After Thanos in the Infinity Saga, I just don't see how Marvel can compete with themselves in the future. Kang went nowhere and Doom is getting one movie with no set-up.

Maybe Magneto can match Thanos when they reboot the X-Men, but seriously, they set their own bar too high

I mostly agree, and in a way don't think it matters too much what they do in Doomsday/Secret Wars in terms of beating it at this point. Even if Doctor Doom is great (which is plausible, it's not like RDJ is a bad actor), it'll be "well, the setup wasn't as good as Thanos." Just from a perception standpoint, that's probably too ingrained now.

Honestly, I don't mind too much the lack of setup/connectivity, if we can just get good stories and villains for each movie. With Thanos, the setup was very cool and added a lot to it for sure, but if you take him out of the Infinity Saga before IW/Endgame, he's still a super compelling villain with a really clear, strong motivation that combines with a huge threat level to make him perfect for those movies. And given Marvel's struggles post-Endgame, getting back to basics a bit isn't a bad idea

I think where Marvel really dropped the ball post Endgame is not establishing a new core group of characters to follow through the next saga. Think about how many times we saw the Original Six in the Infinity Saga before we got to Infinity War. One of the main reasons why Endgame works as well as it does it it's the last hurrah for this team we had been following for the better part of a decade.

I think I'd be more excited for Doomsday/Secret Wars if there had been a new core team anchoring this franchise for the past handful of years. Phase 4 should have been like "New Avengers Assemble" or something and then flesh those characters out in Phases 5 and 6.

1 hour ago, ChrisA90 said:

I think I'd be more excited for Doomsday/Secret Wars if there had been a new core team anchoring this franchise for the past handful of years. Phase 4 should have been like "New Avengers Assemble" or something and then flesh those characters out in Phases 5 and 6.

They're definitely going to try and force this, but I just can't help but get the sinking feeling that it's not going to work. It'll connect some just because of the stars involved, but you're right, the build-up to this just isn't the same

On 3/25/2026 at 2:21 PM, ChrisA90 said:

I think where Marvel really dropped the ball post Endgame is not establishing a new core group of characters to follow through the next saga. Think about how many times we saw the Original Six in the Infinity Saga before we got to Infinity War.

This. I feel that having a core group would have been more important than an overarching villain. We got neither, and now I just hope Secret Wars will clean the slate and allow better storytelling in the future.

Tbh I think they threw too many ideas out at once, so nothing got established. I mean, we're finally seeing Shang-Chi again after HOW MANY years??

I wish they would have spent more time building up great teams before jumping into this. We were a little spoiled for Thanos because there were so many awesome movies leading up to it and I don't know how they can compare to that buildup. I hope they surprise us.

Hard to beat ten years of buildup! Especially in the box office world we're in now and the way that tastes have trended away from superheroes for the most part, it's even clearer now that Thanos really was the peak of it all. No matter what the MCU does from now on, it just won't hit in the same way. It's pretty much impossible. Even if Secret Wars goes full nostalgia bomb with like all the classic actors facing off against RDJ God Doom or something, it's still not going to be as great as the Thanos fight.

The world has changed so much, and that feeling of sitting there in theaters for Endgame is going to be rose-colored glassed to such a height that no other Marvel movie is going to be able to match it. It's just impossible. Would love to be wrong, however, and definitely want to be jumping up in down in my seat for whatever happens.