According To The AVENGERS 4 Writers "You Have No Idea What Avengers 4 Is" So Lets Talk About What It Could Be
Over the past few weeks, we've gotten a lot of information about Avengers: Infinity War from the members of the cast and crew. Some of that has lead to us speculating what could happen in Avengers 4. There's been a little talk about Avengers 4, like how there will be a new group of heroes at the forefront and those heroes are said to not have much screen time in Avengers: Infinity War. It's also been explained very clearly that Infinity War and Avengers 4 will be two very separate films that could stand on their own, but they do share a connection. We've also seen some set photos that hint at a few things.
I've seen a lot of fun speculation about Avengers 4 online, but according to screenwriter Stephen McFeely, no one has come close to figuring it out. He told CB:
"We know pretty much what’s going on in Avengers 3. You’ve been told who’s the bad guy and what he wants for several movies and it’s not going to change: that’s what’s going to happen. You run it in the best possible way with twists along the way, but you have no idea what Avengers 4 is."
"Nobody knows, and that’s what makes me particularly excited. I look all the time on the internet: people have no idea! [Avengers] 4 resolves the intrigue of Infinity War; [the movies are] clearly linked, but they almost seem to belong to two different genres. We did not want to cut a film in half and say, 'Pay now and come back in a year for the rest!' These are two very different stories, on a tonal and structural level."
This interview was conducted during the production of Avengers: Infinity War so we didn't have all of the information that we do now. Now we have a decent amount of information to play with to shape our theories.
When I come up with my theories I'm working off the assumption that Infinity War ends like it does in the comics with Thanos snapping his fingers and wiping out half the universe. We already know that Ant-Man and The Wasp and Captain Marvel films are set prior to the events of Infinity War even though the movies come out after. This allows them to set the stage for keeping them safe from Thanos' destruction and give them the opportunity to take the lead with Avengers 4. We also know for a fact that Hawkeye will be a main character in the story, most likely as Ronin.
So what could the story entail? I'm personally keen to the idea of time travel being used as a plot device. After all, we have seen set photos of Captain America wearing his Captain America costume from the first Avengers film. Ant-Man is also hanging out with him in an updated Ant-Man suit. I know some fans like the whole Tony Stark technology that was set up in Civil War. Director Joe Russo even talked about it after the photos leaked saying:
"It's interesting, because yes, there are photos that always leak, and then there's lots of conjecture about what those photos mean. Certainly there is a five-minute sequence in Civil War around a piece of technology that was laid in for a very specific reason. So if you go back and look at that film, you may get a hint as to a direction."
But we all know he's not going to give us a real answer! Just because he hints at the tech, doesn't mean that's how the story will go because he could be saying these things to throw us off the scent! It wouldn't be the first the first time that Marvel Studio has done that.
So, I'm going with the Back to the Future theory that there will be some time travel to try and fix what Thanos has done, and in the process reset the MCU and move forward with their next phase of films.
As I previously said, I think Marvel is going to use Thanos destroying the universe as an opportunity to reset the MCU. Kevin Feige has already teased in the past that phase four is going to be a very different and new thing after Infinity War. What better way to do that than destroy half of the universe and make a fresh start from what's left? It's not hard to think that fresh start will begin with Avengers 4.
Now, I put the question to you. What do you think Avengers 4 will be about? What do you want it to be about!? What other characters do you think will be involved? How do you see this whole story arc playing out?