WARNING! This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War. Proceed with caution.
Avengers 4 — or whatever it ends up being called — is going to have a lot of heavy lifting to do after the events of Avengers: Infinity War. With a huge part of the story still left to be told, we decided to look at exactly what goals Avengers 4 needs to achieve when it releases next summer.
Wrap Up the Thanos Story
Thanos has been a looming shadow over the Marvel Cinematic Universe for almost a decade. Now, we’ve finally seen him unleashed. But, his story isn’t going to be over just yet. Avengers: Infinity War might have left Thanos at a satisfying place from his point of view, but the audience is definitely going to want something much more final and celebratory than what we saw.
If Avengers 4 is really supposed to close a huge chapter in the MCU’s history, it needs to definitively end the story of Thanos. Whether that means we’ll see some setup for a new big bad remains to be seen. Regardless, Thanos has had his day in the sun. Let’s see how the Avengers write him out of the story.
Get the Heroes Back
Obviously, Avengers 4 is going to be pre-occupied with erasing what Thanos did at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. The death of so many iconic characters won’t stick, so we’re assuredly going to see our remaining heroes doing everything they can to reset everything that’s happened. But, how much of the movie will be centered around that?
Hopefully, the entirety of the film won’t be devoted to this plot point. We need to get all those characters back but not at the cost of dragging out their inevitable resurrection for another two-and-a-half hours. If the first half of the film can get the heroes back, then the second half should give us the gigantic assault on Thanos we’ve been waiting to see.
Permanently Change the Roster
We’ve known for a while that Infinity War and Avengers 4 were going to conclude the stories of a lot of the original Avengers lineup. With most of the initial members still alive at the end of Infinity War, the next film needs to change up the Avengers roster in a permanent and unambiguous way.
Whether that means conclusively killing off certain legacy members like Iron Man and Captain America or simply finding a way to remove them from the story, Avengers 4 must leave us at a place where we know that the old Avengers team is over and a new group of heroes is going to take the reins.
Set the Stage for Something Grander
The Infinity Stones offer an immense opportunity for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the ability to do anything to reality, these magical MacGuffins could potentially reshape everything we know about the MCU. That means rewriting history, opening up alternate dimensions, or completely changing what we know about characters.
What if Tony Stark never becomes Iron Man? Or could we see what version of Captain America comes to be in a divergent timeline? The possibilities are limitless and Avengers 4 needs to position the future of the MCU as something truly immense and boundless. If this cinematic comic book experience is going to go for broke, it needs to set up the future of its world with no worries about how crazy it can get.
We’ll find out exactly if Avengers 4 meets these goals when it hits theaters on May 3, 2019.
