A reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe worked best in it’s first three phases was because there was a sense of connected story telling across the many factions of the world. The Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers, despite being worlds apart, were connected through the Infinity Stones, while the Avengers had a tight-knit cameo system that gave the world a sense of interconnectedness.
However, the phases of the MCU after Avengers: Endgame have introduced too many ideas and too many characters without adequately following up on them or tying them with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. This, while having narrative implications, has also hurt the franchise numbers-wise, with viewership and box office revenue being similarly scattered among the pockets of audiences that the MCU has managed to fray.
Kevin Feige needs to scale down the MCU, and he already has the tools to do it
The Marvel Cinematic Universe might have too many moving parts now, and it seems that the franchise is going to expand further with the X-Men and The Fantastic Four. Given that these characters have been handled with less reverence before, the MCU really does not have a chance to fumble these characters and then start over.
Kevin Feige needs to use characters like Scarlet Witch to streamline his universe and scale back the superhero population before he introduces the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in full force, so as to allow for these characters to feel distinct and also make sense within the universe that already so populated with superheroes.
This can be done by letting Scarlet Witch do some version of her ‘No More Mutants’ scenario, except she makes it so that heroes that are in a particular area for a particular fight are depowered, creating a universe where only a few heroes actually have powers, while other are practice and skill based heroes, like Iron Heart and Daredevil.
It is possible that the MCU is already in a House of M-type scenario
Despite the slew of objections that the general populace within the MCU has had against its superhero community, there is little that has happened of consequence in the MCU. While the Sokovia Accords was a big bump in the road for the superhero community on Earth, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law revealed that those have been relaxed as well.
It is possible that the lack of mutants, The Fantastic Four, and perhaps also the Inhumans, is a result of a ‘no more mutants’ type spell that Wanda or some other sorcerer (perhaps Doctor Doom or even a version of Kang) had placed on the timeline. This could be a version of the spell that Peter Parker used so that he may be forgotten by the general public, enacted by Doctor Strange at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Doctor Strange 3, or even Agatha All Along, could reveal this state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the entire franchise allegedly heads towards a soft reboot in Secret Wars.
