Ever since the release of Iron Man in 2008, the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has been the dominant force in modern pop culture. From its humble beginnings, the brand has grown from strength to strength, first with successful sequels like Iron Man 2, then with team up movies like The Avengers, then with crossover events such as Infinity War and Endgame.
Marvel Studios has also widened its scope expanding into the universe with Guardians of the Galaxy, across time with Captain Marvel, into the Quantum Realm with Ant-Man, and now the multiverse with Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange 2.
Read more: Actors with the most MCU appearances
The MCU has conquered the small screen too with the first canon TV series hitting Disney+ in 2021, so as the brand keeps on growing, we take a look at all the upcoming adventures planned in the Marvel realm.
Disney+: Ironheart (2025)
The new television series stars Dominique Thorne as super genius Riri WIlliams, who has created the most advanced suit of armour since Iron Man.
Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes have been hired as directors, with Ryan Coogler on the producing team. Ironheart made her MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The synopsis explains: “Dominique Thorne returns as Riri Williams, a young, genius inventor determined to make her mark on the world. Her unique take on building iron suits is both brilliant and flawed, and Ironheart delves into the dynamics of tech versus magic.”
Feige invited Anthony Ramos to the D23 stage to greet fans and share a little about his character, Parker Robbins aka The Hood. Originally planned to debut in 2023, this six-episode series is now expected to arrive in late 2025 although an official release date has yet to be confirmed.
Disney+: X-Men ’97 (spring 2024)
Not much has been revealed about the upcoming animated television series, X-Men ’97 but the show is a continuation of the beloved 1992 X-Men animated show with Beau DeMayo writing and producing the show.
Initially, the programme was expected to arrive in 2023 before Marvel hit pause on a few of their projects. Recent reports suggest that the series will be preceded by a comic book series that is due to run in March 2024 leading many to believe that the show may not land on the streamer until April 2024 at the earliest.
Disney+: Agatha: Darkhold Diaries (late 2024)
Agatha: Darkhold Diaries is a WandaVision spinoff which sees Kathryn Hahn reprise the role of Agatha Harkness for a 9-episode series.
This is the second Marvel character from a Disney+ show to have to star in a spinoff after Echo from Hawkeye. Jac Schaeffer (WandaVision) is on board the series as writer/exec producer. The series has already been through a number of titles starting with Agatha: House of Harkness before becoming Agatha: Coven of Chaos and finally landing on Agatha: Darkhold Diaries.
A brief synopsis describes the series as finding Agatha without her powers: “In the first episode we see Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) finally break out of a spell she has been trapped in… She can’t wait to go back to her old murderous ways only to find that she is powerless. The only way forward for her is to embark on a perilous quest to get her powers back with the help of an unlikely friend or two.”
Disney+: Wonder Man (late 2024)
This MCU series will focus on the Marvel character Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul Mateen II) who — in the comics — is the son of a wealthy industrialist who falls on hard times due to the growth of Stark Industries. In the show, he’s said to be an actor and stuntman.
Williams is imbued with ionic superpowers by Baron Zemo (Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s Daniel Bruhl) becoming an antagonist of The Avengers, before later joining their ranks. Reports suggest the show will be a Hollywood satire, with Sir Ben Kingsley’s Iron Man 3 character Trevor Slattery set to appear.
According to Deadline, The Photograph director Stella Meghie is set to helm a number of episodes of the series along with Shang-Chi’s Daniel Destin Cretton, who is the show’s exec producer. Andrew Guest (Hawkeye/30 Rock) is the head writer.
Wonder Man was expected to arrive in late 2023 or early 2024 but was impacted by the Hollywood strikes. With filming re-commencing in early 2024, perhaps we can expect the show to land in late 2024.
Disney+: Daredevil: Born Again (2025)
Daredevil is being revived at Disney+ after Charlie Cox returned as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Vincent D’Onofrio reprised Kingpin in Hawkeye.
A report by Variety in May, 2022 Covert Affairs co-creators Matt Corman and Chris Ord are attached to write and executive produce a new series of the Hells Kitchen-based superhero show. The move follows the cancellation of Daredevil by Netflix, when the streaming service relinquished the rights to the character to Disney.
The show, along with the other Netflix Marvel series, arrived on Disney+ in March, 2022. Cox has already warned fans that Born Again may not be R-Rated.
The actor told Techradar: “My instinct tells me it’ll be somewhere in between what we did before and what is currently on Disney+. Tonally, I imagine it’ll remain sinister, dark, and painful – you know, geared towards a more mature audience. But it probably won’t be as gruesome.”
Jon Bernthal is also said to be returning as The Punisher in the much-anticipated 18-epsiode series. However, fans will have a while to wait before they can watch him in action, as the show isn’t expected to arrive until 2025.
Captain America: Brave New World (14 February 2025)
Anthony Mackie will reprise his role as Sam Wilson but in the new role as Captain America replacing the outgoing Chris Evans in Captain America: Brave New World. The project was initially titled Captain America: New World Order but changed its name in mid-2023 due to its links to conspiracy theories online.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier head writer Malcolm Spellman will write the screenplay for the fourth Captain America film, along with Dalan Musson.
Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres) and Carl Lumbly (Isaiah Bradley), all return to join Tim Blake Nelson (The Leader) as well as Shira Haas (Sabra).
Harrison Ford will also join the MCU in Captain America, replacing the late William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, who has risen to the post of President of the United States.
“There’s a dynamic between President Ross and Sam Wilson,” Kevin Feige told EW. “They have a history together, but in this film, we’ll be seeing the dynamic between Captain America and the president of the United States in a way that is just incredible.”
The film is set to hit cinemas on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2025.
Thunderbolts (25 July 2025)
Marvel enters the supervillain team-up genre with this highly secretive MCU project that will mark the final chapter of Phase 5 of the MCU.
Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank, Paper Towns) will direct from a script by Black Widow’s Eric Pearson.
In the comics, the Thunderbolts were a team of heroes that were formed after the death of the Avengers, but who turned out to be acting as villains. Members have included Baron Zemo, Yelena Belova, Ghost, Abomination, John Walker and Taskmaster.
The movie team will comprise of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Sebastian Stan (James “Bucky” Barnes/The Winter Soldier) and Wyatt Russell (John Walker/U.S. Agent). The esteemed team also features Black Widow’s Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster) and Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova). The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun was initially set to star before dropping out in late 2023.
The film is set to be released on 25 July 2025.
Blade (7 November 2025)
Having made his first appearance as part of the MCU in The Eternals, two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will headline his own movie as Blade, the vampire-hunting bloodsucker previously played by Wesley Snipes.
Originally written by Watchmen’s Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Blade lost its director Bassam Tariq at the eleventh hour, throwing the production into last-minute turmoil. “Due to continued shifts in our production schedule, Bassam is no longer moving forward as director of Blade but will remain an executive producer on the film,” Marvel said in a statement. “We appreciate Bassam’s talent and all the work he’s done getting Blade to where it is.”
Tariq also put out his own statement: “It’s been an honour working with the wonderful folks at Marvel. “We were able to put together a killer cast and crew. Eager to see where the next director takes the film.”
Yann Demange, the director of White Boy Rick, was hired to replace Tariq in November 2022, with Michael Starrbury writing a new script. The film will now arrive in cinemas on 7 November 2025.
Deadpool 3 (3 May, 2024)
Hugh Jackman will return as Wolverine for the third Deadpool film opposite Ryan Reynolds in the title role. Shawn Levy will be the director of Deadpool 3 with production finally wrapping in early 2024 following a number of delays caused by the Hollywood strikes
The second Deadpool sequel has suffered many setbacks since the release of Deadpool 2 in 2018 following complications with Disney’s takeover of 20th Century Fox, which distributed the first two movies. However, with the film finally in the can – and an official release date secured – fans of Mr Pool can expect to revisit the Merc with a Mouth when he hits cinemas on 26 July 2024, just a few months after its previous release date of 3 May.
Spider-Man 4 (TBA)
Tom Holland will return as Spider-Man for another MCU outing, it was confirmed by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige.
“All I will say is that we have the story,” Feige told Entertainment Weekly. “We have big ideas for that, and our writers are just putting pen to paper now.”
Details are thin on the ground so far, as it’s unclear whether Peter Parker will return for his own movie, or a team-up film such as the Avenger.
Talking in 2021, Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal teases more episodes in the story of the beloved webslinger.
“This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel – [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie,” Pascal told Fandango. “We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We’re thinking of this as three films, and now we’re going to go onto the next three. This is not the last of our MCU movies.”
Fantastic Four (2 May, 2025)
The Fantastic Four will make their long-awaited MCU debut in November 2024 as the first entry in Phase 6 of the MCU. The movie recently lost its director when Jon Watts quit the movie to work on his upcoming Star Wars series. WandaVision’s Matt Shakman will direct.
Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm make up the team, and while John Krasinski recently cameoed as Reed in Doctor Strange 2, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll return for this third movie incarnation of Marvel’s most beloved super-family.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly in 2023, Kevin Feige teased big plans for the Fantastic Four: “Fantastic Four is the foundation for everything that came after in the comics. There’s certainly been versions of it [on screen], but never inhabiting the storytelling of the MCU. And that’s something that is really exciting for us.”
Feige added, “People will start to hear more about that soon. We plan on that being a big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they’ve been in the comics for 50 or 60 years.”
Disney+: Marvel Zombies (2024)
Marvel Zombies is an upcoming animated television series, which is a spin-off of What If…?. She-Hulk’s Zeb Wells is set to write and executive produce the four-episode series.
We know that Iman Vellani AKA Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel will reprise her role for the series but other than that, no further announcements have been made in terms of cast and production. We also know that it’ll consist of four episodes and land at some point in 2024.
Disney+: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2 November 2024)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an upcoming animated television series which is a prequel to Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was initially titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year and looks set to focus on Peter Parker’s early days as the web-slinging hero.
The voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man is yet to be announced however Jeff Trammell is to write and executive produce the show which will debut in late 2024.
Avengers 5 (1 May, 2026)
After being absent from our screens since the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame in 2019, the Avengers will reunite to face Kang in the first of a two-part finale for Phase 6 of the MCU. Shang-Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton was originally pegged to direct, with Ant-Man 3’s Jeff Loveness hired to write the script. However, when Cretton left the project in late 2023, Loveness was replaced by Michael Waldron, the writer behind Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Initially, the project was to be based around the MCU’s new big bad Kang, played by Jonathan Majors. However, when he was dropped from the project in late 2023 following assault charges, the movie’s future was thrown up in the air. Even its title is set to change, with the project currently being referred to as simply Avengers 5.
Avengers: Secret Wars (7 May, 2027)
Releasing seven months after Avengers 5, Secret Wars will be the epic conclusion to Phase 6 of the MCU, and with it the Phases 4-5-6 arch known as The Multiverse Saga.
In the comics, the Secret Wars centered around multiversal battle between all of Marvel’s beloved characters. Considering the issues surrounding Avengers 5, it is unclear whether this will still be the film’s plot or who the Avengers may be going up against.
Shang-Chi 2 (TBA)
Simu Liu will reprise the role of Xu Shang-Chi in Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi 2. With the deal only being signed in December 2021, production has still not been announced so it is hard to determine when the sequel will be shot and subsequently released.
After Cretton left Avengers 5 to focus solely on Shang-Chi 2, an update released in late 2023 suggests the sequel could be arriving at some point in late 2026 with the film’s plot including connective tissue that links both Avengers outings.
X-Men (TBA)
Like Deadpool and Fantastic Four, an X-Men-centric movie will also be part of the MCU following Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox.
With the cast and director yet to be announced and Phase Four movies already slotted in for the coming years it seems a release date is still some years away. We do know that Wolverine will make his MCU debut in Deadpool 3, with some outlets believing that Marvel’s X-Men movie could feature in Phase 7 of the MCU.
Armor Wars (TBA)
Don Cheadle is set to reprise the role as James Rhodes/War Machine in the upcoming movie Armor Wars, with a script from Yassir Lester. Ant-Man and The Wasp’s Walton Goggins will also appear as Sonny Burch.
“Armor Wars will be different and I think it’s going to be pretty unique,” Cheadle told Yahoo in 2021.
“We’re breaking the story now in the writers’ room and figuring out what direction it’s gonna take, but I think people are going to be very surprised at where we’re gonna go with this, for sure.”
The project was originally conceived as a Disney+ series but evolved into a full movie in late 2022. Producer Nate Moore explained: “When you’re talking about a show that wants to be about seeing all the cool armours and Don Cheadle interacting with all these armours and, sort of, the legacy of Tony Stark? That became kind of cost prohibitive to do as a show.”
According to sources, Armour Wars is believed to be a sequel to MCU series Secret Invasion and Ironheart but a concrete release date is still unclear.
Disney+: Eyes of Wakanda (late 2024)
Following the box-office hit, Black Panther and its sequel, director Ryan Coogler announced that a television series is also on the way. In early 2024, the series was confirmed to be titled Eyes of Wakanda and will feature a range of characters tracking down rare and dangerous vibranium artefacts across various time periods.
No casting details have been unveiled yet but the series is set to debut in late 2024.
