As time goes on, Marvel movies grow more popular while Marvel comics slowly loses its audience. Already, the amount of MCU fans is astronomical compared to the amount of fans that still read comics on a weekly basis, and Marvel is trying to shake things up a bit with Secret Wars, their latest comic crossover event that's ready to blow up the entire Marvel continuity that's been in place for decades.
Secret Wars (named after a similar event that ran in the mid '80s) sees the original Marvel Universe, also known as Earth-616, and the Ultimate Universe collide to create a new continuity that will continue in all Marvel comics after the event is over. It involves a realm called the Battleworld (also featured in the original 1980s Secret Wars), a realm loaded down with weapons and tech where Marvel heroes are meant to fight it out gladiator-style.
Secret Wars is ust beginning, and we won't know how the Marvel Universe will end up for quite a few weeks. But the real question is, will Secret Wars have any affect on the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Some characters, like Miles Morales, who exist in the Ultimate Universe, could travel freely among the 616 characters' world in a post-Secret Wars continuity. It's possible the MCU could introduce Miles Morales (a new version of Spider-Man who is half-black, half-Latin), into the films via a similar introduction.
The Battleworld could also feature into the MCU somewhere down the line, after Avengers: Infinity War is over and the MCU needs a new major event to plan its films around.
"Welcome to the world of the new normal," says Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort. "Everything is different now, everything is changed and chaotic, and you should take nothing for granted at this point - which hopefully is a little scary and also a little exciting for everybody." And that might just be the same for Marvel's films as well.
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