THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES SPOILERS FROM AVENGERS: ENDGAME, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED AND CONTINUE READING AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The final battle sequence of Avengers: Endgame feels like a precursor to Battleworld and Secret Wars, something The Russo Brothers have said multiple times would be a story/movie that would draw them back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It would pit heroes vs heroes vs villains vs villains, all sorts of bonkers fight scenes that would potentially make stuff like Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame look quaint in comparison.
The pure volume of characters they were able to juggle in their movies suggests they could pull off Secret Wars if the film is again divided up by characters groups, and the great thing about Secret Wars it already has that built into it. I think people need to understand we might not see this project in the next five years, they’ll have to build up to it.
Concerning the title I’d assume with Civil War and Infinity War, they might go with simply Secret War as not use Wars, which Disney might want to keep strictly for Star Wars. Another way to go is simply called Avengers: Battleworld.
One way to go instead time-travel is opening up the Multiverses, we saw with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse that audiences are willing to accept that aspect of the comics. Opening up the Multiverse could give Marvel Studios an excuse to explore an entire wave of characters that might have been harder to insert into the MCU.
A Multiverse storyline could explain a world populated by mutants that were never mentioned to or hinted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This could also be a way to add the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom, as the Fox characters could be from their own alternative Earth in the Multiverse. Perhaps, Reed Richards or Victor von Doom figure out how to travel between Multiverses and potentially is a catalyst to the formation of the Illuminati then draws the attention of cosmic threats noticing technology is being used to time-travel and travel in the Multiverse.
A bad guy like Annihilus could be something that is unleashed via technology from a Fantastic Four movie or possibly during the events of the eventually Ant-Man 3 movie via the Quantum Realm.
Another way to go is by simply going to the comic book incarnation where the cosmic entity Beyonder has various heroes and villains fight each other on Battleworld. Instead of just choosing Earthbound heroes, the Beyonder could open up his selection from across time and space, along with the Multiverse. Opening it up to a cosmic entity that can bend space and time allows them to do a lot of things and could be the seeds for what they want to actually do with their Secret War movie. Instead of the Avengers being called up or coming together to save the Earth, the planet’s safety is automatically removed from the equation with Beyonder’s motivations being the crux of whatever the plot ends up looking like.
Pulling in the X-Men to Battleworld from their version of Earth could give fans their Avengers vs. X-Men tease. Similar to when Joss Whedon teased Civil War in The Avengers with a scrap between some of the heroes. Personally, I think you need to have an X-Men movie before adding them to Secret Wars. Marvel’s Kevin Feige has suggested we won’t see the X-Men in their current five-year plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that could change but that could give them even more time to introduce characters that would have to fight in Secret War.
I know people wanted Marvel to rush to introduce the X-Men in Avengers: Endgame, but as the Russo Brothers pointed out it was logistically impossible given the merger completed in mid-March. I think like with saw with the lead up to The Avengers and Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, the build-up to these events was earned and I think if fans are patient we might get the same thing with X-Men as well.
There is already an assumption that The Eternals movie could end up explaining the mutant gene and adding them to the mix would make sense as they’ll have to bring them to the present time in the MCU at some point, with talk that the Eternals is going to be set in the distant past.
Who could show up in Secret War beside X-Men and Fantastic Four given the potential use of Multiverses?
An interesting nod I might have missed is that Morgan Stark tells her father, Tony, she loves him “3000”, while this could be simply an offhanded remark, there is also a small chance it was a tease the Russo Brothers added for a reason.
The 31st Century and specifically the year 3000 has a place in Marvel Comics, as the original version of Guardians of The Galaxy comes from that year and if that’s the cause could be an itty bitty nod to the Multiverse (along with characters from the distant future). That version of the Guardians comes from Earth-691 in the comics, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set on Earth-199999. A version of this Guardians lineup was in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2, human astronaut Major Vance Astro aka Major Victory, the leader of the team who carries Roger’s shield in the comic books just happened to be the one member missing in Gunn’s movie.
Some other interesting versions of Earth in the Multiverse include Earth-712, where the Squadron Supreme resides. A Marvel Comics version of the Justice League that started out as villains and eventually become superheroes. They could actually make interesting villains to go up against the Avengers or whatever the team in Secret Wars ends up being called in Battleworld as they would actually give them a run for their money.
The lineup includes Hyperion,
I first thought that they could be revealed via the Quantum Realm, but if they’re going to play with the Multiverse and tackle Battleworld this could be an excellent reason to bring them into the MCU.
If the film might be pulling heroes and villains from the Multiverse (from various times and alternative realities) it could also be an excuse to bring in The Invaders. Many of those characters are unlikely going to see the light of day and Battleworld would be an excuse to bring them into the MCU even for just one movie. They include Union Jack (teased in Iron Man 2), Namor, Spitfire, the android version of the Human Torch (teased in Captain America: The First Avenger), Toro, Miss America, Silver Scorpion, the Blazing Skull (could easily be a version of Ghost Rider), and Major Liberty.
Hell, I think it could be even badass if we saw a version of the Invaders from the year 3000 since if they tackle Major Victory he’s unlikely going to have those members of the Guardians alongside him 900 years in the future. Since there was a version of The Vision (Aarkus) on the Invaders it could be a way to bring him back. Then again, you could make Major Victory someone else they chose to become Captain America during WWII, but they’ll be doing that with the animated series What If, giving Peggy Carter the serum and shield.
But it still could be worth exploring as it would be a way to revisit those WWII era characters that we’ll likely never see including the villains, since Battleworld including baddies.
These are just some early ideas after seeing what they did with Avengers: Endgame and the Russo Brothers willingness to tackle Secret Wars in the future. Exactly predicting stuff this far out is extremely hard to do as these are just some random ideas.
