We are fairly deep into the MCU’s phase 4 and while we have been entertained by titles such as WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Black Widow, What If…?, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Hawkeye, and the rest of the MCU projects up to this date, many fans have been asking what the heck is going on in this phase?
It’s pretty obvious that there’s a changing of the guard, as many notable heroes are passing their torches to new characters and with What If…?, Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness messing around with the multiverse, it’s safe to assume that’s a major theme in the most recent MCU storyline.
During last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con Marvel shared all their upcoming projects, release dates, and the name of the latest saga. Phase four is the first of three phases which will encompass what Kevin Feige is calling “The Multiverse Saga,” which takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and takes place during the aftermath of the Battle of Earth and Iron Man’s death and will carry on through phase 6.
The Multiverse Saga will end with a two-part crossover event set for release in 2025. First, we’ll have Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, focusing on Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, who we were introduced to in the Disney+ series Loki, as the next major villain. Then, a few months later, Avengers: Secret Wars will wrap The Multiverse Saga.
Phase 4 is almost over with just two more titles before phase five begins. Phase 4 of the MCU is ending with the release of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+ premiering on August 17, 2022, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in theaters on November 11, 2022. Look for the “Man without…” cameo below:
Phase five will begin in spring 2023 and here’s the rundown of titles we can expect to see in the next phase of the MCU Multiverse Saga:
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Superhero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and The Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures, and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. The very first MCU film of phase 5 is set to be released on February 17, 2023.
Secret Invasion
This series stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as the Skrull Talos, characters who first met in Captain Marvel. The crossover comic event series showcases a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years. The first season will consist of six episodes and will be released in Spring 2023.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
This movie follows Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), still reeling from the loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who must rally his team to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed, could lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them. GOTG3 will also star Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the Spacedog, and even feature a Baby Rocket. The final chapter in James Gunn’s beloved series about the cosmic band of misfits is set to be released on May 5, 2023.
Echo
Starring Alaqua Cox as the titular deaf heroine Maya Lopez who is an athlete and martial artist, capable of perfectly copying another person’s movements, Echo is a spinoff to the fan-favorite Hawkeye series. Vincent D’Onofrio is coming back as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin for the series, while Charlie Cox is also joining the cast as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Details of the synopsis are still under wraps, but we can expect to be able to watch this series on Disney+ in the summer of 2023
Loki Season 2
Even though our Loki was killed, 2012 Loki used the Tesseract to escape and became a variant, which gave us the Disney+ series Loki, where we met a bunch of his other variants from other timelines within the multiverse. Season 2 of Loki will pick up where we left things after Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) broke the multiverse and unleashed the fury of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). The second season of Loki is scheduled to be released on Disney+ in mid-2023, and will consist of six episodes.
Blade
Kevin Feige has been talking about wanting to introduce Blade into the MCU since 2016 and now it seems his dream is going to be a reality. Blade, which was teased in the mid-credit scene of Eternals, will be directed by Bassam Tariq, with Mahershala Ali as Blade, Delroy Lindo, and Aaron Pierre. The fourth film of Phase Five of the MCU is set to be released on November 3, 2023.
Ironheart
We expect to meet Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the comics, Riri is a brilliant inventor who builds her own version of the Iron Man suit in her MIT dorm. The first season of Ironheart will consist of six episodes and is expected to premiere in Fall 2023.
Agatha: Coven of Darkness
Couldn’t get enough of Kathryn Hahn as Agatha in WandaVision? Well we’ve got great news for you! She will be back with her own series, soon enough! There isn’t much news to report on this one and we don’t know if this will occur after WandaVision or if it’s a prequel explaining how Agatha got her hands on the Darkhold. Agatha: Coven of Chaos will arrive on Disney+ in Winter 2023.
Captain America: New World Order
After accepting his responsibility and the Captain America shield that goes with it in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) will be featured in his very own Captain America film! Will he cross paths with U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) again? We will just have to wait and see where phase 5 takse us! Captain America: New World Order is scheduled to release on May 3, 2024.
Daredevil: Born Again
He’s back! After his appearance in Spider-Man teased us: No Way Home, and we know he will be in Echo, Charlie Cox will be returning as Daredevil after his show was unceremoniously canceled by Netflix when the streamer had some drama with Disney over the announcement of the DIsney+ streaming service. He’s not quite done with the MCU and this series is a standalone sequel to Daredevil and a direct sequel to Echo. The first season will premiere in Spring 2024.
Thunderbolts
In the comics, Thunderbolts are an antihero team consisting of former supervillains and formed by Baron Zemo as a new Masters of Evil. Hopefully this means we can expect to see our fur-wearing, disco-dancing Zemo (Daniel Brühl) we got to know a little bit better in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Thunderbolts will be the final installment of Phase Five in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is scheduled to release on July 26, 2024.
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Phase 6
We’re going so far into the future here that we don’t have any updates on any of the streaming shows in Disney+ for Phase 6, but we know for sure that the Multiverse Saga will be ramping up to these three epic movies:
Fantastic Four
Fans could hardly contain themselves when we were introduced to John Krasinski’s Mister Fantastic in an alternate universe in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. We’ve also heard spoilers about The Thing and Dr. Doom in upcoming films, so it shouldn’t be a huge shocker to anyone that we are expecting a new MCU Fantastic Four film. The first installment of Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set to be released on November 8, 2024.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
By the time this film comes out, a lot of time will have passed since Loki (Hiddleston), Sylvie (Di Martino) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) deal with Kang (Majors) and the consequences of their shenanigans in the Loki series. The existence of this film should lead us to believe that they won’t have their mess quite cleaned up by the end of Season 2. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty It is set to be released on May 2, 2025.
Avengers: Secret Wars
This film is appropriately named since every detail about it seems to be a secret. We can assume that it’s based on the twelve-issue comic book crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 titled Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. The comics included crossovers from The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spider-man, and The X-Men. This will be the big End Game shebang wrapping up Phase Six and preparing us for Phase Seven. Avengers: Secret Wars will be the final installment of Phase Six and the Multiverse Saga. It is set to be released on November 7, 2025.
So now we have the next few years planned out. If you’re not all caught up on the Disney+ series and MCU movies thus far, what are you waiting for?
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Joia DaVida reports on the entertainment industry in both Chicago and Los Angeles.
