Chicago - Welcome to The Mulitverse Saga!
San Diego Comic-Con returned to in-person festivities for the first time in three years this weekend. And while some studios took a "less is more" approach with their big Hall H presentations, Marvel Studios went all-out for the event. The studio’s star-studded Saturday evening presentation from head honcho Kevin Feige included not only some splashy new trailers, but also major announcements about new phases, new "Avengers" team-up movies and Marvel content stretching all the way into 2025. Here are the highlights of what Marvel has in store for the future.
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Phase Four comes to a close sooner than expected
The buzzy Comic-Con event couldn’t have come at a better time, as Marvel has been facing some grumblings lately that the studio has lost its way following the massive climatic team-up movie "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019. Along with the second Tom Holland "Spider-Man" movie later that year, "Endgame" marked the end of Marvel’s wildly successful Phase Three slate of movies and put a cap on the "Infinity Saga" that defined the studio’s first decade of superhero filmmaking. Since then things have felt a bit, well, scattered.
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While Feige explained that Phase Four has been about "resetting the MCU [and] meeting all these amazing new characters," some fans have struggled to find a satisfying throughline in movies like "Black Widow," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," "Eternals," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and "Thor: Love and Thunder," especially when paired with promising but uneven Disney+ TV shows like "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," "Moon Knight," "WandaVision," "Loki," and "Ms. Marvel."
Perhaps that’s why Feige swiftly clarified that Phase Four will wrap up later this year with two previously announced projects: The Disney+ TV show "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" and the highly anticipated sequel, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," which capped off Marvel’s presentation by debuting a stellar, highly emotional teaser trailer.
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Phase Five features 12 new films and TV shows
After clarifying Phase Four’s end date, Feige then wowed the crowd by releasing the entirety of Marvel’s Phase Five slate. And while many of these projects had been previously announced — including "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," the "Captain Marvel" sequel "The Marvels," the Samuel L. Jackson-led Disney+ series "Secret Invasion" and season two of "Loki" — others came as more of a surprise.
Phase Five will include the highly-anticipated arrival of Mahershala Ali’s "Blade" film in November 2023 (Ali’s casting was announced way back at 2019’s Comic-Con), as well as a brand-new "Daredevil" show — with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising their roles from the popular Marvel Netflix series. "Daredevil: Born Again" will be a whopping 18 episodes long and finally clarify how the Marvel Netflix shows fit into the current MCU canon. (Having previously made a cameo appearance in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," Cox is slated to appear in "She-Hulk" next month too.)
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Phase Five will also include three female-led TV shows: "Echo" centers on "Hawkeye" antagonist Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). "Agatha: Coven of Chaos" follows "WandaVision" breakout Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). And "Ironheart"centers on genius inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who will make her debut in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
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Phase Five will also see Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson make his official big screen debut as Captain America in "Captain America: New World Order." And the phase will end with a movie called "Thunderbolts," which will likely pay off the slow-burning thread of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine recruiting a bunch of morally dubious super-powered people for a villainous team-up.
Phase Six caps off the "Multiverse Saga" in mega fashion
The announcements didn’t stop there, however, as Feige had one more surprise up his sleeve. Towards the end of the presentation, Feige also revealed a few titles from Marvel’s Phase Six slate, which will feature a "Fantastic Four" movie and end with two "Avengers" films in 2025: "Avengers: Kang Dynasty"and "Avengers: Secret Wars."
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Feige also announced that Phases Four, Five and Six will encompass what Marvel has officially dubbed "The Multiverse Saga."
Comic book fans have plenty to chew on with these announcements: "Kang Dynasty" refers to Jonathan Majors’ new villain Kang the Conqueror, who will make his official big-screen debut in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," following a previous multiversal cameo in the "Loki" season finale. Meanwhile, "Secret Wars" is a massive comic book storyline that involves a whole bunch of different superhero teams being pitted against one another, which could mean that Marvel still has some major announcements to come.
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Indeed, Marvel noticeably left space for eight more projects in its Phase Six slate, many of which will likely be announced at Disney’s D23 Expo in September. That splashy fan event is another place where Marvel likes to make headlines, which in this case could involve "Fantastic Four" casting news, details about a potential "Young Avengers" project or even major news about the X-Men making their MCU debut.
For now, however, you can check out the full slate of announced projects below. Announced upcoming projects are highlighted in bold.
The Multiverse Saga
Phase Four
"WandaVision" series (currently streaming on Disney+)
"The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" series (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Loki" series (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Black Widow" (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Eternals" (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Hawkeye" series (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" (currently streaming on Starz)
"Moon Knight" series (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Ms. Marvel" series (currently streaming on Disney+)
"Thor: Love and Thunder" (currently in theaters)
"She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" series (premieres on Disney+ Aug. 17)
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" (premieres in theaters Nov. 11)
Phase Five
"Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" (premieres Feb. 17, 2023)
"Secret Invasion" series (premieres Spring 2022)
"Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3" (premieres May 5, 2023)
"Echo" series (premieres Summer 2023)
"Loki" season two (premieres Summer 2023)
"The Marvels (premieres July 28, 2023)
"Blade" (premieres Nov. 3, 2023)
"Ironheart" series (premieres Fall 2023)
"Agatha: Coven of Chaos" series (premieres Winter 2023/24)
"Daredevil: Born Again" series (premieres Spring 2024)
"Captain America: New World Order" (premieres May 3, 2024)
"Thunderbolts" (premieres July 26, 2024)
Phase Six
Fall 2024 unknown project
"Fantastic Four" (premieres Nov. 8, 2024)
Fall 2024 unknown project
Winter 2024 unknown project
Winter 2025 unknown project
Spring 2025 unknown project
Spring 2025 unknown project
"Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" (premieres May 2, 2025)
Summer 2025 unknown project
Summer 2025 unknown project
"Avengers: Secret Wars" (premieres Nov. 7, 2025)
Watch for free while you wait
For more superheroes, check out Ang Lee’s "Hulk," the cult classic British TV show "Misfits" and the brutal thrills of "Punisher: War Zone" — all of which are streaming (for free!) on Tubi.
About the writer: Caroline Siede is a film and TV critic in Chicago, where the cold never bothers her anyway. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, she spent four years lovingly analyzing the romantic comedy genre one film at a time in her column When Romance Met Comedy for The A.V. Club. She also co-hosts the movie podcast, Role Calling, and shares her pop culture opinions on Twitter (@carolinesiede).
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