Avengers: Secret Wars Might Not Be the Secret Wars You Want

It took a massive Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con to make it happen, but finally, Marvel Studios has made Avengers: Secret Wars official. When all is said and done, Secret Wars will be the sixth film in the Avengers franchise and may ultimately be the largest film Marvel Studios has ever made. Even then, it may not be the exact movie most fans of the franchise currently expect.

While most MCU fans associated the name Secret Wars with Marvel's massive 2015 comic event donning the name, the publisher first used it in a pair of limited series in the mid-1980's. At that time, the House of Ideas had gotten into a partnership with Kenner to make action figures based on a big event and the end result was the original Secret Wars event, which featured more of a "Contest of Champions" vibe than a multiversal story.

In fact, the original Secret Wars story is the one Joe and Anthony Russo always reference when asked what Marvel story they'd like to tackle next. While Marvel Studios has named Destin Daniel Cretton as the helmer of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Secret Wars is still without a filmmaker in the directors chair.

In the original series, a cosmic character named The Beyonder pulls all of the universe's heroes and villains to a newly created world called Battleworld, forcing them to fight with each other.

If you're expecting to see a cameo-packed feature, Avengers: Secret Wars might not be it, save for a major name the studio would likely cast as the Beyonder. We previously wrote how the film is likely to be more of a direct sequel to Marvel's Fantastic Four reboot and if it's not that, it stands to reason the Kevin Feige-led outfit will use an amalgamation of both Secret Wars comic events.

The release of the film is just over three years away, and there seems to be little bandwidth to make to film as large as something like Avengers: Endgame, a spectacle that took over 10 years to craft. On top of that all, Feige himself has even said the Avengers film doesn't need to be larger than previous entries in the franchise.

Avengers: Secret Wars hits theaters on November 7, 2025.

What characters or actors do you want to see appear in Secret Wars? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!