Comic-Con 2022: Marvel’s Kevin Feige Reveals Biggest Lessons Learned from Phase Four (Exclusive)

Marvel Studios brought the goods to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday night, laying out its plans for Phase Five and Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These phases come following Phase Four, the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to include Disney+ streaming series, resulting in a phase that was higher in content hours but shorter in terms of years to release. ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige following the panel presentation. Feige coyly commented on the X-Men’s introduction and talked up Jonathan Major’s Kang as the cornerstone of the Multiverse Saga. He also revealed what lessons he learned in planning and implementing the fourth phase of the MCU.

“I think we learn something on every project we do, but as we were laying out, even three years ago here laying out Phase Four, which we didn’t lay out all of, but most of, we realized that it’s very different than Phase One, Two and Three, that that there are more projects in less years, and therefore it didn’t seem right, you’re not going to culminate every 10 months in an Avengers movie,” Feige explained. “And each of the films themselves now have become quite big and are crossover events in many ways. And after, you know, the creative experience we had with Infinity War and Endgame, it felt like it was about capping a saga, saving back-to-back Avengers films for the completion of a saga and that’s really what we wanted to lay out today.

Feige also touched on how building these new phases of the MCU differs from earlier phases. He commented on how different post-credits scenes and shows serve different purposes.

“Well, I think the truth is all of the tags are never just about the future, their tags that are eating shawarma, Captain America saying, ‘You got to learn patience, sometimes you wait for something not worth it.’ So they are always fun for us. We don’t want everything to feel the same. So some of the tags will connect, some of them won’t. Some of the films and shows will connect, some of them won’t. I think it’s just as important that we can have standalone introductory stories like Ms. Marvel, like Moon Knight, in addition to things that interconnect and build towards the larger story.  A lot of what we’ve been doing has been building to the larger story. Obviously, with The Kang Dynasty and The Multiverse Saga and now I think people will, I hope, come along for the ride both where it’s on an express train to the finale and also when it’s a fun as as many of our Phase One, Two, and Three films were.”

The next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, launching on Disney+ on August 17th.