Kevin Feige Calls the First Wave of MCU Movies “The Infinity Saga”

As they say, it’s all been coming down to this. From its kickoff with 2008’s Iron Man, the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been building towards whatever Avengers: Endgame has in store. It’s an epic journey to be certain and now the first three phases of the MCU will have an equally epic name: “The Infinity Saga”.

“The Infinity Saga” is the name that Empire Magazine reveals Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has given the collection of 22 films that make up the complete story of the MCU to this point and while the movies may not have always featured Infinity Stones directly — they were first introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 — they’re very much a through line to this whole story that will have “some finality” with Endgame.

“We wanted to bring to a conclusion a series of movies in a way that had never been done before,” Feige told the magazine (via Comic Book Movie). “Harry Potter had an ending because there were only so many books. Lord of the Rings, too. But we thought, 22 movies in, wouldn’t it be fun to bring some finality to the storyline?”

The idea that Endgame will bring a sense of ending to the MCU as fans currently know it really isn’t much of a surprise. It’s something that Feige has been teasing for quite some time. Last April, Feige told Fandango that Endgame — then simply called Avengers 4 — is the conclusion for the movies before it.

“Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers 4 are very much of a piece,” Feige said. “They’re very different movies and tonally they’re very different movies, which is why we did not want to say Part 1 and Part 2, but they’re very directly connected. Avengers 4 is the conclusion of all twenty-one movies before it.”

Outside of the notion that Endgame is the closing of a book, so to speak, there’s also a utility in giving the whole massive arc a unifying name. When the MCU picks up again in a post-Endgame world, there will be a new hero taking the lead. While Tony Stark/Iron Man was the lead for the MCU to now, it’s Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel that will take the universe in a new direction going forward. New chapter, new name.

“The great thing about Captain Marvel is she is a human. She’s a real person, Carol Danvers, who gets these incredible powers and who has these amazing adventures in outer space,” Feige confirmed in Captain Marvel: The Official Movie Special. “But as with all of the best Marvel characters, she needs to be very human. So this is not just about somebody who is incredibly powerful and can fly around and shoot photon blasts out of her hands; it’s somebody who’s very human, who’s very vulnerable, and who has multiple dimensions.”

“When we found out that Brie Larson might be interested in joining our world, we had a number of meetings,” Feige continued. “She was a huge fan of the character in the comics. One of the highlights of my career at Marvel was introducing her at Comic-Con and having her come out on stage and stand there with literally almost everybody else from our movies. There she was at the forefront, and it was a great foreshadowing – not just for how audiences are going to embrace Brie as this character, but also for how Captain Marvel is about to take the lead and be at the forefront of the entire Cinematic Universe.”

What do you think about the name “The Infinity Saga”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Captain Marvel is in theaters now. It will be followed by Avengers: Endgame on April 26th