When Edwin Hubble demonstrated that the universe was expanding, he couldn’t have known that a century later the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be expanding even faster. But it is: there are a dozen planned MCU movies, including Spider-Man 4, Deadpool 3, Captain America 4 and Guardians of the Leatherette Spacesuits 5, only one of which I made up.
Prof Brian Cox tells me that, at the current rate of expansion, if there aren’t already more Guardians of the Galaxy than there are galaxies, there will be before you have finished reading this article. In fact, the situation is even more worrying than his calculations suggest: the next Benedict Cumberbatch vehicle, which will be released this spring, is called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It posits not one but many universes, all growing faster than the retail prices index.
