Marvel is beginning to hint Spider-Man: Far From Home serving as something of an aperitif. The studio intended to have something of a pause after Phase 3, but it was sadly extended by the coronavirus pandemic.
Black Widow - a prequel story starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff - was originally touted as the beginning of Phase 4. But now Marvel appear to be pivoting on this, with marketing instead beginning to focus on Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings. A recently-released TV spot (also shared on social media such as Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, who launched Phase 1.
In truth, Shang-Chi is a much more logical launchpad for Phase 4 than Black Widow. Although Shang-Chi's story is woven into the existing shared universe - it reveals the truth about the Mandarin and his terrorist group the Ten Rings, who were major players in the Iron Man films - it's a bold step forward for the franchise, and serves to introduce a whole new swathe of superheroes. Critics have praised Shang-Chi for having a unique and authentic style for Marvel, while the quality of the fighting choreography looks to be beyond anything seen in the MCU to date. In contrast, Black Widow was a step back in time to the aftermath of Black Widow's post-credits scene was essentially an advert for an Disney+ TV series. Black Widow was, at heart, something old; Shang-Chi is something new.
It doesn't help that the discussion about Black Widow has been overtaken by events. The pandemic led Disney to pursue a hybrid release strategy, with the film coming out both in theaters and on Disney+, and this led to a high-profile lawsuit from Scarlett Johansson who claimed loss of earnings as a result of the way this affected her contract. None of Black Widow's various elements of setup served as much of a surprise, meaning the only real conversation about the film now is whether Johansson's lawsuit is justified and what impact this will have on the future of hybrid releases.
In contrast, Shang-Chi is touted as launching a whole range of new characters and concepts into the MCU. While there will no doubt be a lot of discussion about 's box office takings - the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing, after all - Marvel will hope the conversation will focus on the film itself. That would make a much more satisfying beginning to the MCU's Phase 4, generating excitement rather than technical debate about hybrid releases and Johansson's contract. Unfortunately, it is perhaps the ultimate slight for Black Widow, a movie that should really have come out years ago in Phase 3 - as even Marvel seem to be implicitly acknowledging by focusing on Shang-Chi as the new beginning of Phase 4.
