All eyes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are looking toward Avengers: Infinity War , including Kevin Feige's.

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There are five movies in between now and the 2018 release of Infinity War. First comes Doctor Strange, which hits theaters on November 4th, and then Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther. And, Feige laments with a laugh, people are already asking him for his next five year plan.But looking ahead, the head of Marvel Studios believes the hardest challenge for the big screen superhero franchise is behind them."When Tony Stark and Stark Industries and the world of that first movie was the definition of the Cinematic Universe, the question was how do you bring a soldier from World War 2 into that in a way that makes sense, how do you bring a Norse god from a whole other planet into that in a way that makes sense, how do you introduce flying aircraft carriers into that? That was the challenge. Now -- particularly after Avengers, after Guardians, after this movie -- the sky's the limit with where we go," he told IGN at a Doctor Strange sneak peek footage event.The Avengers have been brought together multiple times -- first in 2012's The Avengers, then in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, and most recently in 2016's Captain America: Civil War -- so the next step is making sure all the new pieces being added to the MCU puzzle (Strange, Captain Marvel and whatever other new Avengers are introduced in the next two years)- fit together nicely.Of Doctor Strange's powerful, magical abilities balancing off with the rest of the Avengers, Feige said, "He's not all powerful. Without giving too much away, he's not an expert when he faces off against the things he has to face off with in this movie, even toward the end of the movie. So there's a learning curve for him, which is always fun for all of the heroes -- and they face a pretty tough dude in the next Avengers movie."Feige also talked about making each of the standalone Avengers film worlds feel like they're part of the same whole, using Wakanda -- which was introduced at the end of Civil War -- as an example."We promised Ryan Cooler we wouldn't show too much, which is why it's so misty at the end. We didn't want to lock him into it. All of that I think is going to integrate really easily and nicely now that audiences seems to accept that they all inhabit the same universe," Feige said. He also talked about how Doctor Strange is already setting up "Strange's place in that universe, which Wong defined, is 'Avengers do this, we do this.'"After Benedict Cumberbatch wraps promoting his upcoming MCU debut, he'll already be gearing up to reprise his role as Doctor Strange in the next Avengers film. There he'll be filming Avengers 3 and 4 back-to-back, though Feige was mum about just how different the two movies would be."There's a reason we have publicly called the first one 'Infinity War' and the second one 'Untitled,' because the movies we were developing were not -- certainly there's a connection, there are with all our movies -- but it's not a first part and a second part. It's a whole movie and a whole story, and then a whole movie and a whole story. That's about all I can say," Feige said. "It's certainly inspired by everything that has come before and everything that is hinted at before."Bringing together all these characters in one movie -- including Captain Marvel, who Feige calls "the most powerful character we've ever introduced" -- will be an act of balancing their strengths and weaknesses against one another like the Russo brothers did in Civil War "We will be intercutting a lot of stories in that movie in a lot of different locales, as it sort of is in the Avengers movies as well; who is facing off against who. In this movie, it's going to be fun to mix that up. One of the things that's great about the Infinity Gauntlet is everybody tried to go up against Thanos whether they were god-like powers or not, because that's what Avengers do," said Feige. "The fun about those two movies that we're doing essentially at the same time is everybody's there."And does that "everybody" include the TV characters as well, like the Defenders ? All Feige would say: "Spoilers!"Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018.

Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz