Marvel Studios is planting flags once again. The subsidiary of Disney has locked in three distant dates for future films, those being February 18th, 2028, May 5th, 2028, and November 10th, 2028. All three of these release dates fall after the culmination of The Multiverse Saga, the latest years-long crossover storyline that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building up since The Infinity Saga wrapped up in 2019, as all multiversal roads are leading towards the May 7th, 2027 premiere of Avengers: Secret Wars. While the post-Infinity Saga slate was vague, it had been known prior to Avengers: Endgame that sequels for hot solo stories like Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming were on the way.
This time around, it’s anyone’s guess what the MCU looks like after a full-scale multiverses conflict. Will business proceed as usual, or will an incursion lead to a universe-wide reboot?
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While fans don’t yet know what movies will occupy the upcoming release dates, there’s enough evidence to suggest what will occupy Marvel’s 2028 slate.
February 18, 2028: Shang-Chi 2
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is long overdue for a sequel.
Back in September 2021, Marvel Studios rolled the dice big time with the Simu Liu-led origin story. When Shang-Chi was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, it was a classic “safe risk” for the franchise, akin to Guardians of the Galaxy or Doctor Strange. MCU momentum was unstoppable, as audiences flocked in droves to see anything that featured the Marvel Studios logo on its poster. Knowing that its reputation had bred a level of financial security, Marvel could experiment with space operas or reality-bending thrillers.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. When the world shut down in 2020, it was never going to open up the same. Theaters slowly reopened in summer 2021, but convincing people to leave the comfort of their own homes, where they had streamed new releases for the past 16 months, became a bigger ask. Even Marvel’s safe bet of Black Widow, led by established box office attraction Scarlett Johansson, went day and date in July 2021 out of fear of the instability of theaters. That fear subsided slightly two months later, as Marvel sent Shang-Chi exclusively to theaters.
It’s not a total overstatement to say that the Master of Kung-Fu saved the box office. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings brought in $94 million over its Labor Day Weekend premiere, tripling the holiday weekend’s previous box office record (Halloween, $30.5 million). The film went on to gross $432 million at the worldwide box office and boasts a 91% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Development on Shang-Chi 2 officially began in December 2021, with director Destin Daniel Cretton returning to write and direct. Progress in the three years since then has been quiet, as leading man Liu cast uncertainty on the sequel’s status last summer.
“I promise it’s happening,” Liu said this past April when responding to a concerned fan.
While February 2028 is over three years away from today and will be six and a half years since the first film, that date seems like the likeliest landing spot for Shang-Chi 2 for as long as Marvel’s immediate priorities remain building to The Multiverse Saga. Marvel has been known to play the long game in between standalone franchises before, as it took four years for Thor to get a third film and five and a half years for Doctor Strange to receive a second installment.
May 5, 2028: X-Men
It’s time for the mutants to make their Marvel Studios mark.
Superhero movie fans rejoiced over five years ago when Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox was finalized, as it meant Marvel Studios finally had most of its toys back. Prior to the smash success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics sold the movie rights to some of its most popular characters in order to financially stay afloat. This included shopping Spider-Man to Sony Pictures, the Incredible Hulk to Universal, and the entire X-Men catalog (as well as Fantastic Four) to 20th Century Fox.
“There’s no time left to talk about mutants, and how mutants fit into the MCU,” Marvel President Kevin Feige teased at the end of Marvel Studios’ San Diego Comic-Con panel in July 2019, four months after the studio regained the X-Men rights.
Feige added some color to his comments since then, noting that the MCU was in the middle of a “five-year plan” and would not integrate its new acquisitions until it had fulfilled its already-in-motion story plans.
Those five years have since elapsed, and Feige has begun to show his plans for his new 20th Century properties. Marvel’s first priority has been getting Fantastic Four done right, as the studio spent years securing a quartet to bring Marvel’s first family to live-action life for the third time. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is currently in production and will release next summer.
Attention now turns to the mutants. Unlike Reed Richards and company, Marvel has begun planting in-universe seeds for the X-Men. This began back in summer 2022 during the Ms. Marvel season finale when it was revealed that Iman Vellani’s titular hero possessed the mutant gene. Since then, Beast has shown face in 2023’s The Marvels‘ post-credits scene while this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine wrote a two-hour love letter to the X-Men franchise that preceded the MCU.
Marvel does plan to make a proper X-Men film under its studio banner, but it remains to be seen in what capacity. Right now, 20th Century X-Men cast members like Kelsey Grammer (Beast) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) are reprising their roles within the MCU. Will Marvel Studios truly make them do it “til [they’re] 90” for their take on the team, or will it reboot the franchise entirely?
Whatever the case may be, screenwriter Michael Lesslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) is actively figuring it out. Lesslie was hired by Marvel Studios to pen its theatrical take on X-Men this past May.
Considering how long development takes, May 2028 feels like an appropriate finish line for Marvel’s X-Men, as that date comes four years after the scripting process was publicly confirmed. May 2028 will also mark the MCU’s 20th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate the cinematic universe than by introducing a franchise that could be its cornerstone for the next 20 years?
November 10, 2028: Doctor Strange 3
Marvel Studios has been patient with the Sorcerer Supreme.
Stephen Strange was first name-dropped in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, long before Benedict Cumberbatch was cast in the role. Two and a half years later, the hero debuted in Doctor Strange (2016) and proceeded to be a crucial character throughout The Infinity Saga. Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange popped up in four consecutive years, beginning with his solo adventure and continuing with Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
After The Infinity Saga concluded, Strange returned to his solo roots with 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a box-office juggernaut that hauled in $955 million worldwide. That movie set the groundwork for Avengers: Secret Wars by introducing the concept of incursions as well as the Earth-838 universe. In its post-credits scene, Doctor Strange 2 sends its titular star into the Dark Dimension.
While that scene would suggest a third installment needs to happen prior to Avengers: Secret Wars, it also took place back when Kang the Conqueror was the planned antagonist for The Multiverse Saga. Marvel has since pivoted to centering The Multiverse Saga around Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, which calls into question just how much of what was set up prior will still matter moving forward.
“To us and to millions around the globe, you deserve this honor for being the first, the best, the greatest, and the only Doctor Stephen Strange,” Marvel President Kevin Feige said of Cumberbatch at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2022. “You’ve become the anchor of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Given how much Feige values Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, it’s only appropriate that he allows him to finish his trilogy outside of the confines of setting up Avengers movies or adapting to the Doctor Doom pivots. Strange can and should still factor into those crossovers, but his standalone stories have been best when they operate on their own.
Take Iron Man 3, for example. Tony Stark got his storybook ending, finally getting that heart surgery and trashing his Iron Man suits, seemingly retiring as the man in the can for good. Two years later, he was back fighting alongside the Avengers, which forced Marvel to write around much of what happened in his threequel. That said, on its own, Iron Man 3 does fulfill the goals of what a trilogy conclusion should be. It only gets complicated in relation to the larger cinematic universe.
Rather than rush Doctor Strange 3 to be in the middle of The Multiverse Saga, give that film the chance to breathe on its own after that crossover concludes.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next theatrical installment, Captain America: Brave New World, hits theaters on February 14th, 2025.
