That's another aspect to this that makes me question the future of the MCU that I hadn't really mentioned before, the unclear direction of what's next. Regardless of your opinions of whether Infinity War/Endgame stuck the landing, Thanos was built up as the ultimate threat ever since the mid-credits scene of the original Avengers movie. Started with basic teasers and cameos, then built up more and more through the stories of the various Infinity Stones as audiences were left wondering when the big purple guy would show up and wreck some shit, hooked to watching every subsequent movie to find out more.
Meanwhile, there's no real indication yet of what big bad they could build up to the same level. Random nerd speculation will throw out names like Galactus (especially now that the Fantastic Four are under the rat's umbrella), but in comparison to the Thanos snap, a colossal dude going around eating planets seems a little quaint. And while you could make the argument that Thanos himself didn't appear until four years into the MCU, you also have to consider the pace of movie releases then and now. Phase 1 was six movies over four years; by the end of phase 3, they were cramming six movies into two years. And now they're up to eight movies over two years, though that could be due to needing to make up lost time from the coof, so we'll have to see if they keep up that pace.
If Disney doesn't start dropping teasers within the next couple movies at the most, they're going to lose that hook to entice audiences to find out about the next major villain, which will make it all the harder to regain their momentum. Maybe that's what Eternals is supposed to do since they're a more cosmic hero group, but I sure don't care enough to find out. I'll let online reviewers I can actually tolerate to listen to tell me what's up and make fun of it; in other words, not Bob.
