Despite already having an exciting MCU Phase 6 lineup, Marvel still has eight movies and shows it hasn’t announced yet. At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, Marvel Studios unveiled timelines for both Phase 5 and Phase 6. While it left nothing blank for Phase 5, the slate of projects coming between late 2024 and 2025 is a bit more mysterious.
Arguably the biggest confirmed movies Marvel currently has in development are coming in Phase 6. After concluding Phase 5 with Thunderbolts, Marvel will launch Phase 6, with one of its first movies being the highly anticipated Fantastic Four film. No casting details have been revealed as of yet, but a release date is finally known. The MCU interpretation of Marvel’s First Family will arrive on the big screen on November 8, 2024. In the following year, Marvel has not one, but two Avengers movies in the pipeline. The fifth installment in the franchise, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will hit theaters on May 5, 2025, with Avengers: Secret Wars releasing on November 7.
These three movies alone promise a huge Phase 6, but they’re obviously just a part of what Marvel has on the horizon. In total, Marvel will release 11 movies and shows, with Fantastic Four, The Kang Dynasty, and Secret Wars just being three of them. As for the remaining eight, there’s a multitude of options for what they could be. Some could be projects that have already been reported, while others could be well-kept secrets. Here’s every date revealed by Marvel at SDCC 2022 and which movie or show could fill them.
Fall 2024
So far, Marvel has only one show confirmed for 2024, which is its 18-episode Daredevil: Born Again series. For that reason, the other three 2024 dates could belong to Disney+ shows. The first could go to Armor Wars. War Machine’s MCU show, which is based on the 1980s Iron Man story of the same name, was curiously missing from Marvel's Phase 5 plans. This created concerns that the show has been axed by Marvel. However, Armor Wars head writer Yassir Lester has provided assurances that the series is still happening. And since filming is expected to begin in the fall of 2022, Armor Wars is a good candidate for one of Phase 6’s first installments.
Fall 2024
In addition to making Shang-Chi 2, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton is partnering with Marvel Studios on Wonder Man, a show focused on one of the Avengers’ strongest characters. Powered by ionic energy, Wonder Man a.k.a. Simon Williams is a ruined businessman who rebuilt his life by becoming a superhero and a Hollywood movie actor. Reportedly, the MCU’s take on Wonder Man will be a Hollywood satire. So far, there are no details on when it could be released, but since it too was missing from the Phase 5 slate, it could hit Disney+ as a Phase 6 project instead.
Winter 2024
Considering that Marvel’s mystery Winter 2024 project is in close proximity to Fantastic Four, this slot could go to an upcoming show, such as Ryan Cooger’s untitled Wakanda spinoff. Not much is known about the project, but the focus is said to be on Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje. Supposedly, it'll offer an origin story for Danai Gurira's fan-favorite Black Panther character. With production slated to start in 2023, a late 2024 release for the series would make sense.
February 25, 2025
Though not shown on the timeline, Marvel has added two movie release dates to its Phase 6 schedule. The first is February 25, 2025. It’s been known since December 2021 that Marvel was working on Shang-Chi 2 with Cretton. Like Marvel’s plan for the first Shang-Chi movie, the sequel could be how Marvel intends to kick off the year. Shang-Chi 2 being the first movie of 2025 wouldn’t be surprising, especially with it being absent from Phase 5. Plus, it being the film that precedes The Kang Dynasty would be fitting, especially with Shang-Chi’s post-credits scene setting up a threat from another universe.
Spring 2025
Marvel will follow up its first 2025 movie with a Spring 2025 release, which stands a good chance at being Disney+’s Nova project. Moon Knight Sabir Pirzada is penning a story centered on the Human Rocket. Though it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not it’s a movie or a series, the plans for Nova line up with the earlier report that Marvel was developing a “space show” for Disney+. And with Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars likely being stories of cosmic proportions, it stands to reason that Marvel would want to introduce Nova first, possibly so that he can be a part of the team.
Spring 2025
With Marvel releasing a movie in February and another in May (Avengers: The Kang Dynasty), there’s little room for a film in Spring 2022, thus making a Disney+ show the best bet for this spot. At this point, there may not be any announced shows left to take it, so it may very well go to a rumored series or a continuation of an existing show. Of the new characters who could headline the series, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Hercules, and Black Knight are all MCU heroes who have the potential to lead their own Marvel shows. But there’s also the matter of Ghost Rider, an anti-hero who has been the subject of various MCU rumors for years. Ghost Rider is an incredibly popular character and definitively someone Marvel could be eyeing for a solo series in Phase 6.
Summer 2025
Since one of Marvel’s Summer 2025 releases is a movie, the other is most assuredly a Disney+ TV series. It’s possible that this project will be the culmination of everything that it’s been doing to build up the supernatural corner of the MCU. It’s not clear where it’s headed with characters like Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night, and Blade after their solo projects, but the answer to that question might be a small-screen team-up in the form of Midnight Sons. The three characters, and potentially others, could come together to combat a mystical threat while the Avengers are off fighting Kang.
July 25, 2025
There’s no shortage of movies that could take the July 25, 2025 slot, among them being Thor 5, X-Men, or even Doctor Strange 3, but perhaps the most likely option of them all is Deadpool 3. The others haven’t even been officially announced yet, whereas Deadpool 3 was confirmed back in 2019, with Feige later stating that it would indeed be an R-rated MCU release. Based on the fact that Deadpool 3 has been a long time coming, it could release ahead of the other MCU sequels as Marvel’s big summer blockbuster of 2025, sandwiched between Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars in MCU Phase 6. If so, the door would be open for Ryan Reynolds' character to play a role in the Secret Wars crossover movie and share interactions with other MCU heroes.
