Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have nothing to complain about. The new year is already starting with the promise of many films and series coming over the next few months, showing that the hype calendar will be very busy throughout 2023.
It’s the beginning of the long-awaited Phase 5, which should give the Multiverse Saga a big buzz. For this, no less than three feature films and four series are expected – not to mention two animations – that will deepen the stories about dimensions and realms parallel to the main world, in addition to introducing new heroes and villains to the already extensive gallery of characters.
That’s a pretty hectic schedule that repeats the pace we’ve seen in 2022, with a new MCU premiere happening, on average, every two months in theaters and on Disney+. And, as much as many people (rightly) point to the risk of saturation of public interest, fans do not see a problem with that. The important thing is to maintain quality.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Phase 5 of the MCU officially begins with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the third feature starring the publisher’s most irrelevant hero. And it’s not our pet peeve, since the movie’s trailer itself already shows that nobody takes Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) seriously.
And it is ironic that it is an Ant-Man movie that is responsible for introducing the public to the great villain of the entire Multiverse Saga. It will be in Quantumania that we will see Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) in all his glory, power and ambition using precisely Lang’s lack of prestige to be able to manipulate him.
The little we know of the plot is that Scott and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) will be thrown into the Quantum Realm along with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) after an experiment by Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) sends a sign for that dimension. From then on, everything remains a mystery to us.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania premieres on the 16th of February.
Secret Invasion
If nothing changes in Marvel’s schedule, the first MCU premiere on Disney+ will be Secret Invasiona series that will put Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as the protagonist to deal with a Skrull invasion of our planet.
There is still no exact date for the episodes to arrive on streaming, as it is a studio tradition to make this revelation at the last minute. So far, we only know that the expectation is that this will happen in the second quarter, that is, from March.
The story is still a little hazy. That’s because, in the comics, the Secret Invasion treats the skrulls as a great villainous race that wants to dominate the Earth, something that is not repeated in the MCU. At the same time, we may see part of the original arc being replicated, such as the fact that there is a faction among the aliens seeing the planet as a Promised Land and starting a mega operation of conquest.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The last film in the misfit heroes trilogy is also the farewell to James Gunn and much of this MCU cast. The director had already anticipated that he wanted to close the plot of the group led by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) in this third feature and his recent move to DC just confirmed that this will be what we are going to see.
The script is still being treated as a great mystery, but there are some clues that help us to imagine what comes next. In addition to the search for Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the introduction of the High Evolutionary villain (Chukwudi Iwuji) and his genetic research can both justify the appearance of Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and deepen Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) past.
If that happens, it may be that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has a much more melancholy and emotional tone than we saw in the second film.
The film hits theaters on May 4, 2023.
echo
Let’s agree that the expectation around echo is much more grounded around the appearance of the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) than it really is around Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), who had a somewhat subdued cameo in Archer hawk.
Marvel has said very little about the series, indicating only that it should adapt the story arc written by David Mack and that it goes deep into the character’s past and completely reinvents it. If the plot follows this path, it has the potential to be one of the surprises of 2023.
Like the rest of the MCU series, echo does not yet have a confirmed date. The promise was that the episodes would arrive in the middle of the year, but a recent speech by the showrunner of the series hinted that this could only happen in December. Still, in 2023.
Loki
On the other hand, the second season of Loki it’s already a certainty. During the new year’s news video, Disney+ was keen to show scenes from the series and make it more than clear that Tom Hiddleston returns to live the MCU’s God of Lies.
And this is a highly anticipated debut for a number of reasons. In addition to continuing a story that left many questions unanswered, it also connects with the Multiverse Saga and will explore much more of the chaos created by Kang – which makes this story one of the most intriguing in this new phase.
The promise is that Loki return at the beginning of the second semester.
The Marvels
The third and final MCU film for 2023 arrives in July with The Marvels. More than being the sequel to captain marvel, the feature marks the meeting of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) in a plot that should address this cosmic side of the publisher more and explain more of the origin of Ms. Marvel and its relationship with other realms.
Everything is still very hazy – so much so that we don’t even know who the villain will be – but the simple fact that we have a meeting of three such beloved characters already makes the wait worth it.
The Marvels premieres on July 27, 2023.
Iron heart
Closing the Disney+ series, we have Iron heart. The series will star Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who made her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — which makes the production a kind of direct sequel to the film.
And, although the character was not one of the highlights of the production and we really want a story dedicated to Namor (Tenoch Huerta), there is an interesting premise around the genius girl. this is because the series must pit technology against magic and expand more of this mystical side of Marvel, either with the villain Hood (Anthony Ramos) or with the possibility of having the demon Mephisto appearing.
Yes, that litany we saw in WandaVision will start all over again. And, taking into account that Agatha: Coven of Chaos should arrive in early 2024 and that the Hood is an irrelevant character, this is not such an unlikely bet.
Iron heart is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023.
X-Men ’97
Information about the X-Men animated series is pretty sparse, as Marvel only talks about it once a year during D23. In last year’s edition, for example, we saw the first images of the drawing and it was confirmed that the idea is to continue the plot that ended in the 1990s, with the right to Magneto commanding the X-Men after Xavier’s disappearance.
We still don’t know if this will connect with the MCU in any way, but the curiosity for the revival is huge. And unless nothing changes, the release of the animation is scheduled for the second half of 2023.
What If…?
And even more uncertain is the second season of What If…? The first one wasn’t very popular and didn’t serve to connect stories of the multiverse in the cinema either, but it generated interesting premises and characters that justify this return – even more so with the Multiverse Saga taking shape.
And although Marvel has already anticipated that we will see more of Captain Carter and even pointed out some of the alternate universes that we will know, there is no certainty that the animation will debut in 2023. The studio said that it plans to release the episodes later this year, but there is a high possibility that they will be pushed to 2024.
