If you were one of the millions of people who flocked out to theaters this weekend to catch a screening of Captain America: Civil War, then you’ll be well aware of the massive amount of fun surprises and details the film has to offer, and with the introduction of many new characters and the twists and turns this movie’s direction goes in will ultimately cause for a major change in the fate of the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. With all these new changes and details scattered throughout, you might have gotten confused about what exactly it all means, so right now we’re taking a look at the effect this movie will have on the Marvel films at large in the near future.
Of course, ***major spoiler warnings*** are in effect for this article, so if you haven’t seen the film yet, bookmark this page and come back as soon as you do.
What Role Will The New Characters Have on the Future Films?
Captain America: Civil War not only reunites the current roster of Marvel characters to the big screen, but it also does a big job at introducing a handful of new characters to the mix. The film not only gives us a taste of what Marvel’s latest take on Spider-Man will be like in Spider-Man: Homecoming out next summer but it also does a superb job at shining a light on Black Panther in this universe and sets up a promising premise for the stand-alone Black Panther feature film out in July of 2018.
The additions of the two characters not only both add to the story but their purpose in this film is also to do a great job at setting up the future for these two characters’ solo films. Though the expected death of Steve Rogers (Captain America) didn’t quite happen as we previously thought it would, the Avengers roster is still torn apart more than ever before, making the future lineup of Avengers uncertain. Adding Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Ant-Man into the Avengers mix is a bold backup move by Marvel, in case any of their stars drop out soon and/or future films will result in character deaths, the transition to a new Avengers line-up wouldn’t be anything too drastic.
During the closing credits of the movie, audiences were treated to two credit scenes, one featuring Captain America along with Black Panther, presumably deep on the island of Wakanda, setting up a promising and integral future for the Black Panther character. Further down the credits is one of the other superb closing sequences of the film, this time featuring Spider-Man as Peter has returned home after the events of the battle at the European airport, Peter discovers a new web-slinging gadget given to him by Tony Stark. When Aunt May isn’t looking, Peter shines the gadget at the ceiling to reveal the classic Spider-Man logo, giving us a tease of the style and storytelling we’ll embark in Spider-Man Homecoming next summer.
What Does This Mean for Captain America?
For the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we actually have no idea where the future of Captain America lies. Because the film didn’t quite choose to see Cap facing the same fate he did in the comics, we’re unsure of what direction Steve Rogers is ready to head in. Looking ahead to the future of Marvel films, there’s no planned Captain America film on the horizon, though it’s possible Rogers will make a reappearance on one of the upcoming Avengers films. Whatever it is, we’re excited to see what Cap will bring to the table later down the line.
How Does This Affect The Avengers?
With Civil War, the Avengers roster becomes more torn apart than ever before, causing for some serious clashes between the split team. Though it’s still a far way of until the next Avengers film, no doubt this tension built up in Civil War will play a role in the future team pair-ups down the line in the MCU. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how that will play into the story.
How Does The Addition of Spidey Affect Spider-Man: Homecoming?
As the Civil War suggests, the new take on the Spider-Man franchise will be very different than the one previously released and, for the most part, that seems like a good thing. In the film, Tony Stark travels to Queens, New York to seek out a potential new recruit named Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man. In what’s one of the more interesting things about this film is that when Tony meets Peter, his uncle Ben is nowhere to be seen, leaving us to speculate that in this universe, the murder of Uncle Ben has already happened, meaning the Spider-Man: Homecoming film won’t bother with retelling Spidey’s well-known origin story. This isn’t really a bad thing, considering every Spider-Man retelling to date has featured the death of Uncle Ben, making it one of the most known moments in comic-book history.
Not only does it not bother retelling the origin story yet again, the movie has wiped the previous slate of Spider-Man movies into oblivion. This time, a promising new actor, Tom Holland, will don the Spider suit going forward. The most exciting thing out of it though is the promise of Spider-Man existing within the Marvel cinematic universe for the first time ever. Homecoming has also promised to feature characters from the Marvel universe as well, so we’re excited to see it all come together next summer.
What’s Next From Marvel?
The next film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be Doctor Strange, which hits theaters in November. Though the film doesn’t continue off of Civil War, the Doctor Strange property has been promised to play some sort of role in the coming Marvel films. Beyond Doctor Strange in 2017, Marvel will debut Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Thor Ragnarok. Additionally, under the Sony Pictures banner in a collaboration with Marvel Studios, the both will give the world a look at the web-slinging hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which will pick up right where we last saw the hero in Civil War. Beyond 2017, Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther will finally get his own solo film in February of 2018 before the team reassembles for Avengers Infinity War Part 1 in May. Overall it’s a very promising future for the Marvel universe, and Civil War is the film that strongly changes the course of the story into uncharted territory, making the future of these characters exciting and very unpredictable.
As always, stay tuned to LaughingPlace for more speculation on the uncertain future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe while we eagerly await the release of Doctor Strange.