The MCU Ends Its Best Trilogy Since James Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy

Published Nov 15, 2026, 10:00 AM EST

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

Trilogies work best when there’s a single, unifying vision behind them — George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy — but there are so many cooks in the kitchen at Marvel Studios that singular visions are rare in the MCU. Typically, a series of solo movies will switch hands between a bunch of different directors with a bunch of different styles, going off in whatever direction the larger cinematic universe dictates. Thor’s trilogy started off with the Shakespearean heft of Kenneth Branagh and ended with the ironic self-awareness of Taika Waititi. Captain America’s trilogy is a pulpy World War II actioner followed by a paranoid conspiracy thriller followed by Avengers 2.5.

It’s rare that the MCU is able to deliver a perfect trilogy with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and no weak links. The Thor trilogy is let down by The Dark World. The Ant-Man trilogy is let down by Quantumania. The Deadpool trilogy is spread across two separate franchises. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy never had a weak link, but Far From Home is pretty unremarkable.

As it stands, the best trilogy in the MCU is James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy series. Gunn wrote and directed all three Guardians movies, so they’re all held together by the same creative voice. The second movie has some pacing issues, and some not-so-subtle symbolism in the father-son story, but that’s the worst thing you could say about it. The first film was a breath of fresh air, the second one maintained the emotional weight to complement the comic book spectacle, and the third one was the best of the bunch, with a much deeper and darker story to tell.

With the release of the VisionQuest finale, the MCU has now completed its best trilogy since Guardians of the Galaxy. The WandaVision trilogy of streaming shows has been much more consistent and satisfying than most of the MCU’s movie trilogies.

Where Does The WandaVision Story Go From Here?

WandaVision was a massive success, both critically and commercially, when it premiered in 2021. Marvel put its best foot forward in the brave new post-Endgame world, and audiences responded with such enthusiasm that this little sitcom homage became a cornerstone of the Multiverse Saga. WandaVision remained a one-and-done limited series, but it was followed up by two sequel shows.

After WandaVision told the story of Wanda Maximoff processing her grief over Vision’s death (in a roundabout way), Agatha All Along wondered if her witchy arch-nemesis Agatha Harkness could be redeemed, and VisionQuest wondered if sentient A.I.s and fabricated memories can enjoy lives and identities of their own. All three shows have been spectacular in their own way, and they’ve each made for a worthwhile chapter in the overall story.

Jac Schaeffer humanized Wanda and Vision in WandaVision — she took this witch and this robot who have fought supervillains with the Avengers and live in a magical sitcom fantasyland, and really dug into their emotional conflicts — and that spirit carried through into the subsequent spinoffs. Agatha All Along is as much about the fraught relationships between the witches in the coven as it is a campy homage to horror classics, and VisionQuest is as much a meditation on artificial intelligence as it is a quirky buddy comedy about bickering androids.

All in all, the WandaVision trilogy has been one of the strongest stories that the MCU has ever told, and it’s not over yet. The trilogy has ended, but VisionQuest’s post-credits scene seems to be setting Wanda up for a major role in Avengers: Doomsday. That final stinger showed that, after Wanda made the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the Darkhold in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Doctor Doom showed up to steal her powers. So, we could be seeing the Scarlet Witch under Doom’s control.

VisionQuest