The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films are a series of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films are set. The films have been in production since 2007, and in that time Marvel Studios has produced and released 24 films, with at least 14 more in various stages of development. It is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $22.9 billion at the global box office. This includes Avengers: Endgame, which became the highest-grossing film of all time upon release.
Kevin Feige has produced every film in the series, alongside Avi Arad for the first two releases, Gale Anne Hurd for The Incredible Hulk, Amy Pascal for the Spider-Man films, Stephen Broussard for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Jonathan Schwartz for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Nate Moore for Eternals, and Brad Winderbaum for Thor: Love and Thunder. The films are written and directed by a variety of individuals and feature large, often ensemble, casts. Many of the actors, including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner signed contracts to star in numerous films.
Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called "Phases".[1][2] Their first film is Iron Man (2008), which was distributed by Paramount Pictures. Paramount also distributed Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), while Universal Pictures distributed The Incredible Hulk (2008). Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures began distributing the series with the crossover film The Avengers (2012), which concluded Phase One. Phase Two comprises Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Ant-Man (2015).
Captain America: Civil War (2016) is the first film of Phase Three, and is followed by Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The first three phases are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga". The Spider-Man films are owned, financed, and distributed by Sony Pictures.
Phase Four's group of films began with Black Widow (2021), and will include Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Eternals (2021), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), The Marvels (2022), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), and Fantastic Four. The phase will feature these films, as well as twelve announced television event series and one special for the streaming service Disney+.[3] Three unannounced films have been set for release in 2023.
Development
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By 2005, Marvel Entertainment had begun planning to produce its own films independently and distribute them through Paramount Pictures.[4] In June 2007, Marvel Studios raised secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch.[5] Marvel's plan was to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them in a crossover film.[6]
In November 2013, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said that "in an ideal world" releases each year would include one film based on an existing character and one featuring a new character, saying it's "a nice rhythm" in that format. While not always the case, as evident by the 2013 releases of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, he said it is "certainly something to aim for".[7] Feige expanded on this in July 2014, saying, "I don't know that we'll keep to [that model] every year, but we're doing that in 2014 and 2015, so I think it would be fun to continue that sort of thing".[8] After the reveal of multiple release dates for films through 2019 in July 2014,[9] in which some had three films scheduled, Feige stated there was not "a number cruncher" telling the studio to increase their film output, but rather it was about "managing [existing] franchises, film to film, and when we have a team ready to go, why tell them to go away for four years just because we don't have a slot? We'd rather find a way to keep that going."[10] After the titles were revealed in October 2014,[11] Feige said, "The studio's firing on all cylinders right now ... which made us comfortable for the first time ... to increase to three films a year [in 2017 and 2018] instead of just two, without changing our methods."[12] On the potential for "superhero fatigue", Feige stated, though each of the films are based on the Marvel Comics and feature the "Marvel Studios" logo, he believed each film had their own distinctions to help differentiate them from other MCU and superhero films. For example, he noted how the 2016 releases of the studio, Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange, were "two completely different movies". The studio hoped to continue to surprise audience and ensure the studio was "not falling into things becoming too similar".[13]
In February 2014, Feige stated that Marvel Studios wants to mimic the "rhythm" that the comic books have developed, by having the characters appear in their own films, and then come together, much like "a big event or crossover series,"[14] with Avengers films acting as "big, giant linchpins".[15] On expanding the characters in the universe and letting individual films breathe and work on their own, as opposed to having Avenger team-ups outside of Avengers films, Feige stated, it is about "teaching the general movie-going audience about the notion of the characters existing separately, coming together for specific events and going away and existing separately in their own worlds again. Just like comic readers have been doing for decades and decades ... people sort of are accepting that there's just a time when they should be together and there's a time when they're not."[16]
In April 2016, on moving the universe to Phase Four and reflecting on the first three, Feige said, "I think there will be a finality to moments of Phase Three, as well as new beginnings that will mark a different, a very different, a distinctively different chapter in what will someday be a complete first saga made up of three phases." Frequent director Joe Russo added Phase Three was the "deconstruction phase" of the MCU, beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016) leading into "the culmination films" of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).[17] A year later, Feige felt after the conclusion of Phase Three, Marvel might abandon grouping the films by phases, saying, "it might be a new thing".[18] Feige mentioned that Avengers: Endgame would provide "a definitive end" to the films and storylines preceding it, with the franchise having "two distinct periods. Everything before [Endgame] and everything after".[19]
In July 2019, Feige announced the Phase Four slate at San Diego Comic-Con, consisting of films and television event series on Disney+.[20] In December 2020, at Disney's Investor Day, Marvel Studios provided updates to previously announced films for the phase.[21][22]
On how much story is developed for future films of the universe, Feige said in September 2015 there are "broad strokes" though sometime "super-specific things". He continued that there was enough leeway to "have room to sway and to move and to go and to surprise ourselves in places that we end up" and that each film would feel satisfying on its own, but still interconnected to the larger universe and as if it had been planned years ahead of time. The studio also has various contingency plans for the direction of all of their films, in the event they are unable to secure a certain actor to reprise a role, or re-acquire the film rights to a character, such as was done in February 2015 with Spider-Man.[23]
Films
The Infinity Saga
The films from Phase One through Phase Three are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga".[24][25]
Phase Four
Phase Four also includes multiple series and a special streaming on Disney+.[3]
Upcoming
Future
At any given time, Marvel Studios has future films planned five-to-six years out from what they have announced.[94] By April 2014, additional storylines were planned through 2028,[95] resulting in many planned films that were intentionally "completely different" from the films in The Infinity Saga.[19] Disney has scheduled additional release dates for unannounced Marvel Studios films on July 28,[96] October 6, and November 10, 2023.[97]
Blade
By May 2013, Marvel Studios had a working script for a new Blade film after regaining the rights following New Line Cinema's prior film series.[98][99] In February 2019, Mahershala Ali approached Marvel Studios about starring in a new film after previously portraying Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in Marvel Television's Luke Cage.[100][101] Kevin Feige officially announced the film with Ali in the title role at the July 2019 San Diego Comic-Con.[101][20] In February 2021, Stacy Osei-Kuffour was hired to write the film.[102] Filming is expected to begin in July 2022,[103] at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.[104][better source needed] Blade will be released in a future MCU phase.[105]
Untitled Deadpool film
After the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was announced in December 2017, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Ryan Reynolds would reprise his role as Wade Wilson / Deadpool from 20th Century Fox's R-rated X-Men films Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018) in the PG-13 rated MCU.[106][107] By December 2019, Reynolds confirmed a third Deadpool film was in development at Marvel Studios,[108] with Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin writing the film by November 2020,[109] when Reynolds' involvement and the film's R-rating were confirmed.[109][110] In January 2021, Feige confirmed the film's MCU setting.[110] Filming is expected to begin in 2022.[111][110]
Untitled Captain America sequel
By April 2021, a fourth Captain America film was in development, with a script co-written by Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson. The duo previously served as head writer and a staff writer, respectively, on the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021).[112]
Untitled mutant-centered film
At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Feige announced Marvel Studios was developing a film for mutants, which include X-Men,[20][113] and said those terms are interchangeable and that the MCU depiction would differ from 20th Century Fox's film series
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