to hold together into one consolidated storyline". He did note that the multiverse plays a significant role in Loki, What If...?, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, that potential "Big Bads" had been introduced, including Kang, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Arishem, and Wilson Fisk / Kingpin, and that the phase could be building to an unannounced Young Avengers film since members of that team had been appearing in many Phase Four projects. Journalists Joanna Robinson and Eric Goldman responded in support of Vary's article, with Robinson adding that, despite what some fans believed, the Infinity Saga was not completely planned out and instead was made cohesive by "luck and cleverness". Goldman felt that some of this was fans retroactively treating each Infinity Saga film as having more importance to the overall storyline than they did when first released, and he said the same could happen to the Phase Four films once more was known about their connections to the next storyline. Matthew Belloni, a former editor for The Hollywood Reporter and a writer for Puck News, and Sean Fennessey of The Ringer, discussed whether the MCU films and series were in a decline. Belloni noted how Marvel have "taken really idiosyncratic filmmakers in Chloé Zhao and Sam Raimi and tried to plug them into this formula, but given them a little bit more freedom" than previous MCU directors had for their films, and questioned whether this was a "mistake to stray too much from the Marvel formula?", and if this approach to "do it the same, but different" while still making it feel fresh and familiar for the audience would be necessary for the franchise to succeed going forward. Fennessey believed Marvel did not stray too much with these filmmakers, citing Marvel's history of hiring filmmakers with distinct tones and perspectives and being able to "blend [their] vision" with it, but felt the tone of Zhao's previous films did not "[make] any sense for a Marvel movie" or match Marvel's prior storytelling, and that Raimi's history with Marvel and his background making horror films was an attempt "to plug the dam" after Derrickson left as the Multiverse of Madness director, and that his hiring was "like a marriage of convenience and friendship, more so than like a bold choice to choose an unusual filmmaker". Fennessey said Eternals felt "fully disconnected" from the MCU's prior