When it comes to the MCU, there’s always at least one eye (and in the case of Doctor Strange, three) on the future, but it has perhaps never looked more uncertain. During Phases 1-3, while things did move around, projects were cancelled (such as the Inhumans movie becoming a TV show), and new characters unexpectedly joined (like Marvel striking a deal to use Spider-Man), there was always a clear direction for it, thanks to Thanos and the Infinity Stones. That hasn’t existed in Phases 4-6, with the Multiverse Saga more muddled, and the picture is even murkier when you try to look beyond that.
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Phase 6 has just started, and yet we’re only two years away from it wrapping up with Avengers: Secret Wars, which is set to be an epic multiversal event that could radically change the future of the MCU heading into Phase 7. But just how much will it alter things? There has long been talk of the MCU resetting after Secret Wars, with speculation going so far as to suggest there’ll be a full-scale reboot that allows Marvel to completely start fresh.
More recently, however, one rumor claims the MCU’s reboot will keep around 80% of the universe intact, simply trimming a few things that don’t work. That’s been met with some disappointment, which, honestly, I find surprising, because it’s by far the better approach.
Resetting The MCU Would Be An Insult To Its Past
An MCU reset or reboot would be difficult for many reasons, but not least because it would simply feel insulting to the universe’s legacy and everything that’s come before. Are there some mistakes in there, and some movies or TV shows that arguably shouldn’t have been made? Sure. But the good far outweighs the bad, and it’s those stories and characters that made the MCU into what it is.
Comic book movie characters have been reset plenty of times before, of course, but always very clearly within a different world, which isn’t what would be happening here. Yes, the movies and arcs would still exist to us as viewers, but to essentially say they don’t exist in-universe anymore treats them as lesser, when that’s the opposite of what they deserve.
What would be the point of watching an MCU where the original Avengers hadn’t assembled, where Thanos and Iron Man hadn’t snapped, Hulk hadn’t smashed, and we didn’t get to ask “Why is Gamora?”? The MCU needs evolution, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of its past. That’s the very thing that makes it feel lived-in and special, and it’d suck to remove that in any way.
A Reboot Ignores One Of The MCU’s Selling Points
Hand in hand with that is the fact that a reset ignores something that’s always made the MCU great: continuity. This is always going to be a topic of some debate, because Marvel has occasionally taken a light touch with it or been prepared to retcon certain events, and that’s no bad thing. But it’s nonetheless always been a present part of the MCU, and is what clearly set it apart from other comic book movies: this wasn’t a world where heroes could just be recast and rebooted, but where they were treated more as having ongoing, interconnected arcs within a shared universe.
Marvel could’ve just done, say, an Iron Man trilogy, and then a few years later, recast someone else and done a new one, like we’ve seen with Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, and so on. But they chose to place him in a bigger continuity, add more and more heroes, and have it as a living, breathing world. It undeniably worked, setting the blueprint for shared cinematic universes that many would try to imitate, but none have yet bettered. There is still a place for more standalone stories – The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a good example of this, barring its post-credits scene – and while a new reboot would presumably form its own canon, I just cannot fathom wiping out the old one to accommodate it.
Like the point above, it feels like saying that continuity doesn’t matter, while then also trying to insist the new continuity does matter, and yet pretending they’re both the same universe and one has simply replaced the other (rather than a delineation such as the DCEU and DCU, which is because of a change in vision and leadership, which wouldn’t be the case here).
The MCU Does Need Replacement Heroes (But Doesn’t Need To Reboot Them)
One of the biggest points of debate around the MCU reset is that, as it stands, they’re limited in what they can do with their best characters. That we’re not going to get another Iron Man movie, or another Steve Rogers Captain America film; that Thor’s future is limited to however many appearances Chris Hemsworth feels up to. It’s an argument I recently had with ComicBook‘s Executive Editor, Simon Gallagher, and, as usual, I have to think he’s wrong about it.
Yes, it’d be cool to have another Iron Man, but that shouldn’t mean just wiping Robert Downey Jr’s hero out of existence to allow for it. Marvel has fumbled replacing the original Avengers on a couple of different levels: the direct ones, such as introducing Sam Wilson as Captain America, and then its new generation of heroes, like Shang-Chi or the Eternals. But is that because they’re not the original Avengers? No. Sure, there might be some who won’t accept anyone other than Chris Evans as Captain America, but Anthony Mackie is pretty great at it. The problem is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Captain America: Brave New World weren’t good, and both were victims of heavy rewrites and reshoots.
Shang-Chi is a fantastic hero, as is star Simu Liu; the problem is that Marvel introduced him in 2021 and then has done nothing with him since. Something similar could be said for Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) as Hawkeye’s replacement, who is just a joy to watch and should’ve had much more to do. Yelena Belova is effectively the new Black Widow and one of Marvel’s best new characters, poised to become a new face of the MCU. Avengers: Doomsday should do its best to elevate that status. It could have a new Iron Man too if it builds to them organically and actually focuses on quality, and it can build on the legacy of what came before (which, to be fair, Ironheart could’ve done if Marvel hadn’t dumped the series on Disney+ three years after Riri Williams’ blockbuster debut).
Names are not entirely what matters in the MCU. Iron Man wasn’t some A-list character when he was introduced. Hell, this is the studio that made the freakin’ Guardians of the Galaxy into heroes who could carry a trilogy that grossed $2.5 billion at the box office, and they did that because those movies were great, they were fun, had a lot of humor and heart, and made you care about the characters. That, far more than rebooting things, is what Marvel needs to be focused on getting back to in Phase 6 and into Phase 7.
The next MCU movie is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, releasing in theaters on July 31st, 2026. It’ll be followed by Avengers: Doomsday on December 18th, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17th, 2027.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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