Super-Articulate: What Does Phase 4 Mean for Marvel Legends?
Hey, kids. The dust settled on San Diego Comic-Con a couple of weeks back, and we had quite the earthquake of Marvel Studios news. I’m going to take a bit of a look at what we know about Phase 4 and just prognosticate on what we might get.
Generally, since 2014, every time there’s a film, we get at least one assortment associated with it. Typically, we’ve been getting something on the order of one Spidey assortment per year, one Avenger assortment (more or less), and others influenced by what’s on-screen. Examples include the Cap-centric Mandroid group of 2014, GOTG waves in 2014 and 2017, Doctor Strange in 2016, and so on. With that set-up place, let’s look at what’s coming, beginning in 2020.
Phase 4 was introduced with the idea that it will include both the films AND the Disney+ series. Films slated are Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder, while the Disney+ series are The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, What If? (animated), Loki, and Hawkeye. I’m also going to note that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wraps up next year, too, while Cloak and Dagger continues on FreeForm and Ghost Rider and Helstrom join Runaways on Hulu (though it’s questionable at this point if ANY of those canonically belong to the MCU. That’s a debate for another time).
It’s interesting to note that a lot of potential figures for items above have been covered in recent years or will be soon. There’s a classic comic-style Shang-Chi coming in a Spidey wave. Cloak and Dagger hit in a Spidey wave last year. The Mighty Thor (Jane), Loki, and Valkyrie were covered in the sole Ragnarok wave, with Loki and Valkyrie getting other versions in recent Avengers product (a Wal-Mart exclusive two-pack in Loki’s case). David Harbour is playing Red Guardian in Black Widow, and the comic version of RG appeared in the 2016 Cap wave. MCU Scarlet Witch and Vision were in a TRU exclusive two-pack more than a year ago, and other versions of both have found their way into other waves. Both MCU Falcon and Winter Soldier were in a Target exclusive two-pack last year, and Hawkeye’s Ronin persona was in this year’s second Endgame assortment. That’s a lot, right?
Again, purely speculating, it seems likely that Black Widow will bring us a couple of Natashas (yeah, we’ve had some recently, too, but she’s the lead), Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Rachel Weisz’s Iron Maiden, and some form of Taskmaster (yeah, there have been 2 others in the last 3 years, but still). I’m going to publicly hope right now that, movie appearance or not, the BAF is Ursa Major. That would be very appropriate and very awesome.
The Eternals, to me, is wide open. I figure we’ll get a nice round-up of the mains, like Ikarus, Thena, Ajak, Gilgamesh, and the rest. Similarly, Shang-Chi will obviously get us an MCU version of the lead and the first “real” Mandarin. It would be cool to see a classic comic Mandarin, too. Lots of room to move there.
For Doctor Strange, well, it’s a bit harder. We have recent Wandas and Doctor Voodoo (who is rumored to appear). However, if they do introduced the rumored Clea and Nightmare, they could do them, the Doc, Wong (still not a Legend!), maybe a Damian Hellstrom (nod to the series) and get a cool assortment with an appropriate supernatural BAF. I actually think Thor: Love & Thunder has it the hardest, as ALL of the announced leads have had multiple figures in the past couple of years. That’s to say that they might not lean in hard; hell, they never did the Warriors Three, and I want a comic-style Volstagg BAF.

I would like to see TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. get some love before they go. Seven seasons, and no Quake? Or Agent May? Even if this turns into an exclusive boxed set repurposing Coulson and using Everett Ross parts for Fitz, etc, it would be great to see before they retire.
All right, kids, that’s just some initial speculation. What do you hope to see happen out of these various projects? Peggy as Cap? A new Kate Bishop? A new US Agent? Talk to us.