Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters from American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The franchise also includes several television series, short films, digital series, and literature. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called "Phases", with the first three phases collectively known as "The Infinity Saga" and the following three phases as "The Multiverse Saga". The first MCU film, Iron Man, began Phase One, which culminated in the 2012 crossover film The Avengers. Phase Two began with Iron Man 3 and concluded with Ant-Man, while Phase Three began with Captain America: Civil War and concluded with Spider-Man: Far From Home. Black Widow is the first film in Phase Four, which concluded with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, while Phase Five began with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and concluded with Thunderbolts*. Phase Six began with The Fantastic Four: First Steps and will conclude with Avengers: Secret Wars.
Marvel Television expanded the universe to network television with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC in 2013 before further expanding to streaming television on Netflix and Hulu and to cable television on Freeform. They also produced the digital series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot. Marvel Studios began producing its own television series for the streaming service Disney+, starting with WandaVision in 2021, marking the beginning of Phase Four. That phase also saw the studio expand to television specials, known as Marvel Studios Special Presentations, starting with Werewolf by Night. The MCU includes various tie-in comics published by Marvel Comics, a series of direct-to-video short films called Marvel One-Shots from 2011 to 2014, and viral marketing campaigns for some films featuring the faux news programs WHIH Newsfront and The Daily Bugle.
The franchise has been commercially successful, becoming one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, and it has received generally positive reviews from critics. However, many of the Multiverse Saga projects performed below expectations and struggled compared to those of the Infinity Saga. The studio has attributed this to the increased amount of content produced after the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame, and as of 2024, began decreasing its content output. The MCU has inspired other film and television studios to attempt similar shared universes and has also inspired several themed attractions, an art exhibit, television specials, literary material, multiple tie-in video games, and commercials.
Development
Marvel Studios films and series
The Infinity Saga films
By 2005, Marvel Entertainment was planning to produce its own films independently and distribute them through Paramount Pictures. Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero films based on Marvel Comics with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema, 20th Century Fox, and others. Marvel made relatively little profit from these licensing deals and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution. Avi Arad, head of Marvel Entertainment's film division known as Marvel Films, was pleased with director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy at Sony Pictures and Columbia but was less enthused with some of the other films. Arad decided to form Marvel Studios, Hollywood's first major independent film studio since DreamWorks Pictures was founded in 1994. Kevin Feige, Arad's second-in-command, realized that unlike Spider-Man, Blade, and the X-Men which were respectively licensed to Sony, New Line, and Fox, Marvel owned the rights to the Avengers team. Feige, a self-described "fanboy", envisioned combining these characters in a shared universe similar to the one created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics in the 1960s.To raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel planned to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them in a crossover film; Arad, who resigned in 2006, doubted this strategy would work. He insisted that his reputation helped secure the initial financing. In 2007, Feige was named studio chief. To preserve its artistic integrity, Marvel Studios formed a creative committee of six people familiar with its comic book lore: Feige, Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, Marvel Comics' president of publishing Dan Buckley, Marvel Entertainment's chief creative officer Joe Quesada, comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis, and Marvel Entertainment president Alan Fine, who oversaw the committee. Feige initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of the films as the "Marvel Cinema Universe", but later used the term "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Since the franchise expanded to other media, some have used this phrase to only refer to the feature films.
The MCU films are released in groups called "Phases", beginning with Phase One and Phase Two. In December 2009, the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Disney said future Marvel Studios films would be distributed by its own studio once the prior deal with Paramount expired. The films of Phase Three were announced at a special press event in October 2014. By September 2015, Marvel Studios was integrated into Walt Disney Studios. Feige was reporting to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter, and the creative committee began having only "nominal" input on the films. They continued to consult on Marvel Television productions, which remained under Perlmutter's control. All key film decisions moving forward were to be made by Feige, D'Esposito, and executive vice president Victoria Alonso. The studio went on to establish the Marvel Studios Parliament, a "brain trust" of long-time executives at the company who help to elevate each other's projects where possible. In November 2017, Feige said Avengers: Endgame would provide a definitive conclusion to the films thus far and begin a new period for the franchise. He later said Phase Three would conclude "The Infinity Saga".
The Multiverse Saga films and series
Disney reportedly began developing a Marvel-based television series for its new streaming service Disney+ by November 2017. In July 2018, Feige said discussions had begun with Disney regarding any potential involvement Marvel Studios could have with the streaming service, which he felt was important for the wider company. In September 2018, Marvel Studios was reported to be developing several limited series centered on "second-tier" characters from the MCU films who had not and were unlikely to headline their own films. Each series was expected to be six to eight episodes and would be produced by Marvel Studios rather than Marvel Television, with Feige taking a "hands-on role" in each series' development. Feige said these series would "tell stories... that we wouldn't be able to tell in a theatrical experience—a longer-form narrative". He added that being asked by Disney to create these series "energized everyone creatively" within Marvel Studios, since they "could play in a new medium and throw the rules out the window in terms of structure and format". Television specials from the studio are marketed as "Marvel Studios Special Presentations". The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, a Special Presentation, was the first project Marvel Studios began planning for Disney+.In July 2019, Feige announced the Phase Four slate at San Diego Comic-Con, consisting of films and, for the first time, television event series on Disney+. The Phase Four slate includes What If...?, the first animated series from Marvel Studios, and by July 2021 the studio was creating an "animation branch and mini studio", known as Marvel Studios Animation, to focus on more animated content beyond What If...?. Alonso said Marvel had around 31 projects in various stages of development by September 2021. In April 2022, Feige said he and Marvel Studios were on a creative retreat to plan and discuss the MCU films for the following 10 years. That July, Feige announced some of the films and series for Phase Five and Phase Six at San Diego Comic-Con, revealing that the second three Phases were collectively known as "The Multiverse Saga". After the "creative experience" of ending Phase Three and "The Infinity Saga" with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and the expansion in the number of projects being produced by the studio in a short amount of time, Marvel Studios decided to move away from having an Avengers crossover film at the end of each Phase and instead decided to have a crossover culmination at the end of "The Multiverse Saga" with the planned film Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. The studio was excited to explore Kang the Conqueror as an overarching villain of the Multiverse Saga after Thanos in the Infinity Saga, because Kang was a different villain in part because he has multiple variants from different timelines within the multiverse. The studio did not initially plan to build the next saga around Kang, and made that decision after seeing actor Jonathan Majors's performance in the first season of the Disney+ series Loki, as well as dailies from the filming of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. After Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment amidst legal issues in December 2023, he was fired by Disney and Marvel Studios. At that time, Marvel was internally referring to The Kang Dynasty as Avengers 5; by early 2024, Marvel had decided to drop the Kang storyline and began searching for a new antagonist for the saga.
Alonso was fired from her role at Marvel Studios in March 2023 for serving as a producer on the Amazon Studios film Argentina, 1985, in breach of a 2018 agreement between Alonso and Disney that prohibited her from working for a competing studio. The decision was made by a group that included Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman and Disney's human resources and legal departments. Alonso reportedly did not seek permission to work on the film and was asked by Disney to stop working on it or promoting it. The situation was deemed serious enough that Disney requested a new agreement be signed. The company consistently reminded her of this while she continued to promote the film following its September 2022 premiere, ultimately leading to her firing. Alonso's lawyers refuted these claims, saying Disney was aware of, and agreed to, Alonso's work on Argentina, 1985 and Alonso had been "silenced was terminated when she refused to do something she believed was reprehensible"; this was reported to be a disagreement with a Disney executive over the censoring of gay pride elements in Quantumania so the film could be released in Kuwait in compliance with the country's restrictive anti-LGBTQ laws. A Disney spokesperson reiterated that Alonso was fired due to "an indisputable breach of contract and a direct violation of company policy" among other factors. Disney and Alonso reached a multi-million dollar compensation settlement in April.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said in July 2023 that the company would be reducing the amount of Marvel content created moving forward, admitting that Marvel Studios' expansion into Disney+ series and more films had "diluted focus and attention" after several underachieving films at the box office. He clarified their plans in May 2024, saying Disney would now release two, or at most three, Marvel films and two Marvel series a year. This was a decrease from up to four films and around four series being released in some recent years. The company was reducing output and focusing on quality across all its divisions, but Iger felt the change was especially needed for Marvel. Feige and D'Esposito said 2023 had been a particularly difficult year for the studio but they had learned their lesson on trying to make too much content at once. They added that no longer being "on top" of the box office allowed them to be underdogs again, as they had been when starting work on Phase One, and they would be "coming back strong" with the hope of surprising audiences and exceeding expectations. Feige expected the studio to begin releasing two films and three series per year after 2025, when they were planning to release three films and six series that had been in development for a long time and were ready to be released. In May 2025, Iger called Thunderbolts* the "first and best example" of Marvel Studios refocusing efforts. In July, Feige said the studio had reduced the budgets of their 2024 and 2025 films to be a third lower than those for 2022 and 2023.
In 2024, Marvel Studios introduced their "Marvel Animation" and "Marvel Television" banners for their animated and live-action series, respectively. This was done, along with the previously established Marvel Spotlight banner, to help indicate to audiences that they did not have to watch all of the studio's projects to understand the overall story and could choose which storylines and characters under these banners to follow. At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, the fifth Avengers film was retitled Avengers: Doomsday, with Robert Downey Jr. cast as the Multiverse Saga's new antagonist Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom for both Doomsday and Secret Wars. Following several critical and financial failures, the studio began testing its films through test screenings organized by the National Research Group. The studio previously relied on "friends-and-family" test screenings at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, to help maintain secrecy. Feige said the NRG tests yielded results similar to their own. By July 2025, Sacha Baron Cohen's Mephisto was being viewed as the next "prominent" villain of the MCU.