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‘Avengers: Endgame’ director Joe Russo has claimed Marvel never had a set plan for the MCU. Marvel Studios has developed a reputation for playing the long game. It all began with 2008's Iron Man when the post-credits scene clearly set the nascent shared universe on a trajectory toward 2012's The Avengers.
Then, in 2014, Marvel Studios announced their entire Phase 3 slate - running all the way up to Avengers: Infinity War Part II, set to come out in 2019. Marvel's Phase 3 plans changed a lot over the years; movies were dropped, added, shuffled, and even rethought, with Avengers: Infinity War Part II morphing into Avengers: Endgame. But nonetheless, the studio has retained its reputation, and viewers continue to assume Marvel Studios is planning for years ahead.
Speaking to Deadline at the Sands International Film Festival of St. Andrews in Scotland, Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo has suggested that reputation is exaggerated. According to Russo, the secret of Marvel's success actually lies in its adaptability.
As an example, Russo cites the idea that Winter Soldier killed Tony Stark's parents. According to Russo, it was mere "happenstance" that Captain America: The Winter Soldier implied Bucky was responsible for the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark; Marvel revisited this idea after the film came out and chose to "retrofit" it into the narrative of the MCU. This ultimately became a central part of Captain America: Civil War, driving a wedge between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers and tearing the Avengers apart.
Russo's comments are probably a true reflection of Marvel's creative process. Marvel is known to work to a five-year plan, but there seems to be a degree of flexibility built into this; after all, this allows Marvel to take note of audience reactions, recognizing specific ideas that are appealing to viewers, and choosing to respond to them. Given this is the case, it's presumably no coincidence Captain America 4 wasn't announced until after The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, because the popular and critical response to that show led Marvel to choose a direction for Sam Wilson's Captain America. Meanwhile, another benefit is that writers and directors aren't quite as constrained by the shared universe model as is generally believed. Overarching character arcs are likely in a state of flux a lot more than most viewers realize, and many specific plot points can be switched up without disrupting anything.
Ironically, Marvel's flexible approach to storytelling may well have caused some problems in Phase 4. There had already been hiccups in Phases 1-3 - Odin's fake Infinity Gauntlet being the most egregious example - but the multiversal arc running through Phase 4 has been a tricky one to navigate, with clear inconsistencies between Loki and Marvel's What If...? Marvel actually only held a creative summit to decide the rules of their multiverse after production had wrapped on several Phase 4 films and TV shows, suggesting the MCU could actually have used better planning on this point.
