Phase 4 of the MCU movies and TV shows, and through it, Marvel is bringing different characters and explaining the return of others, and there’s still a lot more to learn about it.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with the title saying it all.
The MCU’s Phase 4, then, is leaning heavily into the multiverse, which brings a variety of possibilities into the mix, such as the return of characters who are dead in the main timeline thanks to variants (which is believed to be what’s happening with the deceased Spider-Man villains who are coming back) and the exploration of other timelines and scenarios, like what What If…? did. However, there are too many movies already using the multiverse, and others that might not seem connected to it could be addressing it too, as well as a couple of TV shows, so Marvel is risking overusing the multiverse, especially when it comes to explaining all the seemingly nonsensical things that happen in the MCU.
As exciting as it is to see Electro (Jamie Foxx), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and Lizard (Rhys Ifans) again, the multiverse is the reason for their return, and it was also the excuse used to bring Loki back in his own TV show. There are also a number of theories on how the multiverse will be Marvel’s way to finally bring the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to the MCU, along with other, more bizarre elements and many variants of beloved characters whose arcs have already ended, meaning that Marvel will be using the multiverse to explain everything – and that can ultimately become tiring and a sort of crutch for the MCU to fall back on quickly.
Not every event and arriving character to the MCU has to be explained through the multiverse, and this universe is already extensive in its main timeline (with different realms, planets, and more that are yet to be explored), so the writers should be careful and not use the multiverse as the excuse for everything that happens in Phase 4 and beyond. The multiverse brings exciting possibilities, but it can also hurt the MCU and everything it has built if it's overused.
