The first Iron Man movie came out in 2008. Now, 14 years later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown and evolved into an unprecedented blockbuster success.
We are, at the time of writing, 29 movies and 7 shows into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the latest releases being Thor: Love and Thunder, and the Disney+ series, Ms. Marvel. The MCU had to pick up a lot of broken pieces after the events of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and now we know where the world is headed for its next two phases. There were a lot of Marvel announcements at San Diego Comic-Con, so let’s go through what they could mean for the MCU!
The first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe make up The Infinity Saga, with 23 movies all leading up to a devastating battle between the Avengers and Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The fourth phase started with 2021’s WandaVision series, and will conclude later this year with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Phases 5 and 6 were also announced at San Diego Comic-Con, and it was announced that these phases combined with phase 4 would make up The Multiverse Saga. Now that Marvel fans have an idea of where the universe is heading in the next few years, let’s break down these phases!
Phase 4
There are only 2 projects left in Marvel’s phase 4, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which will premiere on Disney+ on August 17th, 2022, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which will premiere in theaters on November 11th, 2022. Following the massive events of The Infinity Saga, phase 4 focused on rebuilding, and introducing new concepts.
The Multiverse is explored for the first time in this phase, primarily in Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The remaining projects seem like they will tie up whatever loose ends haven’t been touched upon since Endgame, like Bruce Banner’s whereabouts in She-Hulk, and a long awaited update on Wakanda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Then, it’s on to phase 5!
Phase 5
Right off the bat, we’re going to see a lot more about the multiverse, and start building to Marvel’s next big event, the two new Avengers movies announced for phase 6. Phase 5 kicks off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which will feature Kang the Conqueror, a character who we saw a variant of in season 1 of Loki, and who lends his name to the upcoming Avengers movie, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania premieres on February 17th, 2023.
Immediately following Ant-Man, a Secret Invasion series is set to air on Disney+ in spring 2023. This show will see the return of Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, and will likely spark events that will lead to Avengers: Secret Wars, the last movie announced for phase 6.
The next installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 will premiere in theaters on May 5th, 2023. We recently saw them in Thor: Love and Thunder, and while Marvel hasn’t released too many details about the movie, it seems like this might be a goodbye to some of these characters.
Echo and season 2 of Loki are coming to Disney+ in the summer of 2023. Echo will follow Maya Lopez, who we saw for the first time in the Hawkeye series, and could possibly feature some of the characters from that show like Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova.
Loki will pick up after the first season, where the finale saw a multiversal explosion and the introduction of Kang the Conqueror. This season will likely be very crucial to the exploration of the Multiverse.
The Marvels will premiere in theaters on July 28th, 2023, and will see the return of Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan, who just made her MCU debut in Ms. Marvel. This will likely also have ties to Secret Invasion and Avengers: Secret Wars, which deal with aliens we were introduced to in Captain Marvel.
Blade is also getting a theatrical release on November 3rd 2023. Blade appeared in a post-credit scene from Eternals, so this movie could potentially include them as well!
There are 3 more series coming to phase 5 after Blade: Ironheart, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, and Daredevil: Born Again. Ironheart, which will air on Disney+ in fall 2023, will center on Riri Williams, who we just saw in the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. This show will likely deal with Iron Man’s legacy, and hopefully check-in on the Wakandans!
Agatha: Coven of Chaos will premiere on Disney+ in winter 2023 into 2024, and is a spin-off about the iconic villain from WandaVision! Daredevil: Born Again will follow the character, who we’ve seen in cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk. This will premiere on Disney+ in Spring 2024.
The fourth Captain America movie, Captain America: New World Order will premiere on May 3rd, 2024. This will be the first film with Sam Wilson as Captain America, and will most likely see the return of Bucky Barnes as well. With more Avengers movies coming in phase 6, this movie might also see some team-ups.
The final movie of phase 5 is Thunderbolts, which will be released on July 26th, 2024, and will center a group of Marvel villains. The most famous Thunderbolt who has made an appearance in the MCU is Baron Zemo, who we’ve seen in Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That’s all for phase 5!
Phase 6
Phase 6 will be the end of The Multiverse Saga, and they’re going out with a bang! There will be 11 projects in phase 6, but only 3 have been announced. Phase 6 will begin with a Fantastic Four movie, a group that has been crucial to Marvel comics for decades, and who, while they’ve had several other film adaptations, have never made their way into the MCU. We saw a variant of Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness played by John Krasinski, but it’s unclear whether he will return to the role for this movie. The movie will premiere on November 8th, 2024.
Phase 6 will close with 2 new Avengers movies, the first ones since Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will premiere on May 2nd, 2025, and Avengers: Secret Wars will come out a few months later on November 7th, 2025. It looks like these two films will play a similar role in the Multiverse Saga as Infinity War and Endgame did in the Infinity Saga, and we’ll likely see team-ups from across the universe come together to fight the next big-bad.
That’s all we’ve got for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! We can’t wait to learn more about these projects and see them when they come out. In the mean time, you can check out ur review of Thor: Love and Thunder, a full list of all of the latest Marvel announcements, and the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Stay tuned to AllEars for more!
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Avengers: Secret Wars!