Pardon the conversational nature of this article, this is just something that's been on my mind of late and I wanted to get out there in a timely manner. Part of this will draw upon ideas in articles that I've written and not published yet, so sorry about that as well, but I think the piece should come together as a whole pretty well regardless. As plans sit at time of writing (October 2023), the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in the midst of its "Multiverse Saga", with some version of the classic story Secret Wars panned to cap off the arc. Some speculation is happening around the future of this plan with the revelations about Jonathan Majors, but I'm betting that he'll be recast soon and they'll keep rolling, as that's what Marvel Studios has done in the past, more than once. I've spoken about not really being a fan of the multiverse concept in the broader multimedia landscape, mostly because it's hard to do well and is almost always more about chasing box office than exploring interesting narrative ideas. Not that it can't be done well, but we tend to end up with more films like The Flash than Crisis On Two Earths.
I'm fairly confident that some characters from the history of both the MCU and Marvel films in general will be turning up in whatever Secret Wars turns out to be, I'd put money on Black Widow and Captain America being there, especially as Chris Evans keeps saying for certain that he's not doing it. And, honestly, that sounds a lot better than Evans appearing as Johnny Storm, as much as I actually liked him in that role. Similarly, I assume that Secret Wars will be the first time Deadpool crosses over properly (unless they just do that in Wolverine and Deadpool), though I'm hoping that no other Fox X-Men are dragged along, having Professor X in Multiverse of Madness kind of ticked that box already. That said, if say Magik or any of the characters from The New Mutants were to appear, not even to mention Legion, that would be pretty awesome. Seriously, if David or Shadow King were part of the antagonist group and Dani or Cannonball were helping the heroes, that would be pretty amazing. So long as the whole thing is erring on the 'less is more' side, rather than cramming everyone in for the sake of it; I mean, I assume Miles Morales and several other fan favourites will be coming in at the same time, so just don't overload it, ok Kevin?
But hey, why just get older actors to return in the same roles? Sure, we get that fanboi hit, but it's pretty creatively bankrupt, or at least creatively impoverished. What if, instead, we got actors to return to play different versions of their character, like Agent Carter in Multiverse of Madness? You have to admit, that opens up a lot more possibility for storytelling and memorable moments, whilst letting the writers do something new with the actor. How about getting Tom Jane back as The Punisher, but have him do the older, brick shithouse version from the Garth Ennis MAX run? Or Reb Brown as 'Universe X' Captain America, Eric Bana as Maestro or Phil Culson returning with none of the Agents of SHIELD baggage? Get some fun, fan-pleasing moments in there that don't derail the entire film and don't involve characters that can't be jettisoned as we move into whatever the next Phase of the MCU is. I'm not of the mind that Secret Wars will need to be "better" than Infinity War and Endgame (whatever that means), but it does need to stand on its own, and doing something clever and interesting with the multiverse aspect of the story is good way of doing that whilst building on what has already come. Just my two Bison Dollars.
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