Avengers: Endgame became the highest grossing film of the year on its opening weekend and for many fans represented the end of an era. Our heroes set out to try and reverse the devastating snap we saw in Avengers: Infinity War, in which Thanos caused half of all life to vanish from existence. But what does the ending mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Warning serious spoilers for Avengers: Endgame below.
Avengers: Endgame is the culmination of 11 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and an emotional good-bye to several characters.
However, the film also sets the scene for Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Four and beyond.
Avengers: Endgame sees our remaining heroes living five years after mad Titan Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) removed half of life from the universe. The characters were either retired, continually searching for threats – or, in Hawkeye’s (Jeremy Renner) case, sent on a path of death and destruction.
However, thanks to a rat, Scott Lang’s Ant Man (Paul Rudd) returns from being trapped in a quantum realm and gives the Avengers the hope of time travel to revert the world back to normal.
Read More: Doctor Strange 2 plot LEAK? Major character for surprise return?
The search for Infinity Stones from their past adventures then ensues, with the remaining Avengers, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), as Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
The Avengers were successful on their missions to retrieve the six Infinity Stones lost Black Widow, who died in the process.
After some debate, Hulk volunteers to be the one to put on the Iron Man gauntlet fitted with the stones to try and bring back the other half of the universe’s population.
It appears Hulk manages to do this when Hawkeye’s wife rings him, but Avengers HQ is then attacked by Thanos from 2014, who through the help of the 2014, Nebula who took the place of present-day Nebula, travelled through time himself to seize the Infinity Stones.
(If you’d like more information on the time travel in this movie, check out this explainer here.)
A fight then ensues and our lost heroes return through portals to join in. Iron Man takes the gauntlet and snaps his fingers to eradicate Thanos and his armies from the universe.
Unfortunately, the strength of the six Infinity Stones kills Tony, but the universe is set to rights.
Captain America then volunteers to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful timelines and remains behind to live a full life with the love of his life Peggy.
So is this the end for Marvel films?
No, Avengers: Endgame is the last movie in Marvel’s Phase Three, which launched in 2016 with Captain America: Civil War.
The film ends the franchise’s main storylines whilst promoting other secondary and tertiary characters to centre stage for future films and TV shows.
The next Marvel film will be Spiderman Far From Home which is due to be released on July 3.
Marvel Studios is also currently expected to have two 2020 releases and suggestions point to one of those being Black Widow – which will almost certainly be a prequel following her death in Avengers: Endgame – and a new franchise The Eternals.
As well as this, Black Panther 2 and Doctor Strange 2 are both reportedly in development with directors Ryan Coogler and Scott Derrickson who are returning to their respective franchises.
James Gunn was also previously allowed back to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but his initial firing has pushed back production.
Also in the making is a Shang-Chi movie which will be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, marking the MCU’s first Asian-led movie.
However, all of these movies are technically unconfirmed by Marvel, and even though Captain Marvel 2, Ant-Man 3, Thor 4, or Spider-Man 3 have also yet to be announced, they will probably happen too.