Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Marvel Phase 4: Mahershala Ali is Blade, Natalie Portman returns, and more

Chris Gates
By
A banner for "San Diego Comic-Con."
This story is part of our complete Comic-Con coverage

You didn’t think that Avengers: Endgame was really the end, did you? At Comic-Con International 2019, Marvel Studios finally shared what’s coming in its highly anticipated fourth phase, offering details on a whopping 10 projects for 2020 and 2021, and giving some very intriguing hints as to what the future holds.

Phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins on May 1, 2020 with Black Widow, a prequel starring Scarlett Johansson as the MCU’s premiere superspy and Florence Pugh as fellow assassin Yelena Belova. Taskmaster, a mercenary with the ability to copy any opponent’s fighting style, will be the villain.

Recommended Videos

Black Widow will be followed by The Eternals on November 6, 2020. Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden leads an all-star cast that includes Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, and more. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is next, starring relative unknown Simu Liu as the titular martial artist, Awkwafina, and Tony Leung as the Mandarin (the real one, this time). Shang-Chi premieres on February 12, 2021.

Related

A couple of familiar faces are up next. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives on May 7, 2021, and will team Benedict Cumberbatch’s magical superhero with the Scarlet Witch. On November 5, 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters. Not only will Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson return as Thor and Valkyrie, respectively, but in one of Comic-Con’s biggest surprises, Marvel announced that Natalie Portman will rejoin the franchise as Jane Foster, who will become a new, female Thor.

Marvel also shared more details about its upcoming Disney+ series: Loki, WandaVision, Falcon and Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, WandaVision, and What If…?. Notably, Marvel confirmed that Loki will follow the version of the character who ran off with the Tesseract in Endgame, and announced that Falcon and Winter Soldier‘s villain will be Baron Zemo, who we last saw in Civil War. WandaVision will tie into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and will include a grown-up version of Captain Marvel‘s Monica Rambeau as a member of the cast.

Finally, Marvel closed out its panel by announcing a Blade reboot starring Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, set to launch sometime after 2021. Blade will actually be Ali’s second MCU role: The actor also played Cottonmouth on the first season of Netflix’s Luke Cage.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige also confirmed that Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are also on the way, although he didn’t offer any release dates. Oh, and what about the Fantastic Four and the X-Men? With all of the other news, Marvel simply didn’t have time to talk about them, Feige teased. In other words: They’re coming. Oh boy, are they coming.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Chris Gates
Chris Gates
Contributor
Christopher Gates lives in Los Angeles, CA and writes about movies, TV, video games, and other pop culture curiosities. In…
Dispatches from day 1 of San Diego Comic-Con 2022
Chris Pine and Regé-Jean Page in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

After a three-year hiatus, San Diego Comic-Con has returned to the San Diego Convention center. And so far, the hottest item isn't an exclusive action figure or statue. It's the wristband that indicates whether fans have been vaccinated or tested for COVID-19. Even pre-pandemic, the large Comic-Con crowds made it difficult to get into the convention center. But this year, the longest lines are for the COVID wristbands, and it created havoc as fans tried to make their way inside.

There's no way to talk about this year's Comic-Con without addressing COVID. It's the reason why everyone has to wear a mask this year, even if you aren't cosplaying. The pandemic kept Comic-Con dormant in 2020 and 2021, and there are signs that not everyone is ready for the show to go back to what it used to be.

Read more
Is San Diego Comic-Con still the pinnacle of pop culture?
Taika Waititi gives Natalie POrtman a hammer at SDCC 2019.

The place? Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con. The time? 2019, almost a full year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit us like a truck and changed our lives forever. The surprise? Kevin Feige and a stage full of superstars, including A-listers, Oscar winners and nominees, and everything in between, gathered for a photo after the Marvel honcho revealed the entire slate of Phase 4 projects following the massive success of Avengers: Endgame.

Everyone was there, and every reveal felt like a promise: Doctor Strange and Wanda teaming up for a multiversal adventure; Wanda and Vision starring in a Disney+ show, hinting at a potential House of M adaptation; Loki finally getting a solo project. But that wasn't all. Eternals! Shang-Chi! Female freaking Thor! By the time Feige revealed Mahershala Ali would play Blade, the entirety of Hall H had melted into a pool of sheer ecstasy.

Read more
Marvel reveals more of Moon Knight in new featurette
A scene from Marvel's Moon Knight.

For the uninitiated, Marvel's title character from Moon Knight looks a lot like Batman in a white costume. That's fair, to a certain extent. Comic book fans have been making that comparison since Doug Moench and Don Perlin created Moon Knight in 1975. But that's also why Marvel Studios' upcoming adaptation is leaning into the things that separate Moon Knight from the Dark Knight. This show will play up two of the key aspects behind Moon Knight: His supernatural connection with Khonshu (the Egyptian god of the moon) and his own deteriorating mental health.

In a new video from Marvel Studios, Moon Knight stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, and May Calamawy, join Kevin Feige and director Mohamed Diab as they introduce the character to new viewers. There's also some fresh footage of Steven Grant (Isaac) as he transforms into Moon Knight and a peek at the show's Egyptian setting.

Read more