The Marvel Cinematic Universe is poised to fully launch phase four, only being held back by COVID-19 theater closures. It remains to be seen what the overarching conflict will be that shapes the next big showdown. Or whether Marvel Studios can sustain the quality it delivered in the first three phases. Rumors abound as to who will be the next major villain. After Disney acquired 20th Century Fox Studios in 2019, Marvel Studios recovered a whole extra bin of characters to play with. To follow up the threat of Thanos, Marvel has only one direction to go, galactic. Galactus must return to the big screen in all his planet-eating glory to oppose the new form of the Avengers!
Galactus was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, debuting in Fantastic Four #48. The popular comic book origin of Galactus has him surviving the destruction of a universe that existed prior to the Big Bang of this universe. Now here, he is a mythic god-like entity who eats planets to sustain himself. Rather than dining on any old planet he relies on the scouting of a herald to find the most nutrient planet for his intake. The Silver Surfer was his most renowned herald. The first and last time Galactus was in a major motion picture was in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
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This depiction did not do him justice as it wasted his potential and grandeur by reducing him to nothing more than an outer space dust storm. The audience never saw his imposing form, nor did they hear him speak. Worse, it wasted the Silver Surfer’s big screen debut as well. Hopefully, the sowing of Galactus in phase four will also restore the Silver Surfer to his rightful status as one of the best characters in the MCU. Galactus definitely deserves a big screen redemption.
There are plenty of ways in which Marvel can bring Galactus in as the main villain. Notable cosmic phase four movies include: Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Captain Marvel 2, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, and Fantastic 4. Somewhere in the mix of those six movies Galactus should be introduced, developed, and then turned into the focal point for a phase climax. There are no more Avengers movies to act as a tentpole, so it is possible they will use one of these films as the epic conclusion, or Marvel may make a surprise announcement from now until the end of the phase.
He will differ from Thanos as the major villain first in the way that he towers over planet Earth, literally stands taller than the planet, and second in the way that he is such a powerful opponent from outside the universe. No singular hero can defeat him in direct combat. He requires the entire team, who must either strike a bargain like the one Doctor Strange made with Dormammu, or use some other form of ingenuity to overcome him. This could be where the Fantastic Four come in. If Thanos was a threat to half of all life, Galactus is a threat to all of planet Earth. His challenge unifies the cosmic universe to the Earthly battlefield. There is no antagonist better to epitomize the epic sweep of the next Marvel phase than Galactus.
Rumors are circulating that the next major villain might be Mephisto, or Dr. Doom, or the real Mandarin, or Kang the Conqueror. Following up a villain like Thanos, it is hard to say if any of them can match the same threat level. Most of them seem like chapter bookends similar to the singular villains of the first wave of Marvel movies. Mephisto might challenge Doctor Strange in the same way that Dormammu did, but what would he have to do with Thor or Spider-Man?
Dr. Doom is a terrestrial foe. He could challenge the new Avengers team as a political threat, but not really force a coalition of all heroes of the MCU in an epic showdown to the same degree as Thanos. Captain Marvel is more powerful than Dr. Doom. The Mandarin fits exclusively with the narrative of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in that he is the leader of the Ten Rings terrorist army. Kang the Conqueror could challenge every hero with his powers, and he is set to join the MCU via Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, his character does not feel worthy of supervillain status. Fans are not familiar with his temporal technology, nor he has ever posed a serious threat in the comics.
There have not been any indications as to who the next major villain will be. Rightly so, since Marvel Studios are no doubt playing their cards close to the chest. The phase four villain could end up being an altogether surprise candidate.