Marvel Quietly Dropped a 2027 Release Date & It Breaks an MCU Record

Marvel Studios finds itself in a state of flux, with the MCU‘s future less certain than ever before. Once upon a time, Disney’s superhero machine seemed unbeatable. Like Thanos, it was inevitable. But the cracks have started to show in recent years, as things have moved on from the Infinity Saga and into the more muddled Multiverse Saga. The veneer of invincibility has been shattered, both with critics and at the box office: seven of the MCU’s 10 lowest-grossing movies have been released post-Avengers: Endgame, and its five worst-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes have also arrived in that same time.

Perhaps unavoidably, the MCU is going back to its past in order to save its future, with Robert Downey Jr. and several other familiar faces, from across the spectrum of Marvel movies, returning for Avengers: Doomsday. But even with that, things look notably different. While 2025 has seen three MCU movies released, there are only two next year: Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Doomsday. And then in 2027, there’s only one: Avengers: Secret Wars. There were supposed to be more, but Disney recently removed an untitled Marvel movie from the July 23rd, 2027 release date, giving that slot to The Simpsons Movie sequel instead. Given nothing had been announced, that’s not too surprising, but it does ensure a record for Phase 6.

Phase 6 Is Marvel’s Smallest Ever… And Yet Might Also Be Its Biggest

Marvel’s Phase 6 is expected to end with Secret Wars. That movie will seemingly reset the MCU to some degree, and so it’s a natural endpoint for not only the latest Phase, but the entire Multiverse Saga. But that means this will stand as the smallest of the MCU’s Phases in terms of the number of movies released, by a considerable distance. It’s made up of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Brand New Day, Doomsday, and Secret Wars. There are no more release dates, and it now seems very unlikely any will be added, so it’s now guaranteed to break the record.

Of course, the MCU no longer solely exists as a movie franchise: it’s about the Disney+ TV shows as well. And there are plenty of those in Phase 6, including Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (and, depending on schedules, Season 3), Vision Quest, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2, and likely another season for X-Men ’97, as well as The Punisher’s Special Presentation. That’s more in line with Phases 4 and 5 than the movie side of things, despite a planned slowdown in terms of streaming.

There’s also a sense in which, despite having just four movies, this is the MCU’s biggest Phase yet in terms of scope, purely thanks to Doomsday and Secret Wars. There are already more than two dozen actors confirmed for the former, and that’s without several major MCU mainstays, like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, and Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel. There are also expected to be more cameos in those movies, too, that haven’t been announced, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The cast list and sheer scale could make even Infinity War and Endgame look small by comparison.

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It’s also worth noting that a smaller, in terms of releases, Phase 6 is not an inherently bad thing. With the sheer volume of MCU movies and TV shows, it has reached a point of oversaturation, and there’s little to suggest the old model of three releases per year, which the MCU shifted to in 2017 and largely stuck with (though 2024 only had one), is the best approach in terms of both quality and box office.

Having a year gap between Doomsday and Secret Wars, with no other MCU movie in between, could actually build more hype for the latter and make it feel like an even bigger event. Marvel’s focus needs to be on quality, not quantity, and while this doesn’t immediately ensure that, it is a step towards it.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be released on July 31st, 2026. Avengers: Doomsday releases on December 18th, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17th, 2027.

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