Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) refers both to a wide-ranging media franchise created by Marvel Studios and to the fictional multiverse appearing within it, with characters, settings, and story lines shared across various installments. As a franchise, the MCU is centered on feature films, but it also includes television shows, shorts, and other media. Marvel Studios products are based on superheroes and supervillains that originated in Marvel Comics books. In many ways, the MCU reflects the concept of a shared universe as developed in the comic books, with popular characters showcased in their own series as well as in crossover stories.

Producer Kevin Feige spearheaded the creation of the MCU, which began with the success of the film Iron Man (2008) and had its first major crossover event with The Avengers (2012). The franchise subsequently unfolded in multiple phases, as identified by Marvel Studios. The first three phases, collectively known as the Infinity Saga, cemented the MCU as a massive commercial success and an influential pop-culture staple. Several MCU films set box-office records and earned significant critical acclaim.

Background

The idea of a single universe inhabited by fictional characters from multiple stories or products emerged in comic books during World War II. Will Harr and artist Edd Ashe Jr. created the Wizard, a hero, for MLJ Comics, later known as Archie Comics, in 1939. The Wizard debuted in Top Notch Comics #1. Harry Shorten and artist Irv Novick created the hero Shield in 1940 for MLJ. Shield debuted in Pep Comics issue #1. Pep Comics #4 (1940) closed by directing readers to read Top Notch Comics #5, promising that the Wizard would face the villains that the Shield was fighting in Pep #4. Shield and Wizard are introduced in Top Notch #5 and proceed to work together in what is considered the first superhero comic crossover.

Shortly thereafter, the company that would become known as Marvel Comics created its own superhero crossover comic when the characters Human Torch and Sub-Mariner fought in Marvel Mystery #9. Later in 1940, National Comics included multiple characters from the publisher’s various titles in All-Star Comics #3. All-Star began as an anthology in which various superheroes were individually featured, but National Comics created a framework, revealing that all eight heroes were members of a team, the Justice Society of America.

Longtime Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee played a key role in developing the idea of a shared superhero universe in the 1960s. He and artist Jack Kirby created the superhero team the Fantastic Four in 1961, giving superheroes ordinary human flaws and other more realistic traits. The success of the Fantastic Four encouraged Marvel to introduce other superheroes across its titles. Tales to Astonish featured Ant-Man, Thor appeared in Journey into Mystery, Spider-Man debuted in Amazing Fantasy, and the Hulk starred in The Incredible Hulk. On December 10, 1962, Marvel released the first crossovers that revealed these characters lived in the same world: Fantastic Four #12 found the foursome facing the Hulk, and a message in that comic directed readers to also check out the Fantastic Four’s guest appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #1, released the same day.

Marvel continued to feature guest appearances across its growing line of superhero series. Another step came in September 1963 with the publication of The Avengers #1, in which the heroes Ant-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp team up against the villain Loki. The characters continued to appear in The Avengers comics as well as their own series. Avengers #3 goes even farther in establishing the shared world of Marvel Comics by having the Avengers interact with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the X-Men. This publication strategy helped encourage readers who were fans of one superhero or team to pick up issues of other series to see what their favorite characters were doing.

Eventually, the shared continuity of these superhero stories became known as the Marvel Universe, which grew ever larger and more complex as time went on. In 1966, Marvel released its first crossover that required readers to read comics from multiple titles to fully understand the story. From the 1970s on, Marvel also increasingly showcased alternate realities and timelines existing alongside the main continuity—and sometimes intersecting with it—a concept that became known as the Multiverse. By the 1980s, major crossover events involving all or most of Marvel's core characters were often used to stoke reader interest.

Meanwhile, Marvel Comics experienced various corporate changes over the years. In the 1970s and 80s, the company began organizing character licensing deals with various movie studios, though few film projects were actually made. It then spun off its own production company, Marvel Films, in 1993. In 1996 this company evolved into Marvel Studios, and film licensing deals were made with other, more established studios for many of Marvel's most popular characters. For example, the film rights to the X-Men went to 20th Century Fox, while the rights to Spider-Man were held by Sony. These deals led to films such as X-Men (2000), Spider-Man (2002), and Fantastic Four (2005), each followed by sequels but existing as completely separate franchises. The box-office success of many of these projects helped encourage Marvel Studios to produce more films on its own.

Development of the MCU

Kevin Feige became a producer for Marvel in 2000. As such, he was involved in many of the early Marvel character films created through licensing deals over the following decade, serving as a producer, a co-producer, or an executive producer. He steadily gained influence, in part because of his perspective as a longtime fan of the Marvel Universe in the comics, becoming second-in-command to Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad. Feige wanted to build a film version of the Marvel Universe, with intertwined characters and stories beyond a single series—a concept that was essentially unprecedented in the world of cinema. Soon he realized that although Marvel Studios did not have the rights to many of the most iconic Marvel characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four, it did have control of somewhat lesser-known characters who were part of the Avengers team in the comics. In 2007 Feige replaced Arad as head of Marvel Studios, giving him further power to pursue his vision.

In 2008 Marvel Studios released the first installments of what would become the MCU. Iron Man stars Robert Downey Jr. as genius weapons developer Tony Stark, who becomes the titular armored hero. The Incredible Hulk stars Edward Norton as scientist Bruce Banner/Hulk (and mostly ignores the events of the 2003 film Hulk released by Universal Studios). Both were essentially developed as standalone films, but the enormous success of Iron Man, both critically and commercially, provided momentum for Feige's goal of a shared universe. Notably, Iron Man includes a post-credits scene in which the character Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) implies to Stark that other superheroes exist and mentions something called the "Avenger Initiative," thereby hinting at an eventual team up.

Marvel Studios released Iron Man 2 in 2010 and both Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. Each included references that their heroes were operating in the same universe, especially in post-credits scenes directly pointing to future installments. All three films were relatively well-received with both critics and audiences, further paving the way for a crossover. This was realized in 2012 with The Avengers, which sees Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk, as well as fellow heroes Black Widow and Hawkeye, join forces against the villain Loki. The film was a massive hit, making over $1.5 billion to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time and earning an Academy Award nomination for best visual effects. The success of The Avengers proved that the idea of a shared cinematic universe could work, and the MCU grew ambitiously from there. In addition to films, it soon expanded to television and other media as well.

As the MCU steadily rose as a highly influential force in popular culture, it also continued to be affected by corporate changes. Marvel Entertainment, the parent company of both Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios, was acquired by media giant Disney in 2009. In 2015, a reorganization placed Marvel Studios directly under Walt Disney Studios, rather than Marvel Entertainment. In 2019, Feige was named chief creative officer for all Marvel divisions, while Marvel Television and Marvel Animation were folded into Marvel Studios, further centralizing control of the company's intellectual property.

Meanwhile, Marvel Studios also worked to regain films rights to various previously licensed Marvel characters and include them in the MCU. Notably, a deal with Sony in 2015 allowed Spider-Man to appear in the MCU for the first time (although Sony also continued producing separate, non-MCU films featuring Spider-Man spinoff characters). In 2017, it was announced that Disney had agreed to purchase 21st Century Fox, which would make the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and some other related characters available to Marvel Studios. Several elements from those properties began to be integrated into the MCU after the deal was finalized in 2019. As in the comics, the concept of a "multiverse" was used in-story to explain the existence of seemingly incongruous characters and events from earlier media.

MCU Phases

Marvel Studios has grouped MCU media into chronological "phases." These generally feature overarching narratives that are woven throughout films with more individual focus and culminate in an Avengers-focused crossover. The phases may be further grouped into sagas, based around an even larger-scale story line. For example, Marvel characterized the first three phases as the Infinity Saga, based around the looming threat of the villain Thanos and the immensely powerful Infinity Stones. Phases four through six were then announced as the Multiverse Saga, with the MCU continuing to expand much like its comic book counterpart over the decades.

Phase One consists largely of origin stories. It began in 2008 with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, followed by Iron Man 2 in 2010. Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger (both 2011) and The Avengers in 2012 round out this initial phase. (While most MCU casting is consistent across the releases to help maintain the shared universe concept, the studio notably replaced Norton with Mark Ruffalo starting with The Avengers.) In addition to the films, Marvel produced shorts called "one-shots" that are officially part of the MCU. Three are part of Phase One—The Consultant (2011), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011), and Item 47 (2012).

Phase Two launched in 2013 with the sequels Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. In 2014, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was followed by the first installment of a new sub-franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy, which was a notable success despite being based around more obscure characters. After the crossover Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man (2015) concluded the phase. Two one-shots are also included in Phase Two: Agent Carter (2013) and All Hail the King (2014).

Phase Three began in 2016 with Captain America: Civil War, itself a crossover event featuring appearances by both established MCU heroes and newcomers like Spider-Man and Black Panther. That same year, Doctor Strange introduced the titular character, another classic hero from the comics. Marvel released three films in 2017: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok. They were followed by Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018. The final three films of Phase Three, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far from Home, arrived in 2019. Phase Three one-shots are Team Thor: Part 1 (2016), Team Thor: Part 2, (2017), and Team Darryl (2018).

Marvel continued to release both sequels and new properties as the Infinity Saga gave way to the Multiverse Saga, but moved away from some core characters—particularly Tony Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America). Phase Four officially opened with four films in 2021: Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. It continued with three films in 2022: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Phase Four also includes Marvel Studios television series that debuted on the streaming platform Disney+ during this period. WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…?, and Hawkeye; appeared in 2021, followed by Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, I Am Groot, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law in 2022. Two television specials, Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, were also released on Disney+ in 2022.

In 2022, Feige officially introduced the term "Multiverse Saga" and announced a slate of releases planned for Phase Five, Phase Six, and possibly beyond. Phase Five began in 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Later that year came Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and The Marvels. The television series Secret Invasion, Loki season two, and What If...? season two debuted in 2023, followed by Echo, a spin-off of Hawkeye, and Agatha All Along, a spin-off of Wandavision, in 2024. The film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) was highly anticipated by many fans for marking the official connection of Fox's X-Men franchise to the MCU.

However, the status of some planned installments was cast into question due to an assortment of factors. After years of consistently strong box office performance and mostly positive reviews for MCU releases, several films from Phase Four and Phase Five both underperformed financially and earned largely negative response from viewers. Meanwhile, actor Jonathan Majors was cast as the villain Kang the Conqueror and positioned to play a major role in the Multiverse Saga after appearing in Loki and Quantumania, but he was fired in December 2023 after being convicted of assault. Many observers noted that these challenges marked the first major disruption of the MCU's trajectory since it began.

Related Media

The MCU also includes a wide array of media that does not fit as directly into the phases of the films. Perhaps most notable among these are live-action television series that were created before the launch of Disney+ in late 2019. The first of these was Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which originally aired on ABC from 2013 to 2020. The series was at first closely tied to the films; it began as a spin-off of The Avengers, following a supporting character from that movie and featuring cameos from multiple MCU characters. The plots of several later films, especially Captain America: The Winter Soldier, had significant impact on the show's direction. However, these connections diminished over the years, and the Marvel Studios-authorized book The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline (2023) omitted any reference to Agents of S.H.I.E.LD., suggesting the show was not part of MCU canon. Still, many fans noted that the emergence of parallel universes and alternate timelines in the MCU with the Multiverse Saga could reconcile such continuity issues.

Marvel released several shows on the streaming service Netflix beginning in 2015, including multiple seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, whose titular heroes unite in The Defenders (2017). The Punisher debuted two seasons in 2017 and 2019 that also include crossover elements with those series. These Marvel Netflix shows have a darker, more violent tone than most MCU films and are sometimes categorized under the "Marvel Knights" name. After Marvel ended its deal with Netflix some questioned whether these series were part of the MCU, but the shows were later made available on Disney+ and some characters (played by the same actors) appeared in later Disney+ shows, suggesting that they were in the same universe or at least the same multiverse.

Other Marvel series aired on platforms such as Hulu and Freeform over the years. These included Inhumans (2017) Legion (2017–19), Runaways (2017–19), Cloak & Dagger (2018–19), and various animated shows. Like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they were generally not considered part of the main MCU timeline.

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