A few years ago, Marvel Studios head got on stage and revealed the slate for Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In doing so, they gave audiences a map of what to expect from the general structure of the overarching plot. As much as we’d love to get a peek into the far future of what Marvel has to offer, the fact is that it may be more revealing than we’d want.

Feige drove this point home in a recent interview with the Toronto Sun. When discussing the films that will extend past Avengers 4 in 2019, he stated:

“Where we go after Avengers [4]; what those 2020 films are, we’re pretty sure what those are going to be… but if I tell you that, we’re getting into spoilers.”

Well, we knew things were going to get pretty crazy as time went on, but one has to wonder just what kind of spoilers these titles would have. Would it just be the introduction of new superheroes, a revelation of some heroes who may die, or something else? Well, no matter what they end up doing, there is little denying they’ve done an amazing job of slowly weaving in characters into the narrative — be it through cameo appearances or origin films. Doctor Strange was no exception to that, and he’s a character who seems primed to hop in and out of these future movies as we go.

Of course, this was no accident.

“But it wasn’t until after the first Avengers in 2012 that we started to chart out what the stories would be for the characters that we already introduced and what new characters we’d want to introduce and Strange was always part of that.”

Thank goodness the first Avengers was the mammoth success that it was, as it allowed them to move forward with confidence with the comprehensive planning that made films like Civil War possible. Despite the studio’s desire to remain flexible when needed (such as adding Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man and the Wasp to the slate), they’ve set important milestones that have shaped the MCU as we know it.

Here’s hoping they’re able to continue that trend going forward.

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SOURCES: Toronto Sun (via Slash Film)