List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films
The Marvel Cinematic Universe centers on 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 37 films, with at least eight more in various stages of development. It is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $32.4 billion at the global box office. This includes Avengers: Endgame, which became the highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release.
The films are written and directed by various individuals and feature large, often ensemble, casts. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has produced every film in the franchise, while other Marvel Studios executives have also produced some films alongside Feige, including the studio's former CEO Avi Arad for the first two releases. Other individuals have also produced select MCU films, including Gale Anne Hurd for The Incredible Hulk; Amy Pascal for the Spider-Man films; Lauren Shuler Donner, Ryan Reynolds, and Shawn Levy for Deadpool & Wolverine; and Anthony and Joe Russo for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called "Phases". Its first film is Iron Man, which was distributed by Paramount Pictures. Paramount also distributed Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, while Universal Pictures distributed The Incredible Hulk, which was co-produced by Hurd's production company Valhalla Motion Pictures. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures began distributing the series with the crossover film The Avengers, which concluded Phase One. Phase Two comprises Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man.
Captain America: Civil War is the first film of Phase Three, and is followed by Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. The first three Phases are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga". The Spider-Man films are owned, financed, and distributed by Sony Pictures and co-produced by Sony's Columbia Pictures and Pascal Pictures.
The films of Phase Four are Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Phase Five comprises Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts*. Deadpool & Wolverine was co-produced by Reynolds's and Levy's respective companies Maximum Effort and 21 Laps Entertainment.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps begins Phase Six, and is followed by Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars, the latter two of which are co-produced by the Russo brothers's company AGBO. The fourth, fifth, and sixth Phases are collectively known as "The Multiverse Saga", and also include several television series and some television specials for the streaming service Disney+.
Development
By 2005, Marvel Entertainment had begun planning to produce its own films independently and distribute them through Paramount Pictures. In June 2007, Marvel Studios secured funding from a $525million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel planned to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them in a crossover film.Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in November 2013 that releases each year would ideally include one film based on an existing character and one featuring a new character, feeling that would be "a nice rhythm", although, this was not always the case as shown by the sequels Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World being released in 2013. Feige elaborated in July 2014 that this model was being followed for 2014 and 2015, and he felt it would be fun to continue. After the reveal that month of multiple release dates for films through 2019, in which some years had three films scheduled, Feige said there was no "number cruncher" telling the studio to increase their film output and the change was based on them "managing 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." After the titles for these films were revealed in October 2014, Feige said the studio was "firing on all cylinders right now" and this made them comfortable with increasing to three films a year in 2017 and 2018 without changing their production approach. On the potential for so-called "superhero fatigue", Feige stated that, although each film is based on Marvel Comics and feature the "Marvel Studios" logo, he believed each film had unique qualities that differentiated them from the others and from non-Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films. For example, he noted how the studio's 2016 releases, Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange, were "completely different movies". The studio hoped to continue to surprise audiences and "not into things becoming too similar".
In February 2014, Feige said Marvel Studios wanted to mimic the "rhythm" of comic book releases by having characters appear in their own films and then come together for crossover events, with Avengers films acting as "big, giant linchpins" within the shared universe. On expanding the number of 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 said they planned to teach general audiences "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... 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." Discussing how much story is developed for future MCU films, Feige said in September 2015 that "broad strokes" and occasionally "super-specific things" are determined far in advance. He said 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 has contingency plans for times when they are unable to secure a certain actor to reprise a role, and are able to respond to surprises such as the film rights to use Spider-Man becoming available in February 2015.
Feige discussed moving the MCU to Phase Four in April 2016, reflecting on the first three phases of films and saying, "I think there will be a finality to moments of Phase Three, as well as new beginnings that will mark a different, a different, a distinctively different chapter in what will someday be a complete first saga made up of three Phases." Frequent MCU director Joe Russo added that Phase Three was the "deconstruction Phase" of the MCU, beginning with Civil War and leading into "the culmination films" of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. 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". 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 and everything after". Many of the films that were planned to follow Endgame were intentionally different from the films in "The Infinity Saga", which includes Phase One, Phase Two, and Phase Three.
In July 2019, Feige announced the Phase Four slate at San Diego Comic-Con, consisting of films and television event series for the streaming service Disney+. In December 2020, at Disney's Investor Day, Marvel provided updates to previously announced films for the Phase. In late June 2022, Feige said audiences would begin to see where the next saga of the MCU would be heading as Phase Four neared its conclusion, adding that there had been many clues throughout the Phase to what that would be. He said Marvel Studios would be a "little more direct" on their future plans in the following months to provide audiences with "the bigger picture". In July 2022, Feige unveiled the Phase Five and Six slates at San Diego Comic-Con, similarly consisting of films and Disney+ series, and revealed that these three Phases would make up "The Multiverse Saga".
In May 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company planned to release two, or at most three, Marvel films a year moving forward, down from four films being released in some recent years, as part of Disney's larger strategy to reduce its content output and focus on quality. At that time, four films were still expected to be released in both 2025 and 2026. Iger said Marvel content would continue to balance sequels with new franchises. Later in 2024, Disney removed the long-in-development film Blade from its 2025 release date and also removed an unspecified Marvel film that was scheduled for July 2026, which was replaced by Sony Pictures's Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Feige said the three films that were still scheduled for 2025 had been in development for a long time and were ready for release. He expected Marvel Studios to start releasing two films a year from 2026, but said there was potential for anywhere between one and three films in some years. In May 2025, Iger called Thunderbolts* the "first and best example" of Marvel Studios' refocusing efforts.
Further changes to Marvel Studios' release slate resulted in over a year gap between The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Brand New Day; this would be the longest gap between MCU film releases since the gap between Spider-Man: Far From Home and Black Widow, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2025, Feige said the studio was working to reduce its film budgets, which had increased since Endgame in part due to the pandemic. He said the budgets for their 2024 and 2025 films were a third lower than those for 2022 and 2023. Marvel Studios executives met with the creative team behind the film The Creator to understand how that film was made with a relatively low $80 million budget. Additionally, Feige stated that Marvel Studios had made a deal to film many of their then-upcoming films at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom, where several of their other films had previously been shot. He said Marvel Studios anticipated utilizing studio space in Georgia and New York as well, rather than California, because of those states' production tax credits. However, The Wall Street Journal reported that Marvel would largely forego shooting in Georgia because of its rising costs, instead choosing to shoot in the United Kingdom because it had become cheaper to do so.
Feige called Deadpool & Wolverine the true start to Marvel Studios' exploration and use of the Fox characters following Disney's acquisition of assets from 21st Century Fox in 2019, and said every project after it would be part of the MCU's "Mutant era". The next MCU saga after the Multiverse Saga is expected to center on the Fox characters, including the X-Men. Feige reportedly had a 10-year plan for the X-Men in the MCU by May 2025. In July 2025, Feige said Marvel Studios was "already well into development" on the three phases of their next saga following the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga with Secret Wars. He said Phase Seven would be "directly impacted" by the films of Phase Six.