at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, where he provided updates for some Phase Six films|alt=Kevin Feige speaking onstage at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 By April 2014,
Marvel Studios president
Kevin Feige said that additional storylines for their
media franchise and
shared universe, the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), were planned through 2028. During Marvel Studios' panel at
San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Feige announced several films and
Disney+ television series in development for
Phase Four of the MCU, before revealing the film
Blade and a
Fantastic Four film were also in development. After the panel, Feige confirmed that
Blade was not part of the Phase Four slate at the time, and that what was announced was the full Phase Four slate at that point, despite Marvel already developing further projects at that time.
Fantastic Four was formally confirmed in December 2020; the film was believed to be a part of Phase Four at that time. By June 2021, in addition to
What If...?, Marvel Studios was developing a slate of at least three more animated series. During the
Disney+ Day event in November 2021, Marvel Studios announced the
What If...? spin-off series
Marvel Zombies. By the end of November 2021, producer
Amy Pascal said that Marvel Studios was planning at least three more
Spider-Man films starring
Tom Holland with
Sony Pictures after
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and the following month, Marvel Studios and Sony were actively beginning to develop the story for the fourth MCU
Spider-Man film. Also in December,
Destin Daniel Cretton was revealed to be developing a comedy series through his company
Family Owned, as part of his overall deal with Marvel Studios to develop television projects for the studio for Disney+ in addition to returning to write and direct a sequel to
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (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, and in June 2022, said information on the next saga of the MCU would be provided in the following months, with Marvel Studios being a "little more direct" on their future plans to provide audiences with "the bigger picture [so they] can see a tiny, tiny bit more of the roadmap" following the clues included during Phase Four. Cretton's series was also revealed to be
Wonder Man that month. At Marvel Studios' San Diego Comic-Con panel in July 2022, Feige announced that
Fantastic Four would be the first film of Phase Six. He also announced that the phase would conclude with two
ensemble films,
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and
Avengers: Secret Wars, both to be released in 2025, and that Phase Six, along with Phase Four and
Phase Five, would be part of "
The Multiverse Saga". The films were respectively inspired by "
Kang Dynasty", a 2001 comic book storyline written by
Kurt Busiek in which
Kang the Conqueror travels through time to enslave humanity, and
Secret Wars, the name of a
1984–85 comic written by
Jim Shooter and a
2015–16 comic written by
Jonathan Hickman that both follow various Marvel characters who converge on the planet
Battleworld. Feige noted that while not all projects in Phase Six or the previous two phases would directly tie into the larger
multiverse storyline, the various storylines that would weave together leading into
Secret Wars was "a whole new aspect to the MCU". At the panel, Feige also confirmed the film
Blade for Phase Five. Following Marvel Studios' SDCC panel, Disney announced a
third season of What If...? and a
second season of
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, then titled
Spider-Man: Sophomore Year. In October, Marvel Studios delayed
Blade to September 2024 and pushed back the releases of
Fantastic Four and
Avengers: Secret Wars as a result. In early February 2023,
Disney CEO
Bob Iger announced that the company would be re-evaluating the volume of content it outputs as a way to cut costs over the next few years. Shortly after, when reflecting on the amount of Disney+ content released for Phase Four in a short time frame, Feige anticipated that Marvel Studios would look to space out the releases of the Disney+ series in Phase Five and Six or put fewer out each year "so they can each get a chance to shine". The start of the
2023 Writers Guild of America strike in May 2023 was not expected to impact the MCU projects in production, or preparing to begin production, at that time, namely
Wonder Man and
Fantastic Four, with Marvel Studios reportedly planning to shoot what they could during
principal photography and make any necessary writing adjustments during each project's already scheduled reshoots. Production on
Wonder Man was shut down by the end of the month, with plans to resume filming when the strike concluded. In June, Disney delayed
Fantastic Four to May 2, 2025,
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to May 1, 2026, and
Avengers: Secret Wars to May 7, 2027, in part due to the writers' strike and Disney's intentions to improve the quality of MCU content from writing through post-production, after disappointing reception and lower box office earnings for several recently released films following the
COVID-19 pandemic. The following month, Iger stated the company would be reducing spending and creation of Marvel content, admitting that Marvel Studios' expansion into Disney+ series and more films had "diluted focus and attention" after a number of underachieving films at the box office in Phases Four and Five. In early September 2023, Marvel Studios announced
Wonder Man had an undetermined release, due to the
2023 Hollywood labor disputes and a desire to slow down their content output and make each of their titles "an event". stars as
Doctor Doom in
Avengers: Doomsday and
Secret Wars, after playing
Tony Stark / Iron Man in
the Infinity Saga When the
2023 SAG-AFTRA strike ended that November, Disney delayed several films to accommodate the resumption of production, including moving
Blade to November 7, 2025, making it part of the Phase Six slate. Also that month, it was reported that Marvel Studios executives had discussed potentially bringing back the original
Avengers cast, including
Robert Downey Jr. as
Tony Stark / Iron Man, as well as alternative plans for the Multiverse Saga due to
Kang the Conqueror actor
Jonathan Majors's
legal issues surrounding assault allegations from earlier that year, including pivoting to focus on another comic book antagonist such as
Doctor Doom. The following month, Disney and Marvel Studios fired Majors after he was found guilty of harassment and reckless assault in the third degree. His character had been set to be the main antagonist of the Multiverse Saga, particularly
The Kang Dynasty. By then, Marvel Studios had begun to internally refer to that film as
Avengers 5. Additionally,
Marvel Studios Animation announced the series
Eyes of Wakanda, which was planned to be released in 2024.
Fantastic Four was retitled
The Fantastic Four in February 2024, when its release date was moved to July 25, 2025, swapping with the Phase Five film
Thunderbolts*. In May 2024, Iger said Disney planned to release two, or at most three, Marvel films and two Marvel series a year moving forward. This was down from up to four films and around four series being released in some recent years, and was part of the company's larger strategy to reduce its content output and focus on quality; at that time, four films were still planned to be released in 2026. He said Marvel content would continue to balance sequels with new franchises. Later that month,
VisionQuest, a spin-off series from
WandaVision (2021) centered on the character
Vision, was revealed to be in development for release in 2026; it concludes a trilogy of series that includes
WandaVision and
Agatha All Along (2024), and was previously being developed by those series' creator
Jac Schaeffer. In July 2024,
The Fantastic Four was further retitled
The Fantastic Four: First Steps, while
Avengers 5 was titled
Avengers: Doomsday along with the announcement of Downey playing a new villain,
Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom, in that film and
Secret Wars. At Disney's
D23 convention in August 2025, Feige confirmed that
Daredevil: Born Again would have a
second season, which would consist of eight episodes carried over from the originally announced 18-episode first season following the series' creative overhaul. In October, Disney removed
Blade from its release calendar, while Sony scheduled
Spider-Man: Brand New Day for release on July 24, 2026. This filled a date that Disney had previously scheduled for an unspecified Marvel Studios film. Later that month, Marvel Studios announced the release dates for their Disney+ projects through the end of 2024 and 2025, including
Eyes of Wakanda,
Marvel Zombies, and
Wonder Man. In February 2025, Sony pushed the release of the fourth
Spider-Man film back a week to July 31, 2026, while a
Special Presentation television special starring
Jon Bernthal as
Frank Castle / Punisher,
The Punisher: One Last Kill, was revealed to be in development for release in May 2026, following the release of
Born Again season 2 from March to May 2026. In May 2025, Disney delayed the release of
Doomsday and
Secret Wars to December 18, 2026, and December 17, 2027, respectively, to allow more time for production to be completed. In September 2025,
Born Again was renewed for a third season, and the next month,
Wonder Man was pushed back to January 2026. Ahead of the start of Phase Six with the release of
First Steps in July 2025, Feige called Phase Six "the most focused phase" after Phases Four and Five were used by Marvel Studios to "experiment". He explained, "We used it to evolve and then we used it to expand – too much.
Secret Wars, as in the comics, is as much about bringing certain storylines to a close as it is about launching a new one, and that's what's very exciting." == Films ==