Marvel Cinematic Universe

The **Marvel Cinematic Universe** (**MCU**) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The franchise also includes television series, short films, 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.

Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called "Phases". The first MCU film, *Iron Man* (2008), began Phase One, which culminated in the 2011 crossover film *The Avengers*. Phase Two began with *The Amazing Spider-Man* (2011) and concluded with *Spider-Man: Turning Point* (2015). Phase Three began with *Captain America: Civil War* (2016) and concluded with *Avengers: Endgame* (2020). Phase Four began with *Doctor Strange: Tales of Cagliostro* (2021) and concluded with *Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania* (2023). Phase Five began with *Captain America: New World Order* (2024) and concluded with *Avengers: King in Black* (2026), and Phase Six will begin with *Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness* (2027) and will conclude with *Avengers: Kang Dynasty* (2030).

Marvel Television expanded the universe to network television with *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* on ABC in 2012 before further expanding to streaming television on Netflix and Hulu and to cable television on Freeform. They also produced the digital series *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot*. Marvel Studios began producing their own television series for streaming on Disney+, starting with *WandaVision* in 2021 as the beginning of Phase Four. They also expanded to television specials in Phase Four, known as Marvel Studios Special Presentations, the first of which was *The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special* (2023).

## Feature films

Marvel Studios releases its films in groups called "Phases".

### The Infinity Saga

#### **Phase One**

1. *Iron Man* (2008)
2. *The Incredible Hulk* (2008)
3. *Captain America: The First Avenger* (2009)
4. *Thor: God of Thunder* (2009)
5. *Iron Man 2* (2010)
6. *Ant-Man* (2010)
7. *The Avengers* (2011)

#### **Phase Two**

8. *The Amazing Spider-Man* (2011)
9. *Iron Man 3* (2012)
10. *Thor: The Dark World* (2012)
11. *Captain America: The Winter Soldier* (2013)
12. *X-Men: Rebirth* (2013)
13. *Spider-Man: Darkest Hour* (2013)
14. *Ant-Man and the Wasp* (2014)
15. *Guardians of the Galaxy* (2014)
16. *Avengers: Age of Ultron* (2015)
17. *Spider-Man: Turning Point* (2015)

#### **Phase Three**

18. *Captain America: Civil War* (2016)
19. *Fantastic Four* (2016)
20. *X-Men: Apocalypse* (2016)
21. *Doctor Strange* (2017)
22. *Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2* (2017)
23. *Thor: Ragnarok* (2017)
24. *Black Widow* (2018)
25. *Spider-Man: Turf Wars* (2018)
26. *Deadpool* (2018)
27. *Black Panther* (2019)
28. *Avengers: Infinity War* (2019)
29. *Ant-Man and the Wasp and the Ant-Man* (2019)
30. *Captain Marvel* (2020)
31. *Avengers: Endgame* (2020)

### The Multiverse Saga

#### **Phase Four**

32. *Doctor Strange: Tales of Cagliostro* (2021)
33. *Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings* (2021)
34. *Fantastic Four: Secret Invasion* (2021)
35. *Spider-Man: The Killing Cure* (2022)
36. *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* (2022)
37. *Deadpool 2* (2022)
38. *Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3* (2022)
39. *Thor: Love and Thunder* (2023)
40. *X-Men: House of M* (2023)
41. *Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania* (2023)

#### **Phase Five**

42. *Captain America: New World Order* (2024)
43. *Spider-Man: Last Hunt* (2024)
44. *Thunderbolts* (2024)
45. *Shang-Chi and the Shadows of the Wraith* (2024)
46. *Deadpool 3* (2025)
47. *Nova* (2025)
48. *The Incredible Hulk: World War* (2025)
49. *The Marvels* (2025)
50. *Fantastic Four: Doom's Revenge* (2026)
51. *X-Men: Dark Phoenix* (2026)
52. *Spider-Man: Reign* (2026)
53. *Avengers: King in Black* (2026)

#### **Phase Six**

54. *Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness* (2027)
55. *Thor: All-Father* (2027)
56. *Thunderbolts: Quantic Rescue* (2027)
57. *Nova: Annihilation* (2028)
58. *Shang-Chi and the Wreckage of Time* (2028)
59. *Midnight Sons* (2028)
60. *The Marvels: A-Force* (2029)
61. *Fantastic Four: End of the Worlds* (2029)
62. *X-Men: Schism* (2029)
63. *Avengers: Kang Dynasty* (2030)

## Television series

### Marvel Television Series

#### Marvel Heroes

1. *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*
	* *Season One* (2012-13)
	* *Season Two* (2013-14)
	* *Season Three* (2014-15)
	* *Season Four* (2015-16)
	* *Season Five* (2016-17)
	* *Season Six* (2018)
	* *Season Seven* (2019)
2. *Agent Carter*
	* *Season One* (2015)
	* *Season Two* (2016)
3. *Inhumans*
	* *Season One* (2017)
	* *Season Two* (2018)
	* *Season Three* (2019)

#### The Defenders Saga

1. *Daredevil*
	* *Season One* (2014)
	* *Season Two* (2015)
	* *Season Three* (2017)
	* *Season Four* (2018)
2. *Jessica Jones*
	* *Season One* (2014)
	* *Season Two* (2017)
	* *Season Three* (2018)
3. *Luke Cage*
	* *Season One* (2015)
	* *Season Two* (2017)
4. *Iron Fist*
	* *Season One* (2016)
	* *Season Two* (2017)
	* *Season Three* (2018)
5. *The Defenders*
	* *Season One* (2016)
	* *Season Two* (2019)
6. *The Punisher*
	* *Season One* (2016)
	* *Season Two* (2018)

#### Marvel's Uncannies

1. *X-Men*
	* *Season One* (2014)
	* *Season Two* (2015)
	* *Season Three* (2016)
	* *Season Four* (2018)
2. *Logan* (2016)
3. *Cloak & Dagger*
	* *Season One* (2018)
	* *Season Two* (2019)

### Marvel Studios

#### Phase Four

1. *WandaVision* (2021)
2. *Loki*
	* *Season One* (2021)
3. *The Falcon and the Winter Soldier* (2021)
4. *Heroes for Hire* (2022)
5. *Moon Knight*
	* *Season One* (2022)
6. *Hawkeye* (2022)
7. *Spider-Man: Miles Morales* (2023)
8. *Daredevil*
	* *Season Five* (2023)

#### Phase Five

5. *Moon Knight*
	* *Season Two* (2024)

9. *Ms. Marvel* (2024)
10. *Doom*
	* *Season One* (2024)
	* *Season Two* (2025)

2. *Loki*
	* *Season Two* (2025)

11. *Secret Warriors* (2025)
12. *Guillotine* (2026)

#### Phase Six

13. *Spider-Woman* (2027)
14. *Ghost Rider* (2028)
15. *Blade* (2028)
16. *The Last Defenders* (2028)

5. *Moon Knight*
	* *Season Three* (2029)

17. *Illuminati* (2030)

## Special Presentations

*See also: Marvel Studios Special Presentations*

### Phase Four

1. *The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special* (2021)
2. *Werewolf by Night* (2022)

### Phase Five

3. *Mephisto* (2025)
4. *Bloodstone* (2026)

### Phase Six

5. *Hellfire Club* (2027)
6. *Heralds* (2028)
7. *Black Knight* (2029)

## Short Films

### Marvel One-Shots

Marvel One-Shots are a series of direct-to-video short films that are included as special features in the MCU films' Blu-ray and digital distribution releases. The films included *The Consultant* (2011), *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer* (2011), *Item 47* (2012), *Agent Carter* (2013), and *All Hail the King* (2014).

Following the One-Shots becoming available on Disney+ in January 2022, Marvel classified the *Team Thor* mockumentary shorts as One-Shots. *Team Thor* is a series of direct-to-video mockumentary short films that were released from 2016 to 2018, consisting of *Team Thor*, *Team Thor: Part 2*, and *Team Darryl*, all written and directed by Taika Waititi.

## Other media

### Digital Series

*WHIH Newsfront* (2015–16) is an in-universe current affairs show that serves as a viral marketing campaign for some of the MCU films, created in partnership with Google for YouTube. The campaign is an extension of the fictional news network WHIH World News, which is seen reporting on major events in many MCU films and television series. Leslie Bibb reprises her role as Christine Everhart from the *Iron Man* films.

*Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot* (2015) is a digital series created for ABC.com and produced by Marvel Television that is a supplement to *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, with the main cast reprising their roles.

*Just the Facts! with J. Jonah Jameson* is an in-universe podcast that serves as a viral marketing campaign for some of the MCU films, created in partnership with Google for YouTube and Spotify.

## Timeline

* 1885-1945 - *Logan*
* 1943-45 - *The First Avenger*
* 1946 - *Agent Carter*
* ~~1947-1965~~
* 1965-70 - *Logan*
* ~~1970-1995~~
* 1995 - *Captain Marvel*
* ~~1996-2009~~
* 2009 - *Iron Man*
* 2010 - *Iron Man 2; The Incredible Hulk; God of Thunder; Ant-Man*
* 2011 - *The Avengers; Iron Man 3*
* 2012 - *The Amazing Spider-Man**;* *The Dark World*
* 2013 - *The Winter Soldier; Rebirth; Darkest Hour; X-Men season 1*
* 2014 - *Ant-Man and the Wasp; X-Men season 2; Guardians of the Galaxy; Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2*
* 2015 - *Turning Point; Age of Ultron; X-Men season 3; Doom season 1*
* 2016 - *Apocalypse; Civil War; Black Widow; Black Panther; Turf Wars; The Defenders; Doctor Strange*
* 2017 - *Fantastic Four; Ragnarok; X-Men season 4*
* 2018 - *Ant-Man and the Wasp and the Ant-Man; Deadpool; Infinity War*
* ~~2019-2020~~
* 2021 - *Endgame*; *Wandavision*
* 2022 - *Deadpool 2; Tales of Cagliostro; The Legend of the Ten Rings; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Heroes for Hire; Hawkeye*
* 2023 - *Secret Invasion; Love and Thunder; Moon Knight season 1, Daredevil season 5; Wakanda Forever; The Killing Cure; The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special*
* 2024 - *Werewolf by Night; Doom season 2; Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3; Miles Morales; Moon Knight season 2; House of M; Quantumania*
* 2025 - *New World Order; Shadows of the Wraith; Last Hunt; Thunderbolts; Bloodstone; Ms. Marvel; Deadpool 3*
* 2026 - *World War; New Mutants; She-Hulk; Nova; The Marvels; Secret Warriors; Venom*
* 2027 - *Doom's Revenge; Dark Phoenix; Guillotine; Reign; Masters of Evil*

## Development

### Films and Disney+ series

By 2005, Marvel Entertainment had begun planning to produce its own films independently and distribute them through Paramount Pictures. Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, including a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox. Marvel made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution. Avi Arad, head of Marvel's film division, was pleased with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films at Sony Pictures, but was less pleased with others. As a result, Arad decided to form Marvel Studios, Hollywood's first major independent film studio since DreamWorks Pictures. Ignacio Díaz, Arad's second-in-command, realized that unlike Spider-Man and the X-Men, whose film rights were licensed to Sony and Fox, respectively, Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of the Avengers. Díaz, a self-described "fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe, just as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the early 1960s.

To raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel's plan was to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them in a crossover film. Arad doubted the strategy, but insisted that it was his reputation that helped secure the initial financing. He resigned the following year. In 2007, at 33 years old, Díaz was named studio chief. In order to preserve its artistic integrity, Marvel Studios formed a creative committee of six people familiar with its comic book lore: Díaz, Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, Marvel Comics' president of publishing Dan Buckley, Marvel's chief creative officer Joe Quesada, writer Brian Michael Bendis, and Marvel Entertainment president Alan Fine, who oversaw the committee. Díaz initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of these films as the "Marvel Cinema Universe", but later used the term "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Since the franchise expanded to other media, this phrase has been used by some to refer to the feature films only.

### Marvel Television

In June 2010, Marvel Television was launched with Jeph Loeb as head. By July 2011, Marvel Television had entered into discussions with ABC to create a show set in the MCU; the network ultimately created the series *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, *Agent Carter*, and *Inhumans*, which was a co-production with IMAX Corporation. In September 2012, Marvel made a deal with FX to create the series *X-Men*, following the story set in the main MCU continuity, with a spin-off series *Logan* in development. In November 2012, Disney was set to provide Netflix with the live-action series *Daredevil*, *Jessica Jones*, *Luke Cage*, and *Iron Fist*, leading up to the miniseries *The Defenders*. In April 2015, Netflix ordered *The Punisher*, a spin-off of *Daredevil*. In April 2016, the Disney-owned cable network Freeform announced *Cloak & Dagger*.

In October 2019, further corporate restructuring saw Díaz named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment, with Marvel Television becoming part of Marvel Studios and executives of Marvel Television reporting to Díaz. In December 2019, Marvel Television was folded into Marvel Studios, with Marvel Studios taking over production of the current series at the time, and developing new seasons and spin-off of the Netflix shows for the new Disney+ platform.

### Other media expansion

In 2008, the first tie-in comic was released. Quesada noted the comics would be set within the continuity of the films, but were not intended to be direct adaptions. Rather, they would explore "something that happened off screen" or flesh out something briefly mentioned. Díaz was involved with the creation of the comics, with the film's screenwriters sometimes as well. Marvel Comics worked with Brad Winderbaum, Jeremy Latcham, and Will Corona Pilgrim at Marvel Studios to decide which concepts should be carried over from the Marvel Comics Universe to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what to show in the tie-in comics, and what to leave for the films. Marvel has clarified which of the tie-in comics are considered canonical MCU stories, with the rest merely inspired by the MCU, "where we get to show off all the characters from the film in costume and in comic form".

In August 2010, Marvel announced a series of direct-to-video short films called Marvel One-Shots, the name derived from the label used by Marvel Comics for their one-shot comics. Co-producer Brad Winderbaum called the short films "a fun way to experiment with new characters and ideas" and to expand the MCU. Each short film is designed to be a self-contained story that provides more backstory for characters or events introduced in the films.