Captain America: The Winter Solider is only a few months away and will be the ninth film to come out the gate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the super-franchise now worth over $5.6 billion. The strategy was a risk that started with 2008's Iron Man and has paid off through creative gambles and a shared continuity, and Marvel is taking arguably their biggest bet later in the year with Guardians Of The Galaxy, an outer space epic based on an obscure comic series featured no costumed superheroes whatsoever. It doesn't need repeating who Marvel Studios are, what they've done and how they've done it, so we can all look to the future with both optimism and hesitation. The big-hitter characters that Marvel hadn't given away the rights to - Iron Man, Captain America, Thor - have made waves and are well within the public consciousness. But contracts don't last forever, so now is the time for Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige et al to forge a new path for their Cinematic Universe and ensure its survival once The Avengers 3 presumably wraps up the current faces we know and love, such as Downey Jr, Hemsworth and Evans. Since no announcements have yet been made as to what we can expect beyond Edgar Wright's Ant-Man in 2015, it is purely speculation from here on out what will come next. But here we're predicting what Marvel will be producing up to 2021, because Kevin Feige has previously claimed that plans have been made from the Cinematic Universe up to then. But it's as measured a speculation as one can guess. Reasons will be given for the placement of each character. Keep in mind that certain rumours have been excluded here, in particular rumoured solo movies for SHIELD, Nick Fury, Black Widow and Hawkeye. The MCU, as it will be referred to from here on out, has succeeded through a mixture of sheer luck, security for an audience wanting the same old thing and perfect timing to give audiences something new and unexpected. And with the development of separate Netflix projects culminating in a Defenders series, as well as this writer's prediction that the middling Agents of SHIELD might be renewed for a second series, certain characters have been excluded from proceedings as they've found their home on TV. It'd be interesting to refer to the predictions made in this article and see if they come true in any shape or form. But read on and see how much of these predictions for 5 years-worth of films you might agree with, and if there's any accuracy here.