Such an idea is a long way off obviously but it’s still a consideration since it’s something that could eventually happen if people want to keep holding onto the MCU after those that they revere as the heroes and those they despise as the villains are long gone. The truth is that everyone in the MCU at this point is going to either age out of their roles or they’re going to find that they want to explore other possibilities and step away from the franchise. The MCU isn’t perfect to be fair, but it’s been rolling forward in a big way for a while now, and it’s tough to see it folding any time soon since there are plenty of other ideas to bring forward and stories to tell considering how many huge storylines still exist. But even with the idea that the franchise has been plotted out for another decade, it’s bound to happen that in the next ten years, people are going to go one of two ways. They’ll either find reasons to continue to love what they’re seeing, or they’ll find something shiny and new.
The trick is to keep the MCU shiny and new, but unfortunately, this could also come at the expense of a lot of the storytelling that’s already been established. It could be that a final Secret Wars would be necessary after a while, prompting an entire reboot of the MCU. But saving that for a decade feels like it would be a mistake since the magic that the franchise has been creating would no doubt run dry after a while unless someone could pull off a miracle and keep people wanting more as the MCU continues to push one story after another. Right now, the way things are going appears to be keeping people happy, but as it happens with every franchise, something needs to be done to either kickstart it again or it will need to be redone almost from the ground up.
At this time it does feel as though plenty of worthy successors are on their way to make certain that the MCU won’t go stale for a while, as the recently released Doctor Strange 2 has already made it clear that the multiverse is going to be a huge source that can help provide the material for one story after another. And when looking at the slate of stories yet to come, there are plenty of tales that will be useful in keeping the MCU alive for a while to come. How many phases the MCU can last for is up for debate at the moment since plenty of fans are likely to believe that it can keep going indefinitely if stories are recycled, rebooted, remade, and in some cases completely retooled and retconned. There are a lot of ways to make this happen, and there’s no doubt that the folks at Disney are going to be thinking of every possible way that they can squeeze one more dollar out of the franchise as they continue to move forward. But following the question of whether it can be done, maybe the next question should be whether it should be done.
Every franchise has a shelf life no matter how many new generations of fans want to keep it going, and there might be a time when the MCU might need to fade back into Marvel comics to recoup or to return to its roots. Even that might not be possible since the comics have been changing rapidly over the years as well, and thinking that things will go back to what they used to be isn’t exactly amenable to moving forward. The MCU is bound to shift and change over the years as one story after another will collide with the others and force a change that will create a chance to spread in various directions that will continue to build new opportunities for various actors to have their turn playing hero or villain. There are plenty of individuals that would love to be a part of the MCU, and accommodating them all, if that’s the plan, is going to take a bit of time, and effort.
Thinking this far forward isn’t easy for a lot of people, especially since they’re too taken with the images and stories they’re given in the present. Some folks don’t want to look too far ahead, and others might not think that there’s a future beyond what’s already been plotted. At the moment, the MCU feels like an institution that’s not bound to fade away or fail in a manner that can’t be remedied. But the truth is that everything can fail and that it’s bound to happen that something else will come along, or that one change or another will occur that might make the MCU less effective than it’s been in the past. It’s not a desire to see the MCU fall away, but even Rome had its time, right? For the time being though, it’s fair to say that the MCU is going to be sticking around for a while.
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