'Spider-Man' To Have Storyline Spanning Five MCU Films

Of all the guardians of the galaxy and Earth's mightiest heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it will be teen wunderkind Peter Parker who will be guiding us through the climactic Avengers: Infinity War and untitled Avengers 4 before bringing us into the mysterious fourth phase of the MCU.

The next four Marvel films will telegraph Peter's journey as Spider-Man, after the character was first initiated into the cinematic universe in Captain America: Civil War. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige spilled the details on the five-movie storyline for Spider-Man, and how he will play a role in the larger MCU.

In an interview with The Toronto Sun, Feige expanded on his previous comments about how Spider-Man will introduce audiences to Phase 4 of the MCU with the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming.

While we knew that each Spider-Man film would take place in a different school year, thus placing the sequel to Homecoming during Peter Parker's junior year, Feige explained that Spider-Man's solo films won't be the only films dedicated to the webslinger's story. The hugely anticipated team-up movies Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 will be an important part of Spider-Man's storyline as well:

"We are looking at a five-movie storyline — Civil War, Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, untitled Avengers, Homecoming 2 — or whatever we end up calling it — as an amazing five-story journey for Peter Parker. In the way that the events of Civil War directly inform the opening of Homecoming and his state of mind as he goes back to high school, so too will the events of the next two Avengers movies as he continues with high school. This original 22-movie arc ends with the untitled Avengers in May of 2019 and then two months later it will be Peter and Spider-Man that usher us into the aftermath and how things proceed from there."

The Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel will be the first MCU movie to hit theaters after Avengers 4 brings to a conclusion the 22-film arc that was kickstarted with Iron Man in 2008. Feige had previously revealed that the Spider-Man sequel was "purposefully" set up to be released merely two months after Avengers 4, to deal with the fallout from that film on a smaller scale with Peter Parker's personal journey. Feige's newest comments are in line with what he had told io9 a month ago:

"Like how the events of Captain America: Civil War impacted Peter as he was dropped off by Tony and expected to go back to continue his sophomore year, how the hell are the events of Infinity War and Untitled [Avengers] going to affect him as he, yes, goes back to his junior year?"

Feige notably doesn't mention the plans for Spider-Man past the sequel to Homecoming, which put into question Spidey's future in the MCU beyond the Sony-Marvel deal that was struck in 2015. With the positive buzz for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Sony's separate plans to build a Spider-Man universe, the future still remains uneasy for the teen webslinger. Although he's the familiar face who will bring about the next MCU phase, who knows if he'll stick around for it?

Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters on July 7.