The press junkets have begun for Deadpool & Wolverine, and that means journalists jamming out quotes on the future of the MCU as quickly as humanly possible. And in the first quote out of the gate from Kevin Feige, the Marvel chief has revealed that there will be a maximum of 99,999 characters in Avengers 5 & 6.
Okay, fine, I’m fibbing a bit for (hopefully) comedic effect. But as part of io9’s junket coverage, they asked Feige about whether we should expect characters from Phase 4 to return in the upcoming Avengers sequels.
“I rarely speak in absolutes like that, right?” Feige said. “The notion of never ever seeing somebody again, we’ve got Tim Blake Nelson in a movie coming up next year, right? So I never talk in absolutes like that. But the truth is, you know, we’re going to tell a story in these Avengers movies, and there won’t be room for 100,000 characters in it. So choices will have to be made, that’s for sure. But that doesn’t mean you won’t ever see anybody ever again.”
First of all, nice of Feige to confirm he’s not a Sith, since only a Sith deals in absolutes. Second, yes, this is a no-brainer. Avengers: Infinity War famously left Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) out of the movie, and while Endgame brought in everybody through the portals scene at the end, the movie did focus on on a core group of characters.
With the fifth movie being… Whatever it is after Jonathan Majors was let go as Kang, and even with Avengers 6 adapting the expansive Secret Wars storyline, a movie doesn’t work if you have 100,000 characters.
99,999 though? Now we’re talking.