There are a lot of things to love about Marvel such as the superpowered beings, hateful and vengeful villains, even including the death of some beloved characters. 2008’s blockbuster, “Iron Man” started what we call the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Nearly 15 years later, Marvel transitioned into Phase 5 and announced new projects that will expand the universe that Iron Man set up so long ago.

The next films that makeup Phase 5 and 6 of the MCU will begin with the threat of Kang the Conqueror culminating in the 2025 movie,  “Avengers: Kang Dynasty.” Kang is a villain from the Marvel comics that is a threat to the Avengers as his goal is to conquer Earth as he finds it easy to take over a planet. Kang has been shown in the comics as a major villain that the Avengers face and have struggled against and the movies in Phase 5 are building towards the introduction of Kang the Conqueror himself.

After Kang is defeated, “Avengers: Secret Wars” is also set to release in 2025, connecting it more to the comic book version of the same name. Other films like “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” are going to show the wider ramifications of T’Challa’s death. Namely, that the rest of the world considers Wakanda ripe for the picking. The second Black Panther movie will be great as from what I’ve seen from the trailer it’s going to fully show how Wakanda will do without T’Challa and how his sister will take up the mantle of the Black Panther.

Similarly to the “Black Panther” sequel, “Captain America: New World Order” is getting a lot of hype from the superhero fan base and Marvel Studios. Sam Wilson known as Falcon (Anthony Mackie) is now taking over the shield in his own movie and it’s going to show him as the new Captain America that is different from Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Rogers Trusted that Wilson would be a good person to take up the mantle and gave him the shield and in the Disney+ show, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” which shows Wilson coming to terms with the loss of Rogers as Captain America.

“It’s amazing,” Mackie said at the Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California in September. “I’ve always come out as a secondary character in a movie. It’s really humbling to come out as the lead character for the first time, in a movie, being in this universe for so long.” I am very excited to see how Falcon does as Captain America in this new movie.

The Marvel timeline is heading in a direction that could be building up to Galactus who is a villain who eats planets and worlds,“Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.” In the half-decade gap, more multiverses are included and the timeline can skew in different directions. An example of this is the Disney+ show “What If…?” which features different plots that could have happened in the MCU. Kang will also be an upcoming threat they are building to in the Marvel timeline.

Many MCU characters, such as Wanda Maximoff, have received developments lately. She went through an arc in Disney+’s “WandaVision” that showed her missing her lover, Vision but she realized that she couldn’t truly get him back. Her arc culminated in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” when she wanted to remove herself from an alternate timeline and take her place with her kids but towards the end of the movie she realizes her sins and sacrifices herself to save America Chavez and Dr. Strange. Peter Parker known as Spider-Man had also received development as he lost Aunt May and everything due to his actions of tampering with Dr. Strange’s spell.

I’ve enjoyed Phase 4 even if the quality of the movies decreased due to questionable writing choices. The future Phase 5 and 6 of the MCU are going to be comic books with twists. I am skeptical of the quality of the films set to release as the computer-generated imagery and writing haven’t been the best since “Spider-Man: No Way Home” causing fans to stray from Marvel, which makes me doubtful of the future movies and projects. We’ve had some good and exciting news for the future of the MCU and I am very anxious to see how Marvel develops over the next few years.