The Rise of Marvel Studios (MCU) is a story that is worthy of any comic book superhero. It was established in 2008 and released its debut film “Iron Man” in the same year. MCU is a media franchise that is centered on superhero films, which is independently produced by Marvel Studios and is based on characters that appear in American Comic Books.
Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films began with ‘Iron Man’ starring Robert Downey in the lead role and began culminating with its crossover film The Avengers (2012). The Marvel franchise includes Comic Books, Television series, short films, and digital series.
Here’s some background story of Marvel Studios: Before Marvel planned to set up it’s an independent studio, Marvel Entertainment in early 2005 had planned to produce it’s own films and distribute them through Paramount Pictures. In the early days, Marvel had made relatively little profits from its licensing deals with other studios like New Line Cinema, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and others.
As Marvel’s production wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining the distribution and control of the project, Avi Arad – Head of Marvel’s division finally decided to form Marvel Studios. It is Hollywood’s first independent film studios after DreamWorks.
Following the success of Iron Man, the studios released its second film “The Incredible Hulk” in the same year, which is another character in the comic books. Eventually the Marvel Studios started producing other movies which are in Comic book including Thor, Captain America: The First Avengers, and Iron Man 2. Phase one of the MCU film finally came to an end with its crossover film, The Avengers – which included the combination of all the superheroes.
Phase Two of the MCU films started in 2013 with the sequel of Iron Man-3, directed by Shane Black. The other movies in this phase include Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and finally concluded with Ant-Man (2015).
Also Read: Will Iron Man Return in the Upcoming MCU Movies?
Phase Three of the MCU films started with Captain America: The Civil War (2016), directed by Anthony & Joe Russo. Some of the other films that were released during this phase include Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019).
The Marvel Studios franchise has been commercially successful with its superhero films thus received positive critical response from fans across the globe. The first three phases of the Marvel franchise are collectively called as ‘Infinity Saga’.
Phase four films of the franchise will begin with Black Widow (2020) and are said to conclude with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is planned for the release in 2022.
