From Blade to Thunderbolts: All 7 Upcoming MCU Movies

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has fallen on hard times. After the triumph of the Infinity Saga and the victory over Thanos, audience interest in the films continues to decline.

However, it’s too early to write off Kevin Feige's universe: the studio is preparing to release its Multiverse Saga films, which will hopefully breathe new life into superheroics.

1. Captain America: Brave New World

Release Date: February 14, 2025

The film will be the first feature-length project to feature Sam Wilson with Steve Rogers' shield (and also the first comic book film to star Anthony Mackie as the lead).

William Hurt, known for his role as General Thaddeus Ross, died in 2022 and it was decided to recast him. In the upcoming film, the legendary Harrison Ford will play Ross, who went from being a general to becoming the new President.

It is believed that Captain America's main opponent will be the Leader, aka the brilliant scientist Samuel Sterns. Sterns' body received the Hulk's blood, which did not turn him into a strong but stupid monster, but on the contrary, made him smarter (in the comics, he also received the ability to telepathy and telekinesis).

Superhero movie fans also expect the upcoming film to feature another iconic character — the Red Hulk, who fully retained his intellect during his transformation. In the comics, it was General Ross who transformed into the Red Hulk.

2. Thunderbolts

Release Date: May 5, 2025

In the late 1990s, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the mutants of the X-Men faced a new supervillain in the pages of comic books — an immaterial entity composed of dark fragments of the personalities of Magneto and Professor Charles Xavier. The villain, who took the name Onslaught, threatened to destroy the entire world.

After the battle with Onslaught, the members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four disappeared from reality and were presumed dead for some time. This led to a noticeable shortage of superheroes, but then a new team appeared out of nowhere — the Thunderbolts.

On the last page of the first Thunderbolts comic, readers were told a terrible secret: the team was not actually made up of superheroes, but of villains who had changed costumes and names.

After the success of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn repeatedly stated that he would like to make a movie about the Thunderbolts, but Disney executives did not give him a clear answer, so Gunn made a movie about villains doing a good deed for Warner Bros. and DC — we are talking, of course, about The Suicide Squad.

After that, Gunn cooled off a bit on the subject of villains doing good, just when Marvel bosses decided to greenlight the Thunderbolts movie.

3. The Fantastic Four

Release Date: July 25, 2025

The story of the Fantastic Four began in the 60s. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, legends of Marvel Studios, wrote the first comic book about superheroes in 1961, and only after that they created the Avengers and other characters we know. More than twenty years passed before a German film studio decided to acquire the rights to the film adaptation, but it did not go further than the trailer.

This story seemed to foreshadow all other attempts to bring the comics to the big screen. The Fantastic Four has never been successful on screen — all attempts to film comics about these superheroes ended in failure. But in 2019, Marvel acquired the rights to the film adaptation. Perhaps this time the remake will be more successful than its predecessors.

The new Fantastic Four will star Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Julia Garner.

4. Blade

Release Date: November 7, 2025

In 1998, Blade hit the big screen for the first time. Wesley Snipes was cast as the vampire hunter, and he did a brilliant job, proving that R-rated superhero action movies had a right to exist.

Blade almost tripled its budget, which is why it got a sequel and a threequel, after which the story of Eric Brooks continued in a TV series, where the vampire hunter was played by rapper Kirk Jones.

After the end of the series, which only lasted one season, Blade was forgotten for a while. In 2011, Marvel Entertainment creative director announced that the studio had purchased the rights to make new projects about Blade. Wesley Snipes, who had just been released from prison for tax evasion, said he was ready to return to the role, but work on the film did not begin.

In 2016, it was announced that Mahershala Ali was being considered as the main candidate for the role of the new Blade.

Work on the new Blade movie turned into a real production hell — the blockbuster was originally scheduled for release in 2023, but the departure of director Bassam Tariq forced the studio to change plans. Yann Demange was brought in to direct, but he also decided to leave the project after reshoots.

Fortunately, the rest of Blade’s creative core is still in place: Mahershala Ali will star, and Nic Pizzolatto (creator of True Detective ) is on the list of screenwriters.

5. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Release Date: May 1, 2026

Avengers: Endgame came out in 2019 (and it feels like a lifetime ago). Kevin Feige explained the long gap between the Avengers movies by saying that the importance of these projects to the MCU has changed.

It used to be that a bunch of superheroes would meet in one movie, but now there are so many more of these characters that solo projects are starting to feel like ensemble films (Thor travels with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man has his own team exploring the Quantum Universe). As such, ensemble comic book movies now aim not just to bring a bunch of characters together for the viewers' joy, but to wrap up a global story arc.

Recently, information surfaced that Marvel management is hoping to get the Russo brothers, who made Endgame and Infinity War, to produce the new Avengers, but they have yet to give an official response. In general, such a desperate move on the part of the studio indicates that things are not going so well with the new Avengers movies.

The plot of the film was initially focused on Kang the Conqueror, but after the scandalous dismissal of Jonathan Majors, Marvel management was left in a difficult situation. The film is expected to feature a new team of superheroes, including Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Thor.

6. Avengers: Secret Wars

Release Date: May 7, 2027

The plot of the movie will be based on the Secret Wars crossover comic book series. It will depict a large-scale space invasion that will forever change the course of history in the MCU.

But there is a catch: in the history of Marvel Comics, there have been three story arcs called Secret Wars. In all three, the main villain was Doctor Doom.

Considering that in 2024 we will see another reboot of The Fantastic Four, whose main enemy was and remains Doctor Doom, it is quite possible that this character will play a significant role in the movie version of Secret Wars.

7. Untitled Shang-Chi Sequel

Release Date: TBD

In 2021, it was announced that a sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in development at Marvel. Simu Liu will star and Destin Daniel Cretton will once again be the director and screenwriter.

Numerous mysteries remained unsolved in the first film, particularly regarding the history of the rings. Cretton claims that in the follow-up, Shang-Chi will learn to accept his newfound abilities and play a significant role in the MCU — possibly even joining the new Avengers.

Chronologically, the events of Shang-Chi 2 will take place after the fifth Avengers, and it is possible that the movie will also be released in 2026.