Marvel Cinematic Universe

The **Marvel Cinematic Universe** (**MCU**) is an American media franchise. It is set in a fictional universe with the setting of several superhero movies and television shows made by Marvel Studios, based on characters by Marvel Comics. This shared universe was shown in the movies by using the same characters or mentioning the same events. For example, Tony Stark appears at the end of _The Incredible Hulk_ (2008), even though he has nothing to do with the rest of the story. This is the same way that the comic books were linked into the same universe. The franchise also includes television series, short movies, digital series, and literature. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.

The franchise has been commercially successful, becoming the highest-grossing franchise of all time, and has generally received a positive critical response. It has inspired other movie and television studios with comic book character adaptation rights to attempt to create similar shared universes. The MCU has been the focus of other media, outside of the shared universe, including attractions at various Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, an attraction at Discovery Times Square, a Queensland Gallery of Modern Art exhibit, television specials, guidebooks for each movie, multiple tie-in video games, and commercials.

## Movies

The movies in the MCU are organized in sections called Phases. Phase One began in 2008 with the release of _Iron Man_ and ended in 2012 with the release of _The Avengers_. Phase Two began in 2013 with the release of _Iron Man 3_ and ended in 2015 with the release of _Ant-Man_. Phase Three began in 2016 with the release of _Captain America: Civil War_ and ended in 2019 with the release of _Spider-Man: Far From Home_. The first of the three phases in the franchise are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga".

Phase Four began with the release of _Black Widow_ in 2021 and ended with the release of _Black Panther: Wakanda Forever_ in 2022. Phase Five began with _Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania_ in 2023 and ended with the release of _Thunderbolts*_ in 2025. Phase Six began with _The Fantastic Four: First Steps_ in 2025 and will end with the release of _Avengers: Secret Wars_ in 2027. The second of the three phases are collectively known as "The Multiverse Saga".

## TV series and specials

Marvel Television expanded the universe to network television with _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ on ABC in 2013, followed by streaming television with _Daredevil_ on Netflix in 2015 and _Runaways_ on Hulu in 2017, and cable television with _Cloak & Dagger_ on Freeform in 2018. Marvel Television produced the digital series _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot_. Marvel Studios themselves expanded to streaming with Disney+, starting with _WandaVision_ in 2021 as the beginning of Phase Four. They also produced television specials known as Marvel Studios Special Presentations, starting with _Werewolf by Night _(2022) in Phase Four. Soundtrack albums have been released for all the movies and many of the television series, as well as compilation albums containing existing music heard in the movies. The MCU includes tie-in comics published by Marvel Comics, while Marvel Studios has produced a series of direct-to-video short movies, called Marvel One-Shots, and a viral marketing campaign for its movies and the universe with the faux news program WHIH Newsfront.

## Shorts

|Movie|U.S. release date|Director|Screenwriter|Producer|Home media release||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_The Consultant_|September 13, 2011|rowspan="2"|Leythum|rowspan="4"|Eric Pearson|rowspan="8"|Kevin Feige|_Thor_|
|_A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer_|October 25, 2011|_Captain America: The First Avenger_|||||||
|_Item 47_|September 25, 2012|rowspan="2"|Louis D'Esposito|_Marvel's The Avengers_|||||
|_Agent Carter_|September 3, 2013 (digital) September 24, 2013 (physical)|_Iron Man 3_|||||||
|_All Hail the King_|February 4, 2014 (digital) February 25, 2014 (physical)|colspan="2"|Drew Pearce|_Thor: The Dark World_|||||
|_Team Thor_|August 28, 2016 (digital) September 13, 2016 (physical)|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Taika Waititi|_Captain America: Civil War_|||||
|_Team Thor: Part 2_|February 14, 2017 (digital) February 28, 2017 (physical)|_Doctor Strange_|||||||
|_Team Darryl_|February 20, 2018 (digital) March 6, 2018 (physical)|_Thor: Ragnarok_|||||||
|_Peter's To-Do List_|September 17, 2019 (digital) October 1, 2019 (physical)|Jon Watts|Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers|Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal|_Spider-Man: Far From Home_||||

## Web series

|Web Series|Season|Episodes|Air Dates||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="2"|_WHIH Newsfront_|1|5|July 2, 2015 - July 16, 2015|
|2|5|April 22, 2016 - May 3, 2016|||
|_Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot_|1|6|December 13, 2016||

## Recurring cast and characters

**List indicator(s)**

This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least three MCU movies/series and received main billing credit in at least two franchises.

- An empty grey cell indicates the character was not in the media, or that the character's presence has not yet been confirmed.

- A <sup>P</sup> indicates an appearance in onscreen photographs.
- A <sup>V</sup> indicates a voice-only role.

|Character|Feature movies|Television series and specials|Short movies|Digital series|Animation|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|colspan="2"|Florence Kasumba|||||
|Edward Norton Lou Ferrigno<sup>V</sup>|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Mark Ruffalo||||
|rowspan="2"|Mark Ruffalo|||||
|Mark Ruffalo||||||
|colspan="2"|Sebastian Stan|||||
|Sebastian Stan||||||
|colspan="2"|Jeremy Renner|||||
|Jeremy Renner||||||
|colspan="2"|Linda Cardellini|||||
|colspan="2"|Florence Pugh|||||
|Florence Pugh||||||
|colspan="2"|Hailee Steinfeld|||||
|Hailee Steinfeld||||||
|colspan="2"|Tim Roth|||||
|Mike Colter||||||
|colspan="3"|Hayley Atwell|||||
|Hayley Atwell||||||
|colspan="2"|Emily VanCamp|||||
|Emily VanCamp||||||
|colspan="2"|John Bernthal|||||
|colspan="5"|Clark Gregg|||||
|colspan="2"|Brie Larson|||||
|Alexandra Daniels||||||
|colspan="2"|Dave Bautista|||||
|Fred Tatasciore||||||
|Evangeline Lilly||||||
|Evangeline Lilly||||||
|Vincent D'Onofrio||||||
|colspan="2"|Julia Louis-Dreyfus|||||
|colspan="2"|Samuel L. Jackson|||||
|Samuel L. Jackson||||||
|colspan="2"|Zoe Saldaña|||||
|Cynthia McWilliams||||||
|Ebon Moss-Bachrach||||||
|colspan="3"|Vin Diesel<sup>V</sup>|||||
|Fred Tatasciore||||||
|Sam Rockwell||||||
|Sam Rockwell||||||
|Sam Rockwell||||||
|Kathryn Hahn||||||
|Kathryn Hahn||||||
|Idris Elba||||||
|Idris Elba||||||
|colspan="2"|Cobie Smulders|||||
|Cobie Smulders||||||
|Jon Favreau||||||
|Jon Favreau||||||
|Paul Bettany James D'Arcy|James D'Arcy|||||
|James D'Arcy||||||
|Krysten Ritter||||||
|colspan="2"|Iman Vellani|||||
|Iman Vellani||||||
|colspan="2"|Mohan Kapur|||||
|Simone Missick||||||
|Djimon Hounsou||||||
|Djimon Hounsou||||||
|Paul Rudd||||||
|colspan="2"|Paul Rudd|||||
|colspan="2"|Kat Dennings|||||
|Kat Dennings||||||
|colspan="2"|Tom Hiddleston|||||
|Tom Hiddleston||||||
|colspan="2"|Pom Klementieff|||||
|colspan="2"|Elizabeth Olsen|||||
|Elizabeth Olsen||||||
|Winston Duke||||||
|colspan="2"|Charlie Cox|||||
|Charlie Cox||||||
|colspan="2"|Karen Gillan|||||
|Karen Gillan||||||
|Elden Henson||||||
|colspan="2"|Sean Gunn|||||
|Sean Gunn||||||
|colspan="2"|Danai Gurira|||||
|Danai Gurira||||||
|Deborah Ann Woll||||||
|Marisa Tomei||||||
|Kari Wahlgren||||||
|Tom Holland||||||
|Tom Holland|Hudson Thames|||||
|Gwyneth Paltrow||||||
|Beth Hoyt||||||
|Michael Douglas||||||
|Michael Douglas||||||
|colspan="2"|Chris Pratt|||||
|Brian T. Delaney||||||
|Akira Akbar|rowspan="2"|Teyonah Parris||||
|rowspan="2"|Teyonah Parris|||||
|Teyonah Parris||||||
|Angela Bassett||||||
|Angela Bassett||||||
|Finn Jones||||||
|Terrence Howard|rowspan="2"|Don Cheadle||||
|rowspan="2"|Don Cheadle|||||
|Don Cheadle||||||
|Pedro Pascal||||||
|colspan="3"|Bradley Cooper<sup>V</sup>|||||
|Chris Evans||||||
|Josh Keaton||||||
|Scarlett Johansson||||||
|Lake Bell||||||
|colspan="2"|Martin Freeman|||||
|William Hurt||||||
|rowspan="2"|Mike McGill|||||
|Harrison Ford||||||
|Stellan Skarsgård||||||
|David Harbour||||||
|David Harbour||||||
|Letitia Wright||||||
|Ozioma Akagha||||||
|colspan="3"|Ben Kingsley|||||
|Gerard Sanders<sup>P</sup>|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Dominic Cooper||||
|Dominic Cooper||||||
|John Slattery|rowspan="2"|John Slattery||||
|Dominic Cooper||||||
|Robert Downey, Jr.||||||
|Mick Wingert||||||
|Hannah John-Kamen||||||
|Joseph Quinn||||||
|Vanessa Kirby||||||
|Benedict Cumberbatch||||||
|Benedict Cumberbatch||||||
|colspan="2"|Ben Mendelsohn|||||
|Chadwick Boseman||||||
|Chadwick Boseman||||||
|Rosario Dawson||||||
|Chris Hemsworth||||||
|Chris Hemsworth||||||
|Chris Hemsworth||||||
|colspan="2"|Danny Ramirez|||||
|James Spader|rowspan="2"|James Spader||||
|rowspan="2"|Ross Marquand|||||
|Ross Marquand||||||
|Tessa Thompson||||||
|Tessa Thompson||||||
|colspan="2"|Paul Bettany|||||
|Paul Bettany||||||
|colspan="2"|Wyatt Russell|||||
|Wyatt Russell||||||
|colspan="2"|Dominique Thorne|||||
|Dominique Thorne||||||
|colspan="2"|Anthony Mackie|||||
|Anthony Mackie||||||
|Jessica Henwick||||||
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Benedict Wong|||||
|Benedict Wong||||||
|David Chen||||||
|colspan="2"|Randall Park|||||
|Randall Park||||||

## Notes

1. Zak Penn was the first screenwriter of _The Incredible Hulk_. Edward Norton re-wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym "Edward Harrison". Both drafts were sent to the Writers Guild of America, who ultimately gave sole credit to Penn based on the final cut of the movie.

## Infobox (media franchise)

- **italic title**: no
- **image**: File:Marvel Cinematic Universe logo.png
- **creator**: Marvel Studios
- **origin**: _Iron Man (movie), Iron Man_ (2008)
- **owner**: The Walt Disney Company
- **years**: 2008–2080
- **books**: Marvel Cinematic Universe books
- **comics**: Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in comics, Marvel Cinematic Universe
tie-in comics
- **movies**: #Movies, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies
- **shorts**: Marvel One-Shots
- **tv series**: #TV series and specials, Marvel Cinematic Universe television series
- **web series**: Marvel Cinematic Universe digital series
- **tv specials**: Marvel Studios Special Presentations
- **musicals**: _Rogers: The Musical_
- **games**: Marvel Cinematic Universe game tie-ins
- **video games**: Marvel Cinematic Universe video game tie-ins
- **music**: Music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- **attractions**: Marvel-themed attractions