2 days Ago By Oli Welsh
Marvel Studios took a breather in 2024, releasing only one major film ( Deadpool & Wolverine ) and a couple of live-action TV series ( Agatha All Along , Echo ). But the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set to make a thunderous return in 2025. A whopping nine MCU feature films and TV series are slated to arrive in movie theaters and on Disney Plus this year.
Believe it or not, that’s the calm before the storm. As announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 , Marvel has two retooled, newly Kang-less Avengers films coming in the next few years, which will see Robert Downey, Jr. starring in MCU movies again — but in a very different role, as the villainous Doctor Doom.
Disney CEO Bob Iger laid out a plan to reduce Marvel Studios’ output and focus on quality, but that doesn’t seem to be affecting the numbers just yet. Marvel is still committed to big super-team tentpoles, more Spider-Man movies, and getting some fresh blood into the MCU with characters like Wonder Man. Marvel Studios’ current plans stretch out until at least the middle of 2027.
From the introduction of the Fantastic Four to the return of Daredevil in his first official MCU TV series, here’s every planned future Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and Disney Plus show. 2025 Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Jan. 29 Marvel Animation’s stand-alone Spider-Man series set during Peter Parker’s high-school years tells an alternate origin story for the wall-crawler.
Instead of Tony Stark serving as mentor to young Peter, as seen in the MCU, Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) fills that role. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is out to explore Spider-Man’s full rogues’ gallery in an animated style reminiscent of the early Amazing Spider-Man comics illustrated by Steve Ditko . It will also see some MCU actors reprising their famous roles in animated form, with Charlie Cox voicing Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin.
Captain America: Brave New World: Feb. 14 After assuming the mantle — or rather, shield — left by Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers in the Disney Plus show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Anthony Mackie headlines his own Captain America movie for the first time in 2025. The script is by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman, and the director is Julius Onah ( The Cloverfield Paradox ).
Tim Blake Nelson will return to the MCU as the Leader, last seen in The Incredible Hulk (2008), and Harrison Ford steps in for William Hurt as General...
err, President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Captain America: Brave New World ( previously known as Captain America: New World Order ) will also address a big open question from Marvel Studios’ Eternals : What’s going on with that giant Celestial hand sticking out of the ocean ? Daredevil: Born Again: March 4 After warming us up with a string of cameos , Charlie Cox’s Daredevil is the first character from Marvel’s Netflix shows to make the jump to headlining his own official MCU series on Disney Plus. Vincent D’Onofrio returns as Daredevil’s nemesis, Wilson Fisk, alias Kingpin.
While the series was originally slated for a spring 2024 release, Marvel scrapped the concept for the series and started over, and Daredevil: Born Again is now due in March 2025. Joining Cox and D’Onofrio in Daredevil: Born Again are Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/Punisher, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, and Elden Henson as Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, reprising their roles from the Netflix Marvel-verse. Thunderbolts*: May 2 Marvel’s morally gray and more unconventionally heroic characters — including Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), US Agent ( Wyatt Russell ), and the Red Guardian (David Harbour) — will join forces in Thunderbolts* .
They’ll be joined by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, returning as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and MCU newcomer Lewis Pullman as Sentry. In the comics, the team is essentially the Marvel Comics version of DC’s Suicide Squad, a group of villains pressed into working together for someone else’s cause on pain of death. Jake Schreier ( Robot & Frank ) is directing the Thunderbolts movie, the title of which officially carries an asterisk for as-yet-unexplained reasons.
Ironheart: June 24 After taking her opening bow in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) gets her own series with Ironheart . The character is a brilliant young engineer who makes her own power suit, much like Iron Man’s, after reverse-engineering some of Tony Stark’s tech. Facing off against Riri will be The Hood (Anthony Ramos), a more magic-based villain.
Rounding out the cast are Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam, and Anji White. The Fantastic Four: First Steps: July 25 The MCU’s Phase 6 begins with the most hotly anticipated MCU debut this side of the X-Men, The Fantastic Four: First Steps . The fourth time is hopefully the charm for Marvel’s First Family, who have long suffered from lackluster cinematic adaptations.
Spider-Man: No Way Home ’s Jon Watts was originally set to direct, but after his departure, WandaVision and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia director Matt Shakman stepped into the role. The Last of Us ’ Pedro Pascal will lead the cast as the stretchy Mister Fantastic; Vanessa Kirby ( Mission Impossible: Fallout ) will be the force-field-manifesting Invisible Woman; Joseph Quinn ( Stranger Things ) stars as the Human Torch; and The Bear ’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach will embody the Thing. Joining our heroes are Ralph Ineson as Galactus , Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal, Natasha Lyonne, and John Malkovich.
Eyes of Wakanda: Aug. 6 Originally pitched as an origin story series for Danai Gurira’s Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje, Eyes of Wakanda is an animated series following the history of Wakanda, as seen through the eyes of warriors tasked with safeguarding the country’s miraculous metal, vibranium. Gurira is attached to reprise her role.
This is the first TV series in the MCU’s Phase 6 rollout. Marvel Zombies: October Marvel’s Zombies alternate reality — previously explored in an episode of What If..
.? in season 1 and based on the 2005 Robert Kirkman comic — gets a four-episode miniseries in 2025, just in time for Halloween. Marvel Zombies will feature a bunch of Phase 4 heroes, like Kamala Khan/Ms.
Marvel, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, and Shang-Chi, fending off zombified versions of the Avengers...
and maybe even zombie Thanos. Wonder Man : December Marvel is giving its Avenger-turned-Hollywood stuntman Simon Williams his own TV series for Disney Plus, and according to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige , Wonder Man will be “extremely different from anything we’ve done before.” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II ( Aquaman , Watchmen ) will play Williams (aka Wonder Man) in the 10-episode series.
Ben Kingsley will be back as Trevor Slattery, his character from Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings . They’ll be joined by Ed Harris, Lauren Glazier, and Demetrius Grosse. 2026 Avengers: Doomsday: May 1 In 2026, Marvel Studios will return to its most successful sub-franchise, and also to the strategy that saw it close out Phase 3 with a pair of Avengers movies, Infinity War and Endgame .
Announced as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty in 2022, the movie has undergone a big shift. It’s now Avengers: Doomsday , and MCU veteran Robert Downey, Jr. will take on the role of Doctor Doom , with Joe and Anthony Russo also returning to direct .
According to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the casts of Captain America: Brave New World , Thunderbolts* , and Fantastic Four: First Steps will also appear in Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars . Untitled Spider-Man: July 24 Sony and Marvel Studios’ follow-up to 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home will bring star Tom Holland back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a new type of adventure. When we last saw Holland’s Peter Parker, all memories of Spider-Man’s secret identity had been wiped from the public consciousness.
Peter will seemingly start anew in the fourth untitled Spider-Man movie, which is being helmed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton. The idea for Spider-Man 4 “is crazy,” Holland said in an appearance on Good Morning America . “It’s a little different to anything we’ve done before, but I think the fans are gonna really respond to it.
” Based on its release date, it will apparently take place after the events of Avengers: Doomsday . Vision Quest: Undated 2026 It’s long been rumored that Marvel would give Paul Bettany’s Vision his own post- WandaVision spinoff, this one focusing on the duplicate White Vision who battled the original Vision in the finale of that series. (Well, Wanda’s resurrected Vision.
.. look, it’s a little complicated.
) Star Trek: Picard ’s Terry Matalas is now reported to be showrunner on the series (sometimes referred to as Vision Quest ), which is slated for a debut some time in 2026. 2027 Avengers: Secret Wars: May 7 Delayed to 2027, Avengers: Secret Wars will close out Phase 6 and end what Marvel is now calling the Multiverse Saga, the way Avengers: Endgame concluded the Infinity Saga. Again, the casts of Marvel’s other films will reappear in Secret Wars , and proven Avengers directors the Russo brothers will helm this one.
but the title refers to a cosmic comics crossover event about collapsing multiverses that could even herald a complete reboot of the MCU . Announced, but no release date Armor Wars For the darker side of what happens when Iron Man tech falls into the wrong hands, Don Cheadle will return as War Machine in a film based on Marvel Comics’ Armor Wars . There’s no release date for the movie yet — Armor Wars was originally intended to be a Disney Plus series, but graduated to a feature film.
But with a name like Armor Wars , it seems like a safe bet that Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart will also be involved. Black Panther 3 While not officially announced by execs like Kevin Feige or Bob Iger, Marvel promised at the end of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that “Black Panther will return.” Oh, also Denzel Washington says he’s going to be in the next Black Panther movie, and that Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is writing a part just for him.
Who are we to doubt Denzel, or the strength of the Black Panther franchise, which has already made billions for Marvel Studios? Marvel has a lot of post-credits promises to make good on , but it seems pretty safe to say that we’ll see Black Panther in theaters before some other announced projects. Like, uh..
. Blade Originally slated for 2023, the new Blade movie has suffered repeated delays. Following Wesley Snipes’ incarnation of the vampire hunter will be no mean feat, but Marvel couldn’t have recruited a better actor to do it: the brilliant Mahershala Ali.
But the production has been fraught with production problems and personnel changes : directors Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange were both previously attached but dropped out, and multiple writers have come and gone. Blade was previously booked for a Nov. 7, 2025 release in theaters, but has since been removed from Disney’s schedule.
Nova Bringing Nova, a member of the intergalactic Nova Corps, to live action has been a long-simmering effort at Marvel Studios. In 2018, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige named Nova as having “immediate potential” for a stand-alone project. More recently, Marvel Studios head of streaming, television, and animation Brad Winderbaum said that a Nova project was in “ really early development ” — couching that confirmation to say that Marvel Studios is now “developing more than we actually will produce.
” But Nova now sounds like it’s actually happening; in December 2024, Deadline reported that Criminal Minds showrunner Ed Bernero has joined the Disney Plus series as a writer and showrunner. Nova will reportedly center on the Richard Rider incarnation of Nova, who debuted in Marvel comics in 1976. If the Disney Plus series comes to fruition, it will help fill a void in the cosmic corner of the MCU.
Shang-Chi 2 A sequel to 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in development at Marvel Studios, with little known about it so far, other than that Simu Liu will return in the title role. Disney Entertainment Marvel Movies TV.
