Marvel Cinematic Universe
| |
| Marvel Cinematic Universe | |
| Developer | Marvel Studios |
|---|---|
| Publisher | The Walt Disney Company |
| Platforms | As noted below |
| Released | 2008-present |
| Added to Museum |
As noted below |
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American multimedia series by Marvel Entertainment that is spearheaded by films and television shows created by Marvel Studios. It also includes comics, music, books, toys, and video games.
History
In 1996, Marvel Enterprises went bankrupt. To save the company, the film rights to its most popular characters, including Blade, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Hulk, the Punisher, Spider-Man, X-Men, and other lesser-known characters were sold to various film studios at relatively low prices.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, films were created using these characters. They were ostensibly overseen by Marvel Studios. However, the film studios were given ultimate control of the plot and how the characters were portrayed, to varying results.
After several poorly received films, Marvel Studios opted to create their own film projects rather than outsourcing them. Thus, they could control the plot and portrayal of the Marvel Comics characters for which they retained the film rights.
These films would all be connected in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, were released in 2008. Nick Fury appeared in a post-credits scene in the former, teasing The Avengers, which was released four years later. Tie-in video games were released alongside the films along with comics set in the MCU that featured the characters that appeared in the films.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was expanded into television with the formation of the Marvel Television division in 2010 and the premiere of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2013. Marvel Television continued to release television projects set in the MCU until it closed in 2019. After its closure, television series set in the MCU were handled by Marvel Studios. The final Marvel Television series was Helstrom. It was released in 2020, a year after the closure of the television division.
Releases
Phase One
Phase One, also known as Avengers Assemble, is the first third of the Infinity Saga. Nick Fury gathers Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, and Captain America and unites them as The Avengers to stop Loki from using the Chitauri army and space stone within a scepter given to him by Thanos to conquer the Earth in an event known as the Battle of New York.
Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man | Marvel Studios | 2008 | |
| The Incredible Hulk | Marvel Studios | 2008 | |
| Iron Man 2 | Marvel Studios | 2010 | |
| Thor | Marvel Studios | 2011 | |
| Captain America: The First Avenger | Marvel Studios | 2011 | |
| The Avengers | Marvel Studios | 2012 |
Short films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Consultant | Marvel Studios | 2011 | After the events of The Incredible Hulk, agents Phil Coulson and Jasper Sitwell ask S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant Tony Stark to keep General Ross from making the Abomination part of The Avengers. |
| A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer | Marvel Studios | 2011 | Prior to the events of Thor, Phil Coulson stops at a gas station on his way to New Mexico and stops a theft there. |
| Item 47 | Marvel Studios | 2012 | After the events of The Avengers, a couple finds item 47, a Chitauri gun from the Battle of New York, and uses it to rob banks. Afterward, Jasper Sitwell invites them to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Item 47 helped lead to the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show. |
Video games
| Title | Developer | Platform | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man | Secret Level | PlayStation 3 | 2008 | |
| The Incredible Hulk | Edge of Reality | PlayStation 3 | 2008 | |
| Iron Man 2 | Sega Studios San Francisco | PlayStation 3 | 2010 | |
| Thor: God of Thunder | Liquid Entertainment | PlayStation 3 | 2011 | |
| Captain America: Super Soldier | Next Level Games | PlayStation 3 | 2011 | |
| The Avengers: The Mobile Game | Gameloft | Android | 2012 | |
| Lego Marvel's Avengers | TT Games | Windows | 2016 | The storylines of Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. |
Phase Two
Phase Two is the second third of the Infinity Saga. After Loki's defeat in the Battle of New York, Thanos becomes more directly involved in collecting the infinity stones. The Avengers deal with the repercussions of that battle as new and old threats resurface as well as new heroes and villains.
Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man 3 | Marvel Studios | 2013 | |
| Thor: The Dark World | Marvel Studios | 2013 | |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Marvel Studios | 2014 | |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | Marvel Studios | 2014 | |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | Marvel Studios | 2015 | |
| Ant-Man | Marvel Studios | 2015 |
Short films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Carter | Marvel Studios | 2013 | After the events of Captain America, Peggy Carter, an SSR agent, successfully takes on a case alone. Afterward, Howard Stark invites her to help him build S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Carter helped lead to the TV show of the same name. |
| All Hail The King | Marvel Studios | 2014 | After the events of Iron Man 3, Trevor Slattery is visited in prison by a member of the Ten Rings posing as a journalist. He is informed that the Mandarin is real and is not pleased that Slattery posed as him. |
Television shows
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Seasons 1 - 2 | Marvel Television | 2013 - 2015 | |
| Agent Carter: Season 1 | Marvel Television | 2015 | |
| Daredevil: Season 1 | Marvel Television | 2015 | |
| Jessica Jones: Season 1 | Marvel Television | 2015 | |
| Luke Cage: Season 1 | Marvel Television | 2015 | |
| WHIH Newsfront with Christine Everhart: Season 1 | Marvel Studios | 2015 |
Video games
| Title | Developer | Platform | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man 3: The Official Game | Gameloft | Android | 2013 | |
| Thor: The Dark World - The Official Game | Gameloft | Android | 2013 | |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier - The Official Game | Gameloft | Android | 2013 | |
| Lego Marvel's Avengers | TT Games | Windows | 2016 | Includes the storylines of Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. |
Phase Three
Phase Three is the third, and final, part of the Infinity Saga. Thanos completes his goal of attaining all of the infinity stones and uses them to create a world-changing event known as the Blip.
Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Captain America: Civil War | Marvel Studios | 2016 | |
| Doctor Strange | Marvel Studios | 2016 | |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Marvel Studios | 2017 | |
| Spider-Man: Homecoming | Marvel Studios | 2017 | |
| Thor: Ragnarok | Marvel Studios | 2017 | |
| Black Panther | Marvel Studios | 2018 | |
| Avengers: Infinity War | Marvel Studios | 2018 | |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp | Marvel Studios | 2018 | |
| Captain Marvel | Marvel Studios | 2019 | |
| Avengers: Endgame | Marvel Studios | 2019 | |
| Spider-Man: Far From Home | Marvel Studios | 2019 |
Short Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Thor | Marvel Studios | 2016 | During the events of Captain America: Civil War, the other Avengers take part in their civil war while Thor takes part in a documentary showing his life with his new roommate Daryl. |
| Team Thor: Part 2 | Marvel Studios | 2017 | During the events of Captain America: Civil War, the documentary of Thor's life with his roommate Daryl continues. |
| Team Darryl | Marvel Studios | 2018 | After the events of Thor: Ragnarok, Thor moved out of the apartment, and the documentary focuses on Daryl and his new roommate the Grandmaster. |
Television shows
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Seasons 3 - 7 | Marvel Television | 2015 - 2020 | |
| Agent Carter: Season 2 | Marvel Television | 2016 | |
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Slingshot | Marvel Television | 2016 | |
| Daredevil: Seasons 2 - 3 | Marvel Television | 2016 - 2018 | |
| WHIH Newsfront with Christine Everhart: Season 2 | Marvel Studios | 2016 | |
| The Defenders | Marvel Television | 2017 | |
| Inhumans | Marvel Television | 2017 | |
| Iron Fist | Marvel Television | 2017 - 2018 | |
| The Punisher | Marvel Television | 2017 - 2019 | |
| Runaways | Marvel Television | 2017 - 2019 | |
| Cloak & Dagger | Marvel Television | 2018 - 2019 | |
| Jessica Jones: Seasons 2 - 3 | Marvel Television | 2018 - 2019 | |
| Luke Cage: Season 2 | Marvel Television | 2018 | |
| Helstrom | Marvel Television | 2020 |
Video games
| Title | Developer | Platform | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spider-Man: Homecoming – Virtual Reality Experience | CreateVR | Windows | 2017 | |
| Spider-Man: Far From Home – Virtual Reality Experience | CreateVR | Windows | 2019 |
Phase Four
Phase Four is the first part of the Multiverse Saga. The world recovers as new heroes and villains arrive to take their place in the vacuum left by the Blip and its undoing. Sylvie Laufeydottir, a female variant of Loki, opens the universe into a multiverse.
The opening of the multiverse led to crossovers with other cinematic universes such as Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Widow | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| Eternals | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home | Marvel Studios | 2021 | Crossed over with multiple iterations of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. |
| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Marvel Studios | 2022 | |
| Thor: Love and Thunder | Marvel Studios | 2022 | |
| Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Marvel Studios | 2022 |
Short films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Am Groot: Season One | Marvel Studios | 2022 | Five short films featuring Groot. |
Television shows
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| WandaVision | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| The Falcon and the Winter Soldier | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| Loki: Season 1 | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| What If...?: Season 1 | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| Hawkeye | Marvel Studios | 2021 | |
| Moon Knight | Marvel Studios | 2022 | |
| Ms. Marvel | Marvel Studios | 2022 | |
| She-Hulk | Marvel Studios | 2022 | |
| The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special | Marvel Studios | 2022 |
Video games
| Title | Developer | Platform | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eternals: AR Story Experience | Disney | iOS | 2021 |
Phase Five
Phase Five is the second part of the Multiverse Saga. After Sylvie Laufeydottir opened the multiverse, Loki has to find a way to let the multiverse continue without the Time Variance Authority excessively pruning it.
The further expansion of the multiverse led to crossovers with other cinematic universes such as the 20th Century Studios X-Men universe.
Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | Marvel Studios | 2023 | |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | Marvel Studios | 2023 | |
| The Marvels | Marvel Studios | 2023 | |
| Deadpool & Wolverine | Marvel Studios | 2024 | Crossed over with the 20th Century Studios Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and X-Men universes plus the New Line Cinema Blade universe. |
| Captain America: Brave New World | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Thunderbolts* | Marvel Studios | 2025 |
Short films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Am Groot: Season Two | Marvel Studios | 2023 | Five short films featuring Groot. |
Television shows
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secret Invasion | Marvel Studios | 2023 | |
| Loki: Season 2 | Marvel Studios | 2023 | |
| What If...?: Season 2 | Marvel Studios | 2023 | |
| Echo | Marvel Studios | 2024 | |
| Agatha All Along | Marvel Studios | 2024 | |
| Eyes of Wakanda | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Daredevil: Born Again | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Ironheart | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Marvel Zombies | Marvel Studios | TBA |
Phase Six
Phase Six is the third part of the Multiverse Saga.
Films
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Fantastic Four | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Blade | Marvel Studios | 2025 | |
| Avengers: The Kang Dynasty | Marvel Studios | 2026 | |
| Avengers: Secret Wars | Marvel Studios | 2027 | |
| Armor Wars | Marvel Studios | TBA | |
| Spider-Man 4 | Marvel Studios | TBA | |
| Shang-Chi 2 | Marvel Studios | TBA |
Television shows
| Title | Studio | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vision Quest | Marvel Studios | 2026 |
