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If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—if you've stuck around all the way to this point—it's fair to assume one thing: you probably want more. After The Infinity Saga—the first 22 movies in the franchise—came to a conclusion in Avengers: Endgame, the next era of Marvel storytelling took a slight delay after the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home because of the whole Covid-19 thing. But Marvel Studios got things back on track in 2021, and 2022, and that's continuing now in 2023.
The current era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is referred to as "Phase 5," and while the seeds of the overarching story are still being slowly planted and plotted, it's clear that the multiverse is playing a big part of things, and it's also clear that the Disney+ series will be 100% essential to the future of the franchise. After seeing how directly WandaVision led into Multiverse of Madness, how Loki led into Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and how clearly Ms. Marvel will lead into The Marvels, it's certain that Marvel's television arm is just as essential as its film arm.
We also know that Marvel Studios, and its fearless leader and President Kevin Feige, are extremely meticulous. There are the movies and shows we know about, that have been publicly announced, and then there are the movies and shows they're working on, that will exist in the shadows and rumors only. One example: we all know the X-Men are coming to the MCU sooner or later. How, is anyone's guess. But not a single mutant-centered project has yet been announced.
Anyway, that's enough speculation. Here's the complete list of upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and TV shows—that we know of.
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Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies
The Marvels (November 10, 2023)
Brie Larson will return again as Carol Danvers, this time directed by Nia DaCosta (who last helmed 2021's Candyman film, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). The movie will also tie in a pair of characters launched by Disney+ series in Monica Rambeau (played here by Teyonah Parris, who played her adult version in WandaVision) and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel (who already has her own origin story wrapped up). Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) will also appear.
One thing we do know? We're switching the title up; Captain Marvel 2 is no more. Instead, this sequel will be called The Marvels, likely because we'll be seeing a team-up of Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan (aka the aforementioned Ms. Marvel), and Monica, who we previously thought was going by Photon, but now seems like may be the superhero Blue Marvel.
The movie was originally planned for a Summer 2023 release, but was moved back to the November 10 release date at the same time that Marvel released the first official poster:
There's also a teaser trailer that looks quite fun:
Deadpool 3 (May 3, 2024)
The Merc with a Mouth will finally enter the MCU. And he's going to have a friend (enemy? frenemy?) with him—Hugh Jackman, once again playing Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds and Jackman shared the news in a video, surprising everyone who thought Logan would be Jackman's final signoff as the iconic mutant. Also part of the cast? The Crown's Emma Corrin, playing an as-of-now-unknown villain.
We don't have much else on the movie just yet, outside of the director (Shawn Levy, who's worked frequently with Reynolds of late) and the fact that, thankfully, it will still be be an R-rated movie even in the Disney-owned MCU.
The movie, which was originally scheduled for a November 2024 release, seems to be ahead of schedule—and will now hit theaters in May 2024. That's sooner than you probably realize.
Captain America: New World Order (July 26, 2024)
Another movie we know is in the works will follow Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as the new Captain America. The movie will be directed by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox, Luce), and will mark the return of Tim Blake Nelson as The Leader (someone we haven't seen since 2008's The Incredible Hulk) as well as the debut of Harrison Ford as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, taking over for the late William Hurt. Perhaps this could be a place for characters like Val and Walker to return before they become part of the Thunderbolts? It would also seem like a natural landing spot for Bucky (Sebastian Stan) for obvious reasons. We know we'll be seeing Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) returning, among others. We don't know much else yet—but hopefully more information will come soon.
This movie was scheduled previously for a May release, but was delayed slightly to the July spot previously held by Thunderbolts.
Thunderbolts (December 20, 2024)
We finally got the official announcement for the Thunderbolts movie at SDCC 2022, and boy are we excited. Likely based on Kurt Busiek's comic run of the '90s, the movie was previously reported to be in the works by Variety, with director Jake Schreier—who's done some interesting work on both TV and in film, most recently on Netflix's excellent Beef—on board. And, as it turns out, Thunderbolts will be a full Beef reunion: the showrunner, Lee Isaac Chung, is taking control of the script, and Steven Yeun has joined the cast in a still undisclosed role.
This project just makes sense; Thunderbolts is basically Marvel's altered of the Suicide Squad; villains who pose as heroes or do the sort of morally gray missions that heroes don't want to. We know from her two appearances so far that Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is putting together a rugged team that will get into that gray area. At D23, we learned that the team will consist of John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). All that being said, we do still expect Zemo (Daniel Brühl) to be a part of the movie in some capacity—perhaps as the villain?— with Abomination (Tim Roth) potentially in the mix as well. Nothing's off limits here.
The movie took a pretty major delay, going from a planned July 2024 release to December 2024 instead. That's likely due to the WGA strike, so don't worry too much about problems with production.
Blade (February 14, 2025)
Marvel's big announcement at the end of San Diego Comic Con 2019 was that—eventually—Blade, the Vampire hunter, would be joining the MCU. And he would be played by two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali. A very very big deal, and truly incredible casting.
Now, the movie is likely still a ways away—but it is coming. Marvel previously hired Watchmen writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour to write the script, and Bassam Tariq to direct, but both eventually fell off. The director on board is now Yann Demange, who was behind Matthew McConaughey's White Boy Rick on the big screen and the first episode of Lovecraft Country, which did a wonderful job with some monster-focused horror. The script is being written by True Detective's Nic Pizzolatto, which is an interesting choice and a much more established screenwriter than the kinds of people Marvel usually tends to hire.
There's also the cast: Delroy Lindo is in the movie, playing a role that we must assume is the MCU version of the mentor character Kris Kristofferson played in the '90s Blade. Aaron Pierre (Old, The Underground Railroad) has also joined the cast in what Deadline has referred to as a "coveted role." Could he be the MCU's Dracula? Blade's gonna need a rival, right? And, most recently, we've learned that Mia Goth—who in the last year and change has terrified and compelled audiences with her turns in Ti West's X and Pearl and Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool—will also be joining the cast.
The movie has already been delayed so many times (keep in mind, Mahershala Ali was first introduced as the character way back in 2019!), so what's one more? The movie is now set to be released on the February 14, 2025 date that was previously held by Fantastic Four. We'll see what happens.
Fantastic Four (May 2, 2025)
We still haven't gotten any official casting on that Fantastic Four MCU reboot, but we do have a release date—February 14, 2025—and a director—WandaVision's Matt Shakman. And the pressure's on for Marvel to nail it.
We still don't know anything about the cast, outside of one movie's cameo which may or may not mean anything for the future. We are assuming we'll know more in the near future, but for now this one is still something of a blank page.
The movie was previously set for a February 2025 release date, and now will instead drop on the May 2025 date that was previously earmarked for The Kang Dynasty. Does that mean Fantastic Four will now carry more 'staple of the summer' pressure? The April/May release is, historically, Marvel's biggest ticket. So we'll have to wait and see.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (May 1, 2026)
We've known for a while that Kang the Conqueror would be one of the major, major villains of the Marvel future, and the title here seems to confirm that for real. But due to some very serious real-life problems, we are not entirely sure who will be playing him moving forward. This is certainly a situation to monitor.
Kang Dynasty is the name of an arc from writer Kurt Busiek's Avengers comic run, so if you're interested in doing some homework, you can start right there.
The movie was recently delayed essentially a full year, taking over the May 1, 2026 date that was previously reserved for Avengers: Secret Wars. It's safe to say that there's probably some re-planning and re-shuffling happening here. But we're not going to know what's changing for quite a while.
Avengers: Secret Wars (May 7, 2027)
The second part of Marvel's next huge, two-part Avengers extravaganza is Avengers: Secret Wars, which is the name of two notable comic runs. One, from the '80s, was written by former Marvel EIC Jim Shooter and was largely a genius ploy to sell toys. The other, written in 2016 by writer Jonathan Hickman, is a multiversal epic that heavily features Fantastic Four characters like Reed Richards and Doctor Doom—it is imperative that Mr. Feige and company nail that F4 casting. Here's to hoping.
This movie is now scheduled, as you can see, all the way out in May 2027. Will we even be alive in 2027? Is there anything we can predict about anything? Will we ever see the X-Men? Who—and I cannot reiterate this enough—the hell knows.
Armor Wars (2024? 2025?)
The MCU project centered on Jim Rhodes (Don Cheadle) was recently announced to be switching from a Disney+ series to a feature film—but we still don't know when it's coming out. A guess? Likely some time after Secret Invasion and before the next two-part Avengers saga; Secret Invasion seems to be setting up an evil government bureaucracy that the plot for Armor Wars—Stark Tech falling into the wrong hands—can feed off of.
Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe TV Series
Secret Invasion (June 21, 2023)
Secret Invasion was one of the biggest Marvel Comic event arcs (which you can catch up on here), focused on a world-spanning event that took place once the Skrulls slowly but surely infiltrated many of the world's powerful organizations. The MCU take on this whole thing will have to be somewhat different, considering Captain Marvel has established the Skrulls as good guys. The scale will also be brought in a little bit; this won't be a full Avengers-level team up, instead focusing in on two characters who have shown some great chemistry together in the past: Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn).
There's also an awesome trailer:
Some other casting for the series has made news lately, including Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, Kingsley Ben-Adir as a "lead villain", and Christopher McDonald (best known as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, and recently in Hacks).
Loki Season 2 (October 6, 2023)
Loki and all his TVA and variant friends are expected back in 2023 for Season 2, and, well, with the way Season 1 ended, and with all the talk we're hearing about Kang and his tendency to, well, conquer, we'd be shocked if that wasn't a key part of the show's second season. Just like mentioned above with The Kang Dynasty, though, there's now all of a sudden a serious real-life cloud hanging over anything involving Marvel's Kang storyline. We're curious what winds up happening.
Echo (November 29, 2023)
Echo (played by Alaqua Cox) was introduced in 2021's Hawkeye series, and in 2023 will get her own Disney+ solo series. This will be a real return-to-roots showing, as she's expected to be joined by a pair of characters integral to her comic origin: Daredevil (once again played by Charlie Cox) and her old friend/uncle, Mr. Wilson Fisk—the Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio).
For the first time, Marvel will drop all episodes of Echo at once, on November 29, 2023. We're assuming it's just a test for them, and, hey, why not?
What If... Season 2 (2024? TBA)
The hypotehtical animation quasi-anthology will return for a second go-around in early 2023. Get ready for more fun stories that have a bit more creative freedom than the "canon" movies and shows get.
Ironheart (2024? TBA)
The Ironheart Disney+ series will adapt a fun Marvel Comics storyline of the past years, which sees Riri Williams, a tech genius from Chicago, taking over Iron Man's mantle. Dominique Thorne, who is 2/2 in great movies so far in her career (With Judas and the Black Messiah and If Beale Street Could Talk on her resume), will play Riri. We'd venture to guess that other old Iron Man friends—James Rhodes? Justin Hammer?—could show up. Riri will be making her MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, so we'll get a taste of this character before the series really fleshes her out.
Chinaka Hodge—a poet and educator who has written on Snowpiercer—will be the show's head writer.
Agatha: Coven of Chaos (2024? TBA)
Agatha: Coven of Chaos is shaping up to be a WandaVision sequel of sorts in many ways. Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness will be at the center of everything, while new cast members will include Aubrey Plaza and Heartstopper's Joe Locke.
Residents of WandaVision's Westview, including That '70s/'90s Show star Debra Jo Rupp, will return.
Daredevil: Born Again (Spring 2024)
Marvel made a lot of fans very happy when they announced at SDCC 2022 that the Daredevil hero and villain team of Charlie Cox (as Matt Murdock/Daredevil) and Vincent D'Onofrio (as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin) would be returning for a new series titled Daredevil: Born Again, likely based on the comic arc of the same name. They made those same fans even more excited when they announced that it would be 18 episodes long; it makes sense that Marvel is experimenting with format now a few years into the Disney+ era. We'll see how it pays off.
Wonder-Man (TBD)
All we know about Marvel's upcoming Wonder-Man series is that the titular character—aka Simon Williams, an actor—will be played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who you've likely seen in The Matrix Resurrections, Aquaman, Candyman, or his Emmy-winning role in HBO's Watchmen. Wonder-Man is a character who in the Marvel Comics is strongly intertwined with both Wanda Maximoff and Vision, so there's a reasonable chance that we could see Elizabeth Olsen and/or Paul Bettany in this series. Ben Kinglsey will also be returning as Trevor Slattery (from Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi) and James Ponsoldt (The End of the Tour, Shrinking) will be directing.
Vision Quest (TBD)
Speaking of Paul Bettany, he will be getting his own WandaVision sequel series, titled Vision Quest. Based on how WandaVision concluded, we can take a leap and assume that this series will at least somewhat center on White Vision out in the world trying to regain his memories and become the hero he once was (or, you know, go live in some robot peace somewhere. It's much deserved).
Wakanda Series (TBD)
We don't know a ton about this one just yet. But it will come from Ryan Coogler, Danai Guria (who plays Okoye) will be involved, and it should fit in neatly with his two Black Panther movies, of course.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
