.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5)
Joanna Robinson, author of the new Marvel book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, recently shared that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige intends to reboot the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the upcoming movie, Avengers: Secret Wars.
"We have a quote from Kevin Feige sort of implying that, like, Secret Wars will serve as a soft reboot in which they can prune everything," Robinson said during an appearance on The Watch podcast (via Screen Rant). "That's not to use a Loki-ism. [They'll] prune everything that's not working and just keep what is [working], or bring back people you thought were gone forever."
Screen Rant also noted that near the end of MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios there is a passage that hints at a soft reboot for the MCU. It reads as follows: "Feige had to learn different lessons from the comics: how superheroes periodically needed to be rebooted, how to stop variants and spinoffs from spiraling out of control, how an annual mega-crossover event could unify a disparate line of characters."
Secret Wars Will Celebrate All Past Marvel Movies
This isn't the first time Avengers: Secret Wars has been rumored to serve as the end of the MCU as fans currently know it. Trusted scooper CanWeGetSomeToast previously stated that Secret Wars will serve as "the send-off to not only the current MCU, but all the Marvel movies that came before Iron Man. It’s the Ultimate (soft) reboot." The scooper then suggested that Feige would pull inspiration from the "All New, All Different Marvel" era for the next phase of the MCU. The ANADM branding was used between 2015 and 2019 for Marvel's lineup of comic books set after the 2015-16 Secret Wars crossover event.
The MCU Has Years Left in the Tank
The MCU launched in 2008 with the release of Iron Man. Since then, the shared universe has grown to encompass 32 films and almost as many television series. Despite the MCU's age, Feige stated, "it feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface." He added, "The great thing about Marvel truly is how many wonderful, interesting characters we have in the comics — they’ve been at it for 85 years."
The MCU was created without the rights to some of Marvel Comics' biggest characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men. Spider-Man later joined the MCU in Captain America: Civil War after Marvel and Sony worked out an arrangement that saw them co-developing a new Spider-Man film trilogy. The X-Men and the Fantastic Four are also set to appear in the MCU after Disney's 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which gave Marvel Studios the rights back to the mutants and Marvel's First Family.
Avengers: Secret Wars is currently scheduled to hit theaters on May 7, 2027.
Source: The Watch, via Screen Rant