List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films are a series of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films are set. The films have been in production since 2007, and in that time Marvel Studios has produced and released 23 films, with at least 14 more in various stages of development. It is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $22.5 billion at the global box office. This includes Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time.

Kevin Feige has produced every film in the series, alongside Avi Arad for the first two releases, Gale Anne Hurd for The Incredible Hulk, Amy Pascal for the Spider-Man films, and Stephen Broussard for Ant-Man and the Wasp. The films are written and directed by a variety of individuals and feature large, often ensemble, casts. Many of the actors, including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner signed contracts to star in numerous films.

Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called “Phases”. Their first film is Iron Man (2008), which was distributed by Paramount Pictures. Paramount also distributed Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), while Universal Pictures distributed The Incredible Hulk (2008). Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures began distributing the series with the crossover film The Avengers (2012), which concluded Phase One. Phase Two comprises Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Ant-Man (2015).

Captain America: Civil War (2016) is the first film of Phase Three, and is followed by Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The first three phases are collectively known as “The Infinity Saga”. The Spider-Man films are owned, financed, and distributed by Sony Pictures.

Phase Four will include Black Widow (2021), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Eternals (2021), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Black Panther II (2022), Captain Marvel 2 (2022), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), and Fantastic Four. The phase will feature these films, as well as twelve announced television event series and one special for the streaming service Disney+. Three additional films for 2023 are also in development.

Films

The Infinity Saga

The films from Phase One through Phase Three are collectively known as “The Infinity Saga”.

Upcoming

Future

At any given time, Marvel Studios has future films planned five-to-six years out from what they have announced. By April 2014, additional storylines were planned through 2028, resulting in many films “on the docket that are completely different from anything that’s come before—intentionally.” Disney has scheduled additional release dates for untitled Marvel Studios films on October 7, 2022, and on February 17, May 5, July 28, and November 3, 2023.

Blade

By May 2013, Marvel Studios had a working script for a new Blade film after regaining the rights following New Line Cinema’s prior film series. In February 2019, Mahershala Ali approached Marvel Studios about starring in a new film after previously portraying Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in Marvel Television’s Luke Cage. Kevin Feige officially announced the film with Ali in the title role at the July 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. In February 2021, Stacy Osei-Kuffour was hired to write the film. Blade will be released in a future MCU phase.

Untitled Deadpool film

After the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was announced in December 2017, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Ryan Reynolds would reprise his role as Wade Wilson / Deadpool from 20th Century Fox’s X-Men films Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018), with the R-rated films and character being integrated with the PG-13 rated MCU under Disney. By December 2019, Reynolds confirmed a third Deadpool film was in development at Marvel Studios, with Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin writing the film by November 2020, when Reynolds’ involvement and the film’s R-rating were confirmed. In January 2021, Feige confirmed the film’s MCU setting, with filming expected to begin after 2021.

Untitled mutant-centered film

At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Feige announced Marvel Studios was developing a film for mutants, which include X-Men, and said those terms are interchangeable and that the MCU depiction would differ from 20th Century Fox’s film series.

Recurring cast and characters

List indicator(s)

This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in films in multiple phases within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and have appeared in the billing block for at least two of them (see FAQ).

• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character’s presence has not yet been confirmed.
• A ^C indicates an uncredited cameo role.
• An ^MS indicates the character appears in a Marvel Studios television series.
• A ^V indicates a voice-only role.

Release

Home media

In June 2012, Marvel announced a 10-disc box set titled “Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled”, for release on September 25, 2012. The box set includes all six of the Phase One films—Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers—on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D, in a replica of Nick Fury’s briefcase from The Avengers. In August 2012, luggage company Rimowa GmbH, who developed the briefcase for The Avengers, filed suit against Marvel Studios and Buena Vista Home Entertainment in U.S. federal court, complaining that “Marvel did not obtain any license or authorization from Rimowa to make replica copies of the cases for any purpose.” The set was delayed to early 2013 for the packaging to be redesigned. The box set, with a redesigned case, was released on April 2, 2013. In addition, the box set included a featurette on the then-upcoming Phase Two films, showing footage and concept art, as well as previously unreleased deleted scenes from all of the Phase One films.

In July 2015, Marvel announced a 13-disc box set titled “Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two Collection”, for release on December 8, 2015, exclusive to Amazon.com. The box set includes all six of the Phase Two films—Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man—on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and a digital copy, in a replica of the Orb from Guardians of the Galaxy, plus a bonus disc and exclusive memorabilia. Material on the bonus disc includes all of the Marvel One-Shots with commentary, deleted scenes and pre-production creative features for each of the films, featurettes on the making of the post-credit scenes for the films, and first looks at Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

In September 2019, Feige indicated a box set with all 23 films of The Infinity Saga would be released, with the set including previously unreleased deleted scenes and other footage, such as an alternate take of the Nick Fury post-credits scene from Iron Man which references Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the X-Men. The box set, featuring all 23 films on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray, a bonus disc, a letter from Feige, and a lithograph art piece by Matt Ferguson, was released on November 15, 2019, exclusively at Best Buy.

IMAX 10th anniversary festival

From August 30 to September 6, 2018, in conjunction with Marvel Studios’ 10 year anniversary celebrations, all 20 films released at the time (Iron Man through Ant-Man and the Wasp) were screened in IMAX. The films were shown in release order, with four films per day. The final days of the festival were theme related, with one showing “origin” films (Iron Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange), one showing “team-ups” (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Captain America: Civil War, The Avengers, and Avengers: Infinity War), and the final day showing Iron Man and The Avengers as chosen by the fans via a Twitter poll. The festival also saw Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America: The First Avenger released in IMAX for the first time.

Reception

Box office performance

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time worldwide, both unadjusted and adjusted-for-inflation, having grossed over $22.5 billion at the global box office. Several of its sub series such as the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor film series are among the most successful film series of all time.

Critical and public response

Repurposed projects

These projects were in development as films from Marvel Studios before becoming television series under Marvel Television:

• Inhumans: In April 2013, Feige mentioned the Inhumans as a property out of which he was “confident” a film would be made. Inhumans as a concept would first be introduced to the MCU in 2014 through the second season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. By August 2014, the studio was ready to move forward in development with the film, with a screenplay written by Joe Robert Cole. In October 2014, the film was announced for Phase Three and scheduled for release July 2019. By October 2015, Cole was no longer involved with the film and any potential drafts that he may have written would not be used. In April 2016, Inhumans was removed from the release schedule, and would no longer be a part of Phase Three. In July 2016, Feige said Inhumans would “certainly” be a part of the discussion regarding the film ideas for 2020 and 2021, adding the following November that he was still optimistic the film could be released in Phase Four. In November 2016, Marvel Television announced the series Marvel’s Inhumans, which premiered on ABC in September 2017, after the first two episodes were screened in IMAX. The series was not intended to be a reworking of the film. ABC canceled Inhumans after one season in May 2018.
• Runaways: A film based on the Runaways went through a number of iterations. Brian K. Vaughan was originally hired to write a screenplay based on the property in May 2008. In April 2010, Marvel hired Peter Sollett to direct the film, and Drew Pearce was hired to write a script in May. The following October, development on the film was put on hold, with Pearce revealing in September 2013 that the Runaways film had been shelved in favor of The Avengers, with the earliest it could release being Phase Three. In October 2014, after announcing all of Marvel’s Phase Three films without Runaways, Feige stated the project was “still an awesome script that exists in our script vault”, adding, “We’d love to do something with Runaways some day. In our television and future film discussions, it’s always one that we talk about, because we have a solid draft there. But again, we can’t make them all.” In August 2016, Marvel Television announced Marvel’s Runaways from the streaming service Hulu, with the series receiving a full season order in May 2017. It premiered in November 2017. Hulu announced in November 2019 that the third season of Runaways would be its last.