As Marvel fans gird themselves for the arrival of Avengers: Endgame, which will tie up over a decade’s worth of stories told within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it turns out the much-anticipated blockbuster isn’t quite “the end” most were expecting it to be.

“[Spider-Man: Far From Home is] the end of the third phase,” Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told reporters at a recent Endgame fan event in Shanghai. The head of Marvel went on to say this is the first time he has declared that publicly.

Starting with Marvel’s Iron Man in 2008, the MCU has rolled out its films in Phases — with Tony Stark’s first movie kicking off Phase One. Endgame was presumed to wrap up Phase Three of the great Marvel experiment, but now we know otherwise.

This summer’s Far From Home, a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, is the second joint venture between Spidey’s home studio, Sony, and Marvel/Disney. So it’s up to Tom Holland’s webslinger to cap off Phase Three and help set the stage for whatever Phase Four has in store for Marvel. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s been confirmed Far From Home will pick up only a few minutes after the events of Endgame, so it, in some ways, will act as a postscript to the big bang

In the past, Marvel’s phases have felt arbitrary and not quite set in stone. Phase Two of the MCU was expected to conclude with the release of 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. That darker movie, which featured the death of Quicksliver, seemed to be too bleak or problematic of a note for Phase Two to go out on. Enter Ant-Man, the comical action movie that came out later that summer and helped transition Marvel into Phase Three.

Far Home Home — another lighter movie following what’s expected to be another emotionally-heavy Avengers film — hits theaters July 2.

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