What If Marvel were to scrap the MCU's Phase 4?

[Confuzzled]

Lol Wandavision is one of the most nominated shows at the Emmys this year (with Agatha Harkness looking to be the first Marvel role to win a major award, which ), Black Widow is the highest opening pandemic film despite being available on streaming and everyone's talking about the Loki finale, Kang and the multiverse setup. Phase 4 is doing fine and is only going to do better from now.

[CosmiComic]

So, the fact that I don't like the current direction of the MCU, that I find it boring, unimmaginative and formulaiac, hads suddenly become about the fact that I'm automatically against diversity? I see.
Well, to answer a poster about him not seeing the current productions being political, don't get me wrong, movies, comics, pop culture in general, has always been political. Marvel, especially, always had quite a left-wing view most of the time (nowadays,with cancel culture at full throtle, it's hard to imagine a part of the industry which does not). As a non-American, I could not help but feel bothered when the action movies of ther 80's and 90's always used to picture anyone south of the border as a barely literate tribe of Cuban-inspired revolutionaries, who always lost easily to the mighty freedom-loving Americans (Hollywood's view of world politics has always been appalling, to say the least). In the same way, I don't appreciate the current trend to bash all of America's accomplishments as result of oppression of women, other etnicies and it being just a WASP paradise. It's an equally simple-minded view of things, and, likewise, it's America's problems. Keep it to yourself. The world has enough problems that don't limit themselves to this. My point is, politics has always been inserted in pop culture, it just seems to me that, in recent years, they have crossed the line and have become TOO heavy-handed (so much so that the politics, the agenda, no longer serve to enrich the story, it has BECOME the story, the story must bow itself to the dictates of the agenda. That's not entretainment. It's propaganda. Political propaganda). So much to the point that, even in a comics forum, you have to thread very carefully as to not have everything, even your personal tastes, become a political discussion. Just because you happen to agree with the politics being inserted in the movies and comics, it's not fair to say it doesn't exist.
That's all I'll say on the subject, and I would rather stick to what I proposed in the OP, different paths that the MCU could have taken with phase 4. Other then mine, I didn't see many people come up with their own ideas.

As always,

Peace

Except that's not really true. You seem to be trying to "both sides" this. That's a simple-minded viewpoint. And the USA is historically and even to this day a place where WASPs benefit at the expense of everyone else.

And not all agendas are bad. Minorities have been marginalized in movies, including in the MCU, and trying to reverse that isn't an evil agenda. And being heavy-handed isn't even necessarily bad. You may not like that, but some people don't mind it.

[youthoftoday]

They should have stopped at Endgame, honestly. The next Avengers is supposed to be based off of Secret Invasion, I believe? Secret Invasion should have been what Avengers: Age of Ultron was, and they still could have used that movie as Ultron's origin. Nothing coming out of Marvel at the moment seems to have any real direction as to where they want to take the overarching plot. It just seems as though every MCU show and movie right now are just things that are happening and not anything that's building up to a conclusion.

My fanfic: I'm thinking that Ultron gets used by Stark due to the Secret Invasion, and Ultron brutally removes the Skrull from the planet by using Sokovia as a projectile to destroy the Skrull command ship. Avengers fight Ultron at the end of the movie for his war crimes, but Ultron escapes and "realizes" humanity is the barrier stopping him from saving the Earth. Ultron makes a deal with Thanos to retrieve the Infinity Gems on Earth, but is then betrayed when he hands them to Thanos. Ultron decides to help the Avengers retrieve the gems, and he ends up sacrificing himself to stop Thanos.

There is a Nick Fury centered Secret Invasion show coming, but we have no idea if that will spill over to Avengers 5. Hell, Avengers 5 hasn't even been announced yet. As far as an over reaching plot, we've only seen four Phase 4 releases so far, one of which was Black Widow that in theory is a Phase 3 flashback. WandaVision gave insight on Wanda's powers and what she is capable of. FatWS gave a look at what the world looks like post Endgame and confirms Falcon as the new Cap. Loki (which I haven't finished yet) is showing us the multiverse. If you look back to the first 4 MCU movies the only thing we knew was that they were leading up to the formation of the Avengers. It wasn't till Avengers 1 (6th movie) that we were shown Thanos. We may get more insight to what is coming once Dr Strange 2 and/or Thor 4 come out next year. But as another poster said some of these movies/shows are just a thing. Winter Soldier really didn't factor in the "Infinity Saga" other than the post credits scene. Yes, it was part of Steve/Bucky/Nat/etc overall story, but you could still have IW/EG without it. FatWS may be the equivalent in this Phase.
We are 3 stories into the new era. Why would we need to know the overall plot yet? there are like 20+ other projects in development. Some will be big plot moving centerpieces and others will just be a thing to enjoy.

[The_Last_Czarnian]

I think the love affair is ending for me. I no longer get excited about the MCU. I don't dislike it by any means but it isn't the gimme that it used to be.

[Holt]

So, the fact that I don't like the current direction of the MCU, that I find it boring, unimmaginative and formulaiac, hads suddenly become about the fact that I'm automatically against diversity? I see.

The fact that you brought up "identity politics" out of nowhere and then suggested scrapping all of the POC or female-led projects except Blade in favor of a replacement slate that stars nothing but straight white males gives off that impression, yes. That's not on anyone else.

[Sutekh]

And not all agendas are bad. Minorities have been marginalized in movies, including in the MCU, and trying to reverse that isn't an evil agenda. And being heavy-handed isn't even necessarily bad. You may not like that, but some people don't mind it.

Agreed.

For this old straight white dude it's all about what's NEW and DIFFERENT. I've seen a bazillion and forty movies about other straight white dudes doing everything under the sun. So something like Black Panther isn't (just) 'political' to me for showing off a bunch of black people, it's *entertaining* because it's something I haven't seen a bazillion and forty times already.

Entertain me with everything the world around me contains, not just faces that look like the one I see in the mirror. Show me something I *haven't* seen. Show me an old British actor pretending to be the Mandarin. (I loved that twist, even if lots of other people hated it, because I'd rather be surprised than see a 100% faithful reproduction of stories I've read a dozen times.) Adapt the source matter, and I don't care if it's true to surface details, like a characters skin color, so much as it's true to the spectacle and grandeur and hope and drama and all that cool stuff that comes from great superhero comic books.

[CosmiComic]

I think they should be generally faithful to the comics, and avoid becoming Hollywood generic. But diversity is literally the opposite of Hollywood generic