Kevin Feige, the mastermind behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, announced a lot of exciting new projects at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Thanks to Marvel’s Hall H presentation, we now know that Phases 4-6 will collectively make up the Multiverse Saga, which will include movies and series like Thunderbolts and Daredevil. Most excitingly, MCU Phase 6 will culminate in Avengers 5 and 6, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. These two films will wrap up the multiversal chaos that’s been brewing since the events of Loki and Doctor Strange 2. But what comes after Phase 6? Will the MCU have a Phase 7?
Although very little information has been released yet, there is a mix of official announcements and plausible rumors that shed a little light on the question. What do we know so far? What’s fact and what’s probably fiction? Read on to find out!
Feige has planned the next 10 years of the MCU
Even before Comic-Con in July, Feige made some exciting announcements about the future of the MCU.
In April 2022, Feige attended CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where he announced that he and the rest of the creative team at Marvel Studios was going on a retreat to plan the next decade of Marvel projects. Feige told the audience that those projects “are different, and they’re unique, and they are special, and they are meant for your theaters.”
That means that Feige and his team have the MCU all planned out until at least 2032. The year 2032 might feel like a science fiction setting where people pilot flying cars across the moons of Jupiter, but it actually isn’t that far off. It feels like only yesterday that Iron Man came out, but that was 14 years ago.
Phase 6, the last phase in the Multiverse Saga, will end with Avengers 6: Secret Wars on November 7, 2025. With MCU phases getting shorter—Phase 6, as it’s currently planned, will be a little over one year long—that means that we could get several phases in the seven years between Secret Wars and whatever’s coming in 2032.
That means Marvel will definitely have a Phase 7. But what could be in it? Luckily, Feige threw fans a few morsels of information at Comic-Con.
Some MCU Phase 7 release dates are already set
After announcing all the projects in the Multiverse Saga, Feige revealed the release dates for four as-yet untitled Phase 7 projects: February 13, May 1, July 24, and November 6, 2026. But what could they be?
There’s a rumor on the Marvel Studios Spoilers Reddit that the untitled Phase 6 and 7 projects will be Shang-Chi 2, Deadpool 3, World War Hulk, Eternals 2, Thor 5, Doctor Strange 3, and Black Panther 3. Let me stress that these titles are just rumors, though. There’s no evidence for for them except a Reddit mod’s solemn promise that the information came from a “trusted source.”
Most of these rumored titles aren’t a huge surprise. We already know Deadpool 3 is coming, and the mid-credit scenes in Shang-Chi and Eternals hinted at sequels. More films in the Thor, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther franchises are also pretty likely. As for World War Hulk, a comic book storyline that involves the Illuminati and Sakaar, there’s been no news about that project yet, but there are a lot of murmurs that She-Hulk will set it up (especially with a Sakaarian spaceship making an appearance in at least one episode). Plus, Mark Ruffalo recently told Entertainment Tonight that if Marvel wants to do it, he’s in:
Of course, even if the rumor is true, it doesn’t tell us which of those projects will be in Phase 7. Remember that Phase 6 still has eight unnamed projects planned, and with Shang-Chi and Eternals having come out in 2021, fans would have to wait five years for their sequels if those films came out in Phase 7. It’s very likely that if all these sequels are coming, most of them will be in Phase 6.
In the meantime, though, if you were fretting that Marvel would run out of steam after the sprawling multiplatform superhero blitz that is the Multiverse Saga, don’t worry! The MCU will continue into Phase 7 and beyond.
(image: Marvel)
