phases 1-3, but need Wikipedia to tell me when Phase 4 ends.
Exactly the same. I absolutely had to look them up to see which fell where, and in what order.
Was it ever the plan to do that and it just kept getting postponed?
I actually don't think it was. The earliest release date I could find for Thunderbolts was the one Deadpool and Wolverine ended up with for last July, which would have kept Thunderbolts in Phase 5. And not ended the phase either. So I think it's just happenstance that it did. And that's fine, I know some of the MCU's greatest moments were thought of on the fly, no problem. And I do understand why Feige didn't want to end each phase with an Avengers movie after Endgame. Maybe he was right, I'm not entirely sure, but they needed
something to close a phase. Some event. Not a small team up like Ragnarok, Homecoming, or even Marvels, but something with a bunch of people from that phase.
One of my favorite moments from Infinity War is Iron Man fighting Cull Obsidian and Spider-Man just
shows up. Because it's New York and heroes can swing right by. Was it necessary to weave him in with some reason, like Banner's gamma knowledge being why Fury brings him in to search for the tesseract in Avengers? Nope. He's in the area and jumps into the fight. For me, that was one of the most comic-booky moments in the entire movie, and that's all they had to do with a movie ending Phase 4. These people are all in the area together, let's watch them argue and team up for two hours against a neat villain. maybe we get a credit scene setting up some other nugget, whatever, but now I know that Phase is concluded.
I wonder if part of the vibe comes from not letting the new characters take the reins.
I'm not sure if you're right either, but it makes a lot of sense. That was one of my complaints about the star wars sequel trilogy. Yes, I love the OT people, but if you're gonna introduce new characters, then lets go for it. but each movie leaned on OT people and never let the new people stand fully on their own. Not even the villains. but yeah, to your point, Marvel did it even worse. That's why I actually always argued that
more movies would be better. You can service the original people some more,
and let the new kids shine more. Otherwise, I guess maybe do like Homecoming and have an older character be supporting. Though I do still like Marvels for its character dynamics. I know not everyone enjoyed it, but I'm a huge Kamala fan, and I feel like she and Monica were just as important as Carol in that one. Which... is also a bummer for Carol really.
I don't know. Maybe you just can't win! heh.
