When Marvel first announced the culmination of the MCU (Marvel
Cinematic Universe) and Phase 3 in the form of Infinity War, it was announced
as a 2 part movie releasing in May 2018 and May 2019.
However, once The Russo Brothers started working on the
Infinity War movies (as writers and directors) they quickly stated that there
would no longer be a part 1 and 2. They said the May 2018 film would be
Avengers Infinity War (basically the culmination of phase 3) and that the May
2019 Avengers film would be quite separate, both movies would tell their own
self-contained stories. As a result Infinity War Part 1, was now known as
Infinity War and the follow up was simply the 4th Avengers film (now
commonly referred to as “Untitled Avengers sequel”).
At the time this made sense, but after seeing the new Avengers Infinity War trailer and thinking about it in hindsight, I believe
that “Untitled Avengers sequel” is in fact still Avengers Infinity War Part 2,
and here’s why…
Firstly, there is literally not enough time in one movie to
tell this story satisfyingly. There are too many (lead) characters, too many plot
points to cover and locations / events to see. The scale of this movie is
unprecedented and unless it’s 3 - 4 hours long, there literally isn’t enough
time to do the story or the characters justice. Not only that, but the fact
we’ve been building to this for over ten years, are we really going to get rid of
Thanos within one movie? I don’t think so, he’s staying around for the May 2019
movie as well and that will be the real climax of this saga (more details on why
in my final point).
Secondly, I think the removal of the Part 1 and 2 title is a
result of Marvel Studios reacting to the trends of the movie industry. When
Avengers Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2 was announced, this was very much the "in thing". The final chapters of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, the Divergent
films and even Justice League were announced as Part 1 and 2.
However, audiences quickly rejected this way of releasing
movies. The general consensus was that movie studios were spreading their
stories too thin across multiple movies just to make more money, which in
pretty much all cases resulted in pretty lacklustre and drawn-out Part 1s (see
Harry Potter and Hunger Games). Although I think the scale of Infinity War
actually justifies the Part 1 and 2, I think it’s a good idea to distance
themselves from this idea, so audience don’t go in feeling like they’re only
getting half a movie.
Also, bear in mind movies of this scale would be extremely
difficult to significantly change at that stage in production. They are years
in planning, preparing special effects and scheduling with all the core cast
members, etc. If they were originally conceived as a Part 1 and 2, there’s only
so many things that could be changed. They may have changed elements of the story
so that maybe Part 1 doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger moment for example, but
these movies will very much be two halves of one over-arching story featuring Thanos.
Finally, Kevin Fegie has stated several times that he won’t
tell us the title of Avengers 4 because it’s a spoiler for Avengers Infinity
War. I believe Avengers 4 might not technically be called Infinity War Part
2 anymore, but I do think it’s still very
much a direct continuation of the Infinity War story (so still essentially Part 2)
and revealing the title at this stage would give that away.
I don’t know specific plot points, but based on the teaser
trailer, we can surmise that the main plot of Infinity War (and therefore most
of the films duration) will follow Thanos in his attempt to get all the
Infinity Stones and complete the Infinity Gauntlet, whilst the Avengers try to stop
him.
My guess is that Thanos will succeed, however if we’re to
believe this is a self-contained story then the Avengers would have
to resolve this conflict almost immediately. This would be a bit of an anti-climax for a ten
year, multi-film set-up… As a result Infinity
War will end with Thanos in possession of the completed Infinity Gauntlet, and
the next Avengers film will be the heroes dealing with this by going on a crusade to stop him, therefore the fourth Avengers film will be called either... AVENGERS: THE INFINITY GAUNTLET or AVENGERS: THE INFINITY CRUSADE.
I do also think that to some extent the fourth Avengers film
will act as a soft reboot and retire some of the core original heroes from the
series as well.
Well, that’s what I think, do you agree?
If you liked this MCU speculation, you may also enjoy my blogpost of what movies are in phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Written by @RossBishop for MoviePush. Follow Ross on Twitter.
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