MCU Phase 4: 8 Reasons Why It Must Look To The Past

2. Homages To Classic Genres Have Worked Before

Nick Fury Winter Soldier
Marvel Studios

While comic book films tend to get labelled for being a genre of film in and of themselves, the reality is that most adaptations tend to borrow heavily from classic cinema staples. 2014's Winter Soldier, for instance, is very much a film of the seventies conspiracy thriller mould; a homage to the works of Alan J. Pakula and Francis Ford Coppola as much as it is a typical comic book feature.

The aforementioned Guardians and Thor have found an audience in taking cues from classic eighties space operas, and there's no reason to say that Marvel can't look to the past for future genre-specific cues. Why not make a superhero-oriented war film? Or, much like next year's The New Mutants, one with a horror edge? There's massive potential in looking to genres like these when planning ahead, particularly when the MCU is getting so good at diversifying its story-telling.

We're yet to see a Marvel film with a Noir-esque edge going for it, or even one that derives from nineties low-budget indie cinema in its approach. Both could work on the silver screen in any case, and while finding heroes to fit that bill might make for a semi-arduous task, there are plenty of characters in Marvel's library that could make it work.

Sure, two of them might already be on Netflix, but they should give it a bash nonetheless, especially if there's a chance the MCU could delve into 'R'-Rated territory when the occasion suits it.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.