The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently in the middle of Phase 5, one that has been marked with ups and downs for the franchise. The middle chapter in the Multiverse Saga will conclude in 2025 with the releases of Captain America: Brave New World, Daredevil: Born Again Thunderbolts*, and Ironheart. While 2025 will mark the end of one phase, it will also mark the beginning of Phase 6 of the MCU. Phase 6 will be the culmination of the Multiverse Saga, and just like the Infinity Saga, it will culminate in an epic two-part crossover Avengers film installment, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
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What is intriguing is how little fans know about Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unlike Phases 4 and 5, which had a good portion of their slates unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and 2022, respectively, what has been revealed about Phase 6 has been sprinkled out through various separate confirmations. Phase 6 has undergone a lot of retooling behind the scenes following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes of 2023, and also the firing of Jonathan Majors and rehiring of Robert Downey Jr. as the new MCU big bad. Here is everything we know so far about the MCU's Phase 6.
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Marvel Studios has four films officially confirmed to be released in Phase 6: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Avengers: Doomsday, the fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, and Avengers: Secret Wars. Blade is rumored to be pushed back to Phase 6 and take one of the reserved spots Marvel has, or it could be pushed even further, to Phase 7. There are two additional films scheduled for Phase 6 that the MCU has not planned, the first being released in February 2026 before Avengers: Doomsday and one in November 2026 between the two Avengers movies.
Currently, six films are slated for Phase 6, which puts it at the same number as Phases 1, 2, and 5 but below Phase 3's eleven films and Phase 4's seven movies. Including the announced television series, Marvel's Phase 6 will have 10 entries across film and television, well below Phase 5's 15 entries and Phase 4's 17. This number could likely increase, but Kevin Feige recently stated that the MCU would slow its output following 2025.
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Title
Release Date
Format
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
July 25, 2025
Feature Film
Eyes of Wakanda
August 6, 2025
Disney+ Series
Marvel Zombies
October 3, 2025
Disney+ Series
Wonder Man
December 2025
Disney+ Series
TBD Film
February 13, 2026
Feature Film
Avengers: Doomsday
May 1, 2026
Feature Film
Untitled Fourth Spider-Man Movie
July 24, 2026
Feature Film
TBD Film
November 6, 2026
Feature Film
Vision Series
TBD 2026
Disney+ Series
Avengers: Secret Wars
May 7, 2027
Feature Film
Blade
TBD
Feature Film
Disney also has two release dates reserved for 2027, July 23 and November 5, 2027. It is unclear if these two slated release dates will be part of Phase 6 and follow the tradition of Phases 1 through 4 of having a Phase conclude at the end of the year or have 2027 be similar to 2025, where it is both the end of one Phase and the beginning of another.
✕ Remove Ads Related Marvel Phase 5: Every Entry, Explained
Here is a breakdown of all the movies and television series that will make up Phase 5 of the MCU and the next chapter in the Multiverse Saga.
Other Rumored Projects
There are plenty of rumored film and television shows unaccounted for. Marvel Studios has seemingly been building to The Young Avengers, and following the tease at the end of The Marvels and Agatha All Along featuring a significant role for Billy Maximoff, many are expecting The Young Avengers to be part of Phase 6.
Shang-Chi 2 was confirmed to be in development, but no word on the sequel has been made since its announcement, and it likely won't happen until after director Destin Daniel Cretton is finished with Spider-Man 4. Denzel Washington recently confirmed that he will have a role in Black Panther 3, but Marvel Studios has not officially announced the film. Doctor Strange 3 is rumored to be in development and seemingly will be a big part of setting up Avengers: Doomsday, but nothing has been confirmed.
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It does appear that in Phase 6, Marvel Studios is trying to zero in and focus on concluding the Multiverse Saga. The four films are centered on their biggest titles, such as Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and The Avengers. Any remaining projects announced will likely be focused on building up or concluding the Multiverse Saga story.
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Back at Comic-Con 2022, when Marvel first announced their Phase 6 plans, they made their intentions clear that the new overarching villain of the Multiverse Saga would be Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, following a brief role in the final of Loki Season 1 and getting his proper introduction in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Qunatumania. They even announced the fifth Avengers film would be Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, with the tease of a new dynasty being the tagline for the third Ant-Man film.
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Just one month after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened in theaters, Jonathan Majors was arrested for physically assaulting his ex-girlfriend and, in December 2023, was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment. Marvel Studios quickly dropped him from all projects. Due to the negative reaction to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, they had already begun discussing ways to pivot away from Kang, but with the Majors fired, they began their new plan: Doctor Doom.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, it was confirmed that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty had been retitledAvengers: Doomsday. Kevin Feige brought out directors Joe and Anthony Russo, confirming their return to helm the two new Avengers films, and with them, they confirmed who would be playing Doctor Doom. Robert Downey Jr. Downey Jr.'s casting as Doctor Doom set the fan community buzzingwith possible theories for what casting the heroic face of the MCU's Infinity Saga as the villain of the Multiverse Saga meant. Robert Downey Jr. is also expected to get a massive payday of up to $100 million. With that big of a cheque, some have suspected that Downey Jr.'s pay is not just for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars but more films.
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Downey Jr. is confirmed to play Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. He is also expected to have a cameo in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, released 10 months before Avengers: Doomsday. With the news that The Fantastic Four do not hail from the MCU's sacred timeline but another part of the MCU Multiverse, the theory is that Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom will also be from their same universe and be a multiversal threat to the heroes of Earth 616, the official designation of the MCU within the films.
While little is known about Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, with Avengers: Secret Wars likely drawing from the 2015 comic of the same name, we expect to see Doctor Doom smash together the various multiverse realities into one composite world: Battleworld. Avengers: Secret Wars will likely see Doctor Doom become God Emperor Doom and see various heroes from across Marvel's multiverse, including the MCU heroes, The Fantastic Four, the X-Men from Deadpool's universe, and past Marvel heroes like Tobey Magurie's Spider-Man, Wesley Snipes Blade and Jennifer Garner's Elektra team up in an epic showdown.
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MCU's Phase 6 will see plenty of returning faces on the creative front. As always, Kevin Feige is still serving as the President of Marvel Studios and is producing all the entries. Joe and Anthony Russo, who previously directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Doomsday, are returning to the franchise to help Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Stephen McFeely, one-half of the co-writing duo who wrote the first three Captain America movies, Infinity War and Endgame, will pen the script for Doomsday and The Kang Dynasty.
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Meanwhile, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be directed by Matt Shakman, who previously directed all nine episodes of WandaVision. Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and was the original director for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, is now directing Spider-Man 4 and is also the co-creator of Wonder Man. The MCU's Phase 6 will get some new creative blood. The upcoming Vision series, which was briefly titled Vision Quest, will have Star Trek: Picard's Terry Matalas as the showrunner. WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer was originally supposed to oversee the show but dropped out to focus on Agatha All Along.
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The MCU's 2025 outlook looks promising. They have clearly noted some issues plaguing the franchise and are course-correcting in the following ways.
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Robert Downey Jr. will also not be the only long-awaited returning face to the franchise. James Spader is set to reprise his role as Ultron in the upcoming Vision television series. Spader played Ultron back in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, and all subsequent appearances of Ultron variants in the MCU have been voiced by Ross Marquand. Ben Kingsley will also return as Trevor Slattery in Wonder Man, already appearing in Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
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Ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, fans have eagerly anticipated the arrival of both The Fantastic Four and the X-Men. While The Fantastic Four already have a film for Phase 6 and seemingly will be big players across the Phase as they are expected to appear in 2026's Doomsday and 2027's Secret Wars, the X-Men's future is more unclear. The MCU has plenty of teases for mutants. From Ms. Marvel to Namor, and the revelation that Captain America: Brave New World will introduce the fictional metal, Adamantium, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet Kevin Feige has teased that the X-Men's future in the MCU is beyond Phase 6. It appears the X-Men will play a big role in Phase 7, with the next saga in the MCU likely being the Mutant Saga.
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That doesn't mean there won't be some X-Men presence in Phase 6, particularly after Deadpool & Wolverine became the fifth highest-grossing film in the MCU. The MCU has been teasing multiverse variants of the X-Men, with Patrick Stewart appearing as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Marvels ending with Monica Rambeau stuck in a universe with Kelsey Grammer's Beast and her mother, Maria Rambeau, as Binary.
Deadpool & Wolverine established that the original Fox X-Men Universe, Earth 10005, was saved from being destroyed. Combine that with What If...? Season 3 introducing a variant of Storm, and it is highly likely a multiversal team of X-Men consisting of Wolverine, Deadpool, Beast, and Channing Tatum's Gambit will show up in Avengers: Secret Wars.
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While there are plenty of projects over the next three years for MCU fans to be excited about, there is always a sense of what comes next. Marvel Studios realized this and purposely held off announcing their Phase 4 slate until San Diego Comic-Con 2019, three weeks after Spider-Man: Far From Home opened in theaters, so as not to draw attention away from the epic finale of Avengers: Endgame. The same will likely be true of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, with concrete plans for the MCU's future not revealed until after Secret Wars.
The big rumor is that Avengers: Secret Wars will conclude with a soft reboot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, allowing for the X-Men and Fantastic Four to have always existed within the MCU. This would allow the Multiverse Saga to not only be a conclusion to the MCU as fans know it but a celebration of Marvel's legacy on film before the franchise began with films like Blade, X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and The Punisher. That history of Marvel would get one final curtain call before 2028, and the MCU celebrates its 20th anniversary with a new starting point.
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It remains to be seen if the reboot will happen, but it is clear Marvel Studios is now shifting all their attention to wrapping up Phase 6 of the Multiverse Saga with a bang, as The Fantastic Four make their long-awaited arrival, Doctor Doom is finally introduced to the MCU, Spider-Man gets a follow-up to the massive hit Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the Avengers will finally reassemble. Phase 6 could be a non-stop thrill ride that recaptures the magic audiences felt during Phase 3 of the MCU.