The move was expected, just not this early. Bob Iger will step down as CEO of Disney, transitioning to a new role as “executive chairman” with an emphasis on the creative side. In layman’s terms: don’t expect anything drastic from your favorite Disney properties. Bob Iger’s recently released memoir is titled “The Ride of a Lifetime,” so it wasn’t too far fetched to assume his tenure as CEO of Disney would eventually run its course. In reality, his original contract as CEO ran through 2018, but his tenure was extended to 2019 and then once again through 2021.

Did the film reach its potential? No. Could it have been better? Absolutely. But Avengers: Age of Ultron had a significant impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and here’s why it’s the MCU’s most underrated film. I remember the level of excitement for Marvel’s The Avengers sequel being unprecedented. Fans anxiously awaited the first glimpse of Avengers: Age of Ultron. From the announcement of Ultron as the villain at San Diego Comic-Con to the leaked trailer footage that Marvel Studios amusingly blamed on “Hydra,” fans could not wait to see if the sequel could be better than its predecessor.

We’ve yet to see one minute of Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series, but fans should be excited about how the studio has already corrected the mistakes of past Netflix shows. Continuing its annual tradition of getting screentime during the NFL’s biggest game of the year, Marvel Studios leveraged the opportunity to release tv spots for their upcoming 2020 content. Fans expected a new spot showcasing May’s Black Widow, but you’d be smart to bet that fans were more excited for the reveal in the fourth quarter.

Marvel Studios announced that a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel is officially in the works, but a new director will be needed to helm the project. Luckily for the studio, they don’t need to look far for a viable candidate. The Marvel Cinematic Universe boasted three feature films in 2019 to pass the one billion mark at the box office, and among them was Captain Marvel. The studio’s first feature film with a female superhero in the leading role (Brie Larson portraying the titular character) ushered in a new era of Marvel movies. The expectation was that Captain Marvel would become an integral piece to lead the MCU into the next phase. And according to news announced this week, we’ll be seeing her again in the not so distant future.

An enjoyable, albeit somewhat uneven film, The Rise of Skywalker in its ‘biggest moment’ could have taken a nod from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s own big film earlier in the year. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, and perhaps I’m in the minority when writing this but...when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker released its final trailer just ahead of its December 2019 release I was, for lack of a better word, unimpressed? Or perhaps, in layman’s terms, I just wasn’t as “hyped” as I feel I should have been.

The season finale of The Mandalorian was the exclamation point on a spectacular first season and opened the door for new plot points and storylines in season two. What should fans expect (and want) for the future? By the time season two of The Mandalorian hits Disney+ in the fall of 2020, Baby Yoda may very well be called “Toddler Yoda.” All jokes aside, despite filming already underway for season two, the return of Star Wars’ live-action series feels farther than ever, leaving plenty of time for fans to speculate what we can expect.

Fans no longer are regulated to exploring a galaxy far, far away just once a year during the holidays. The Mandalorian has shown that a live-action series, once a week through eight episodes works just as well, if not better. The brand “Star Wars” has long been synonymous with the Jedi versus the Sith, the Skywalker saga, and the empire versus the rebellion, among others. As of late, those same storylines would encompass our lives every other year or so, particularly during the holidays. But while blockbusters are all the rage at the box office, they aren’t the “future” of entertainment as we know it.

Sony and Disney reached an agreement for Marvel Studios to produce the third Spider-Man film. The web-slinger is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his departure never made any sense begin with. “We won Mr. Stark. We Won! You did it, sir, you did it.” Yes, we won indeed. Marvel fans and comic fans, in general, all scored a victory this past week, as Sony and Disney ultimately reached a deal to allow Marvel Studios to produce the third Spider-Man film of the Tom Holland trilogy.

Disney CEO Bob Iger recently admitted that the studio may have released too many Star Wars movies too fast in a short amount of time, undoubtedly leading to some “Star Wars” fatigue. If Disney is wise then the fatigue should be absent heading into the future. Star Wars fans young and old were ecstatic when news broke that a new sequel trilogy was to be released back in 2013. The long-awaited release of a new Star Wars film (the most recent was Revenge of the Sith in 2005, while the last chronological film Return of the Jedi was released in 1983) created unparalleled hype as the film neared its release date in 2015.

“You’ve become part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.” Nick Fury’s words rang true back in 2008 at the end of Iron Man, and they’ll still ring true as Marvel Studios works towards Phase 4 and beyond. The next slate of movies and shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be welcoming some of the “OGs” of Marvel Comics, namely the X-Men and Fantastic Four. With these additions soon finding their ways into the MCU, you’ll see not only the heroes but their adversaries adapted to the big screen.

The upcoming What If...? animated series is among the most intriguing Disney Plus releases on the horizon. As an animated series, it also carries the highest expectations.

With both Sony and Marvel Studios confirming Spider-Man’s departure from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, can we trust that Sony will properly continue the future of the webslinger on the big screen?