Marvel’s Next Big Move May Be a Step Back in Time

“Avengers: Endgame” is coming out on April 26, but that hasn’t stopped Disney’s Marvel Studios from hinting at what could be arriving after the grand finale of its most successful superhero franchise ever, a run at the box office for “Avengers,” which has so far racked up $4 billion. Next up: taking a step back in time.

One Minute Clip From Avengers: Endgame By Good Morning America

In an interview with ScreenRant, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige discussed the future of Marvel movies, particularly with the “Captain Marvel ” characters and how he thinks there is a still a lot of stories left that takes place in the past.

“I mean, I think one of the things that are fun to us about the timeline of this film and the potential of future stories with these characters is there’s a great past,” Feige said. “I think the fun part about seeing this portion of the MCU is that gap. … The potential is there,”

Feige later added in regards to whether or not consumers can expect more solo-prequel adventures for Samuel L. Jackson’s “Nick Fury” character.

It grossed just over $370 million worldwide on a $140 million budget. Its two sequels, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War,” grossed much higher numbers, including $1.1. billion worldwide for “Civil War.”There are some precedent and reason to be concerned about the box-office potential for prequels: 2011′s “Captain America: The First Avenger” was set predominantly in the World War II era, showing how soldier Steve Rogers became Captain America.

This year’s “Captain Marvel,” set in 1995, has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, but it may have an advantage coming shortly before this month’s final Avengers installment, with many avid comic book movie fans eager to understand how Brie Larson’s character connects to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Though that marketing tease tactic isn’t new. Both “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Captain Marvel” included post-credit scenes from upcoming Avengers films.

“Honestly, I believe [Marvel] will lose just a little bit of steam post ‘Endgame.’ It’s only natural after the big set-up of ‘Endgame’ as the big finale. Everything that will come after that will fail in comparison,” said Daniel Richman, a media influencer who specializes in big blockbusters.

The box-office standard-setting in prequels is the other Disney blockbuster franchise: “Star Wars.” The late ’90s to early 2000s Star Wars trilogy, distributed by 20th Century Fox, grossed no less than $600 million worldwide for each film, according to Comscore.

However, the two sequels to 1999s “Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace” failed to even come close to the film’s $920-million-plus worldwide total: “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” grossed around $647 million worldwide, and “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” grossed around $847 worldwide, according to Comscore.

“The MCU has twenty-one movies of solid success to build off and where they are now, where they successfully made the Infinity Gauntlet a $2 billion success in live action, means there’s really no limit to the crazy stories they can pull from in the comics and turn into live-action films,” Conrad later concluded.