Can the MCU continue for the next 20 years?

Don’t see why not!!! If it starts getting stale then time for a reboot

 

My only complain is that they introduced too many people at the same time. Now the field is really stacked and there is even more to come with Blade, F4... We saw Captain America in a movie every year, so he had an overall arc, the audience had enough time to feel and cheer for him. With this expanded strategy, everything feels a little bit random and unclear. No idea, how the Eternals will come back.. When we will see Wanda again. Not even to talk about She-Hulk, Moonknight..

That can hurt the franchises success overall and the audience let it down.

 

While the blip bought them 5 years will Disney have the courage to let characters age out like the actors performing them do. With mutants still coming the various super soldiers and techno pilots there is plenty of room for new characters with out there skill sets like Captain Marvel has. While the super soldiers fall back into supporting roles.

 

With so many ips, sure even if eventually we only get 1 movie per year.

 

They would need to keep the quality up and find ways to keep things fresh but at the moment it’s still the biggest show in town and enough people are always going to be interested in the event films even if they don’t watch every film/show in between.

 

I think it will continue for a while after the X-Men are introduced…but I don‘t think it will last that long after that. If the big storylines like Secret Wars are told and the Mutants are introduced, then what will fans highly anticipate?

 

Whether they can or cannot, I think they have to find a way to welcome new fans. This might not be a problem now, but it will be in the future.

The MCU is embracing more and more a serialized narrative. And the Multiverse saga is making things much more complex because now there are TV Shows leading up to movies, not to mention previous Marvel movies (you can't understand Garfield saving MJ if you didn't watch TAS).

By the time Secret Wars comes out, the MCU will be 17 years old. The new fans who want to join the MCU will have to watch 17 years of content to understand it? What about the next saga?

So that's just a concern they have to keep in mind. I want them to continue the serialized narrative, and the big crossovers referencing things we've seen before. But it can't be too complex for newcommers.

 

You kind of answered your own question LIP if new fans get hooked on secret wars they make get get curious and go back and get acquainted with earlier MCU movies!! It won’t be easy but it would continue the cycle of interest

 

New projects have to be both self-sufficient for newcomers and help with the serial narrative. It's like comics in general. Most of us were born into a world where there were already tons of existing stories but still managed to join in for the long haul. I wonder if people back in the early days of comics could ever have guessed how long they would go on for. The early CBMs always offered extra for people who knew the source material and things that the GA wouldn't get but as long as there is enough good stuff for the GA then it's fine. And they can always find that stuff out later if they want to. There's now a lot of people who have only got to the age of starting watching films after many years of the MCU have already come out. Also at the pace the shows are now coming out it will only be a few years before it starts becoming almost impossible to catch up totally (like with comics even a bunch of decades ago).

 

Inhumans and Ghost Rider.

 

Beyond Spider-man and the X-men, there are no other non-MCU Marvel movies worth referencing anyway. And even if they do go all in and also reference Hulk and Daredevil and the Fantastic Four and Howard the Duck, that's the kind of thing that will happen in Secret Wars and probably in a background easter egg or one-off joke. That's not a snowballing complication, it's just a temporary added wrinkle for the multiverse saga specifically.

The future sagas will reference the Infinity Saga and the Multiverse Saga - and that chain could become a problem for people eventually - but it won't break the universe if people don't notice or understand every callback anyway. And sooner or later the MCU will end no matter what, so I doubt we'll be getting 10+ sagas regardless. It won't keep compounding on and on forever like the comics have done.

 

General audience can enjoy most of these movies without watching the most recents movies and shows. Some may be a bit lost in some parts, and the hardcore fans will enjoy it more, but at the end of the day, I think 90% of general audience wont care if they dont understand one reference, dialogue line or arent familiar with a previously introduced character.
Most people enjoy these marvel movies and continue to watch year after year, and thats what Disney cares about, at the end of the day.

If people keep watching, they will keep this same formula.

 

Of course the distribution network for those who want to catch up is getting easier with every passing day. You no longer wait for a syndicator to fill 4 hours with a 2 hour movie. There is no need to maintain a library or go down to rent a movie. It is just a matter of can old content compete with whatever is new in the general culture as super fan catches up.

So if the then present content is compelling enough the MCU rolls on. However if we conclude that it is not the stories but Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, no matter the actor portraying them, that is the major draw then the MCU reboots. And/or the shared universe, even with multiverses to complicate things, ideal dies. And then you see multiple takes on Tony Stark versus a finally political correct Mandarin over a lifetime like I have seen multiple Batmen versus Jokers over my lifetime

 

I'm sure it will and I am sure that they will pull what WB wishes they could do with theirs....introduce a 2nd universe where they reboot characters for their Ultimate universe.

 

I don't think they would have 2 cinematic universes at once. I think it'd be more likely for them to occassionally do standalone movies for characters that are no longer in the MCU and haven't been for a while like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers or t'Challa where they can take more risks and the director can have more control. Sort of like what WB is doing with things like Joker and The Batman.

 

If there's one thing Marvel likes to do...its take chances. The Ultimate-verse allows them to do things that they couldnt do in the 616-verse. Hell...probably an easier way to introduce the X-Men.

 

I just don't see how a UMCU (in addition to the existing MCU) would allow for that more than standalone projects would. Because another cinematic universe, besides being potentially way more confusing from a marketing pov, couldn't take as many chances as standalone projects.

In a standalone project, you can take many more chances because nothing is dependent on it. You can give writers and directors full control without worrying about how things connect, getting true authorial visions brought to life. You can make narratives that don't have to account for sequels or crossovers, such as making a movie where the protagonist dies at the end of their first and only movie without worrying about how you're gonna tie it to a future crossover. You can make movies that are wildly different in tone, such as making a Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur movie for very young children similar in vibes to Clifford the Big Red Dog and also make a hyper violent hard-R Punisher MAX movie without requiring adult fans to see the movie intended for kindergartners or for kids to see the R-rated gorefest to get the full experience of a world. And also, some of the standalone movies could be animated or otherwise be a different medium or stylization, which would be harder to fit into another cinematic universe.

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a lot you can fit into the MCU. But I don't see why anything you can't fit into the MCU would fit into a second concurrent MCU, and even if you could do something better in a second MCU, I don't see any scenario where you then couldn't do that same thing even better in a standalone project.

 

So many characters have NOT been tapped into yet!! Plus all characters that Disney didn’t have control over!! That’s quite a few stories whether they solo team up or everybody all together!! When that’s exhausted reboot and start over!! Old becom s new …..again

 

20 years from now is 2042. Not counting the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, the Silver Surfer and those who were demoted to a TV show (pre-Disney+). Marvel is already scraping the bottom of the barrel. Though there's at least 10 obscure ips that could be as successful as Guardians of the GalaXy, Shang-Chi and Eternals. The likes of Hyperion, Squirrel Girl, Sentry, Doctor Voodoo, Nova, Tigra and Wonder Man could be boX office successes with the right team.

Its just that by 2042, a lot of cast members from phase 1 to 4, probably won't be around.

 

It ain’t over till we get what we are all waiting for:

 

It will probably take 15 years to start FF and X-men and finish their story arc. Then they're reboot everything.

 

I don’t think the momentum will last over that period of time, but sure, the MCU will definitely exist in some capacity. Star Wars is still here over 40 years later so I can’t see why not.

 

With the mutants, they could easily carry their own phases, though it could lead to mutant fatigue.

X-Men
New Mutants
X-Force
X-Factor
Generation X
eXcalibur
Alpha Flight
Big Hero siX
Mutant Academy X or New X-Men or Young X-Men
Hellions
And solo mutant movies, so it wouldn't be all mutant teams

Though the X-Men are the only ones I could see getting a movie #4, #5 and #6 like the Avengers. The rest would be limited to a trilogy or less.

 

Nope