No thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and theater shutdowns last year, Marvel Studios had to delay the roll out of their Phase Four cycle of films by a year. But now that vaccination rates are on the rise and theaters are starting to open back up, Marvel has released a new video that both highlights the Marvel Cinematic Universe legacy while starting the hype machine for the films to be released in theaters.
While we have already seen most of the footage of Black Widow and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings before in earlier trailers, the real big revelation in terms of actual footage is our first look at director Chloe Zhao’s The Eternals. With Zhao winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for Nomadland last weekend, Marvel would have been hard pressed not to release some footage of her work, even when they have two movies prior to this one to promote first. The few shots we get here concentrate on the characters and not the giant crazy visuals inherent in the comics. The cinematography highlights warm, natural browns and yellows, which does serve as a visual call back to her work in Nomadland.
Additionally, the sizzle reel unveiled full titles for two of Phase 4’s sequels – Black Panthers 2 and Captain Marvel 2.
Hitting theaters on July 8, 2022, Black Panther 2 will now be called Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the first film, “Wakanda Forever” was the rallying cry of Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther and the warriors of the nation of Wakanda. Given that the film is now going to serve as a tribute to Boseman, who tragically passed away last year, the title is fitting, a testament to Boseman’s own legacy as an actor enduring into the future.
Captain Marvel 2, releasing November 11, 2022 is now officiall known as The Marvels. Given that the film will also star Iman Vellani who is playing the teenage superhero Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel on the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris returning as Monica Rambeau, whom we saw get superpowers on Disney+’s WandaVision and who has also used the Captain Marvel codename in the comics, the new title certainly makes sense.
The video ends with a tease that after Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel the next film on Marvel’s slate will be their anticipated Fantastic Four film, bringing the comics company’s most popular superhero group into the MCU. While there is no release date listed for that, it will most likely hit theaters in early November to give the film as long a run at the box office as possible before Disney release’s Patty Jenkin’s Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is released on December 22, 2021.
