Marvel Trivia | 100 random trivia & facts about the MCU [Part 3]

MCU, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is the biggest film franchise in the world at the moment. Counting millions of fans around the world.

We have already talked about the inception of this universe and how it all begun. Now, it is time to dive a little more into the future and more specifics of the MCU.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films are a series of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios
The films are based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics
The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films are set
The films have been in production since 2007
In that time Marvel Studios has produced and released 23 films
14 more in various stages of development
It is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time
Having grossed over $22.5 billion at the global box office
This includes Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time
Kevin Feige has produced every film in the series
Kevin Feige and Avi Arad produced together the first two releases
Kevin Feige and Gale Anne Hurd produced The Incredible Hulk
Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal produced the Spider-Man films
Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard produced Ant-Man and the Wasp
The films are written and directed by a variety of individuals and feature large, often ensemble, casts
Many of the actors, including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner signed contracts to star in numerous films
Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called “Phases”
Their first film is Iron Man (2008)
This film was distributed by Paramount Pictures
Paramount also distributed Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
While Universal Pictures distributed The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures began distributing the series with the crossover film The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers concluded Phase One
Phase Two comprises Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Ant-Man (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016) is the first film of Phase Three
It is followed by Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
The first three phases are collectively known as “The Infinity Saga”
The Spider-Man films are owned, financed, and distributed by Sony Pictures
Phase Four will include Black Widow (2020), The Eternals (2021), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), a third Spider-Man film (2021), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
The phase will feature these films, as well as eight announced television event series for the streaming service Disney+
Black Panther II (2022) and a Captain Marvel sequel (2022) are also in development
Along with one additional film for 2022 and four films for 2023
Kevin Feige and Marvel have additional storylines planned through 2028, resulting in many films “on the docket that are completely different from anything that’s come before—intentionally”
Feige noted at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con that the studio has films scheduled to release after 2021, though they would not announce them nor the release dates at this time
Disney has scheduled additional release dates for untitled Marvel Studios films on October 7, 2022, as well as February 17, May 5, July 28, and November 3, 2023
By October 2018, Ryan Coogler had completed a deal to write and direct a sequel to Black Panther
In July 2019, Feige confirmed the film is currently in development
At the 2019 D23 Expo, the working title Black Panther II and a release date of May 6, 2022 were announced
Feige confirmed a sequel to Captain Marvel was in development at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con
In January 2020, Megan McDonnell was in final negotiations to write the script for the sequel
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the directors and co-writers of the first film, were not expected to return
The studio is looking to hire a female director for the sequel to Captain Marvel
The film is scheduled to be released on July 8, 2022
Marvel Studios had a working script for a Blade film by May 2013 after reacquiring the character’s film rights
By July 2015, Wesley Snipes stated that he had discussed the possibility of reprising his role with Marvel Studios
At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Blade was announced with Mahershala Ali as Eric Brooks / Blade
The actor previously portrayed Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in the first season of Luke Cage
Blade is not part of Phase Four
In April 2016, Feige stated that “Guardians 3 is [one film that’s] up there” being considered for release beyond 2019
In March 2017, James Gunn stated that a third Guardians film would happen “for sure” and the following month confirmed he would return to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
However, in July 2018, Disney and Marvel severed ties with Gunn following the resurfacing of controversial tweets from 2008 and 2009 making light of topics such as rape and pedophilia
Marvel planned to continue to use Gunn’s script for the film
Production was put on hold in August 2018, ahead of the planned start of filming in January or February 2019
In March 2019, Disney and Marvel reversed course and reinstated Gunn as the director of the film
Filming will begin in 2020 once he has completed his work for the DC Extended Universe film The Suicide Squad
Feige confirmed that the film was in development at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con
Ahead of the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Peyton Reed noted that he and Marvel were “hopeful” about a third Ant-Man film, having discussed potential story points
Reed was confirmed to return to direct a third Ant-Man film by November 2019
In April 2020, Jeff Loveness was hired to write the script
It has a possible release date in 2022
With filming expected to begin in January 2021
After the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was announced in December 2017, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that Deadpool would be integrated with the MCU under Disney
Ryan Reynolds is expected to reprise his role as Deadpool from the X-Men film series
The Once Upon a Deadpool version of Deadpool 2 (2018) was being watched carefully by Disney and Marvel to see whether it might inform how they could approach the character and integrate him into the PG-13 MCU
In October 2019, Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick said that they were waiting for approval from Marvel Studios to begin production on the third film
In December 2019, Reynolds confirmed that a third Deadpool film was in development at Marvel Studios
In July 2019, at the San Diego Comic-Con, Feige announced that the Fantastic Four would join the MCU, in an upcoming film centered around the team
Feige said the film would “[bring] Marvel’s first family up to the sort of platform and level they deserve”, after the critical and commercial failure of 20th Century Fox’s previous film adaptation
During Marvel Studios’ panel at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, where the plans for Phase Four were discussed, Feige confirmed that the studio was developing films about mutants (which include X-Men)
Asked whether these film would not have “X-Men” in their titles, Feige acknowledged that the terms “X-Men” and “mutants” are interchangeable
Kevin Feige went on to say that the MCU approach would be quite different from the 20th Century Fox film series
During Phase One of the MCU, Marvel Studios lined up some of their films’ stories with references to one another, though they had no long-term plan for the shared universe’s timeline at that point
Iron Man 2 is set six months after the events of Iron Man and around the same time as Thor according to comments made by Nick Fury
The official canon tie-in comic Fury’s Big Week confirmed that The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and Thor all took place within a week, a year before the crossover film The Avengers
Writers Chris Yost and Eric Pearson tried to follow the logic of the films’ timeline when plotting the comic, and received “the seal of approval” from Feige and Marvel Studios on the final timeline
As promotion for The Avengers, Marvel released an official infographic detailing this timeline in May 2012
Wanting to simplify the in-universe timeline, the Phase Two films were set roughly in real time relating to The Avengers
Iron Man 3 takes place about six months later, during Christmas
Thor: The Dark World is set one year later
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is two years after
Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man ended the phase in 2015 with several months passing between those films in-universe as in real life
For Phase Three, directors the Russo brothers wanted to continue using real time
So Captain America: Civil War begins a year after Age of Ultron with Avengers: Infinity War set two years after that
However, producer Brad Winderbaum said the Phase Three films would actually “happen on top of each other” while being less “interlocked” as the Phase One films were
Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming respectively beginning a week and several months after Civil War
Thor: Ragnarok beginning four years after The Dark World and two years after Age of Ultron, around the same time as Civil War and Homecoming
Doctor Strange taking place over a whole year and ending “up to date with the rest of the MCU”
Ant-Man and the Wasp also set two years after Civil War and shortly before Infinity War
Both Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequel Vol. 2 being explicitly set in 2014
Feige believed would create a four-year gap between Vol. 2 and Infinity War, though the other MCU films up to that point do not specify years onscreen
When Spider-Man: Homecoming was being developed, director and co-writer Jon Watts was shown a scroll detailing the MCU timeline that was created by co-producer Eric Carroll when he first began working for Marvel Studios
Watts said the scroll included both where the continuity of the films lined-up and did not lineup, and when fully unfurled it extended beyond the length of a long conference table
This scroll was used as the basis to weave the continuity of Homecoming into the previous films, such as The Avengers
This was labeled in the film with a title card stating that eight years pass between the end of The Avengers and the events of Civil War, which was widely criticized as a continuity error that broke the established MCU timeline, in which only four years should have passed
Additionally, dialogue in Civil War indicates that eight years pass between the end of Iron Man and the events of that film, despite the established continuity being closer to five or six years
Infinity War co-director Joe Russo described the Homecoming eight years time jump as “very incorrect”
The mistake was ignored in Infinity War which specified that its events were taking place only six years after The Avengers
The public response to the Homecoming mistake inspired Marvel Studios to release a new timeline for all three phases
In November 2018, a timeline, specifying dates for the events in each film released to that point
This was included as part of the sourcebook Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the MCU