Marvel Movie and TV News Round-Up

There was a lot of Marvel news revealed at and around San Diego Comic-Con, including plans for MCU Phases 5 and 6 in film and on Disney+, Sony Marvel movie and Marvel Animation plans, and a revealing report about how Marvel compensates comic creators for using new characters.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige laid out the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con Saturday, reported by Deadline and Variety.  Three MCU Phase 6 movies were announced. Fantastic Four, the first film featuring the company’s original superteam produced by Marvel Studios, will premiere November 8, 2024.  Two Avengers movies will be released in 2025 as the capstone of the Phase: Avengers: The Kang Dynasty on May 2, 2025, and Avengers: Secret Wars on November 7, 2025 (see key art below).

Feige also laid out the previously unrevealed portions of Phase 5.  November 3, 2023, which had been previously reserved by the studio, was being held for the new iteration of Blade.  May 3, 2024 will be the release date for Captain America: New World Order, which will feature Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, as Captain America.  And the Phase will wrap up with Thunderbolts, featuring a team of MCU anti-heroes, on July 25, 2024.

There was also Marvel movie news from Sony, which re-dated Madame Web (which has been getting a lot of casting news lately, see “Emma Roberts in ‘Madame Web’“) from Summer 2023 to October 6, 2023, and revealed that it has a third Venom film in the works with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven the Hunter, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Having trouble keeping track of all the Marvel films in the pipe?  You can always check our Geek Movie Calendar, linked from the home page (see “Best in Shows“).

Marvel laid out its live-action small screen plans at Comic-Con, which it is now including in its MCU phases.  Phase 5 on Disney+ kicks off with Secret Invasion, starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn reprising his role as Skrull Talos in a TV re-telling of the hit 2008 Marvel comic book mini-series (see “’Secret Invasion’“).  Cobie Smulders will co-star, and Kingsley Ben-Adir, Oilvia Colman, and Emilia Clarke will also appear in the series, which will drop in Spring 2023.

Hawkeye spin-off Echo, featuring his antagonist Maya Lopez, played by Alaqua Cox, will debut in Summer 2023.  Also due out next Summer is the second season of Loki.

Ironheart, starring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, will debut Fall 2023; and WandaVision spinoff Agatha: Coven of Chaos (a revised title, see “Streaming Series Updates“), starring Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, will air Winter 2023/2024.

Fiege also confirmed that Charlie Cox will return as Matt Murdock, reprising his role from the Netflix Daredevil series, in Daredevil: Born Again, planned for Spring 2024.

Disney+ is going in a new direction, adding R-rated films to the service for the first time.  The two Deadpool films and Logan, all R-rated, were added to the service last week, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  At one time, Disney had planned to use Hulu, which it has acquired in stages in recent years, as its venue for adult material and keep Disney+ more family-oriented, but the appeal of having all of the company’s crown jewels on its branded streaming service is apparently irresistible. Disney+ has been airing the adult-oriented Netflix series (Daredevil, et. al.) since March.

Marvel also brought fandom up to date on its animated programming.  A trailer for five-part anthology series I Am Groot, which premieres August 10 on Disney+, was released, and Marvel announced that a second group of five episodes has been ordered, according to Deadline.

Spider-Man: Freshman Year (see “Streaming Series Updates“) has been given a release year of 2024, with plans for a second season (titled Spider-Man: Sophomore Year) revealed.

A second season of What If…? will air in 2023, and a third season is planned.  No date was revealed for Marvel Zombies. X-Men ’97 is planned for Fall 2023, with a second season in the works.

Meanwhile, the comic side of Marvel’s movie and TV business suffered some negative publicity from an article detailing how it compensates comics creators for characters used in film, TV, video games, and action figures in The Hollywood Reporter.  The report detailed provisions of Marvel’s Special Character Agreements, which provide for compensation for secondary uses of new characters, that it alleges allow Marvel to pay arbitrarily small amounts to the comic creators involved and include non-disclosure agreements that prevent creators from speaking out.  Joe Casey, who did not sign the agreement and was not paid for the use of America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, did speak out, calling the payments Marvel makes for such uses “an insult.”