What’s next for Marvel Studios? Who’s recently joined the cast of your most anticipated series or film? Where can you find the teasers and trailers? Look no further, true believers. Everything you need to know about the future of the MCU has been collected for you here. Click on each logo to learn what we currently know about the upcoming MCU projects.
At a time when it seemed Marvel Studios could not miss, it delivered one of its biggest disappointments. 2021’s Eternals failed to land with critics and, in a fresh post-COVID environment, struggled at the box office. The film deviated heavily from the much-discussed “Marvel formula“, introducing a large cast of characters and leaning heavily into philosophical influences.
It was clear at the time that the studio had big plans for future projects, including a major role for Kit Harrington‘s Dane Whitman and a spinoff featuring Harry Styles‘ Starfox, who appeared in one of the film’s tags. However, as time went on, it became clear that Eternals was likely to be a one-shot. After rumors of Marvel shelving a sequel to Eternals landed online in early 2024, Kevin Feige confirmed that there were “no immediate plans” to move forward with a follow-up.
Despite having one of the studio’s most talented ensemble casts, the only lasting impact Eternals has had on the MCU was to introduce Adamantium into the mix in Captain America: Brave New World. Even without a sequel in the works, the film’s stars such as Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Kumail Nanjiani have yet to find themselves integrated into other projects, leading to speculation they may never be seen again, despite some of them being more than willing to return to the MCU.
Yeah! I mean, listen, I have plans today. I don’t know if they have plans. I would love to come back. But I’m sort of waiting to hear when or if that’s going to happen. I’m hoping I get to do more. I had a great time playing that character. It’d be a shame if he’s a sort of one and done. But, you know, the decision’s not mine to make.
–Kumail Nanjiani on the future of the Eternals franchise, January 2023
In 2023, Nanjiani indicated that while he would “love to come back” as Kingo, he was unaware whether or not Marvel had plans to move ahead with an Eternals sequel. Now, in a new interview, Nanjiani opened up about Marvel Studios grandiose plans for the failed franchise and how it’s poor landing impacted him.
“It came out right after COVID, so I had a year and a half at home to be just like, ‘When this thing comes out…‘” said Nanjiani of the anticipated impact Eternals would have on his career. “It came out, it got really bad reviews, and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much. That was when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out.”
Any disappointment fans may have had in the response to the film multiplied for Nanjiani. As he shared, Marvel intended for Eternals to launch its own franchise, including additional movies, video game appearances and even a ride at Disney Parks.
“I was like, ‘This is going to be my job for the next ten years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign on for all this stuff,” explained Nanjiani. “You’re like, ‘Okay, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year, and in between, I’ll do my own little things. Whatever I want to do.’”
Reading between the lines of Nanjiani‘s comments, it sounds as though not only was an Eternals trilogy in the pipeline but also appearances in other projects, likely including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which has since been scrapped, and Avengers: Secret Wars. However, four years later, Nanjiani‘s Kingo has only appeared in Marvel Animation’s What If…? and as he explained, it doesn’t sound as though he has any future appearances scheduled at the moment.
“None of that happened,” he lamented. “For me, what really hit me was realising that too much of my self-esteem is wrapped up in other people’s reactions to my work. People have way bigger problems than this.”
Of course, recent years have provided plenty of evidence that the studio never truly puts any character fully to rest. Tim Roth and Tim Blake Nelson recently returned to their respective roles after more than a decade on the sidelines and with an all-new, all-different mutant-centric saga on deck, maybe there will be new life for the Eternals, too.
Source: YouTube
Marvel Studios had a fairly large presence at Disney’s D23 Expo in Brazil which ran from November 8th through November 10th. While no new projects were announced, footage was shown from upcoming projects from all the studios under the Marvel umbrella. Marvel Studios showcased its 2025 film slate with Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps; Marvel Television shared a look at next March’s Daredevil: Born Again; Marvel Animation unveiled the first trailer for Season 3 of What If…?, which debuts on December 22nd, and gave the fans a look at Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which hits D+ on January 29th, 2025.
Despite not breaking any news on the stage, Marvel Studios One Above All, Kevin Feige, did have plenty to say to the Brazilian outlet Omelete about the potential futures of several big-time MCU players.
“We are committed to Blade,” said the Feigster. “We love the character. We love Mahershala’s take on him. And rest assured: whenever we change direction with a project, or are still figuring out how it fits into our schedule, we let the audience know. You’re all up to date on what’s happening. But I can tell you that the character will indeed make it to the MCU.”
Parsing words a bit, it does seem interesting that Feige chose to say that “the character would indeed make it to the MCU” rather than the film. It may ultimately be nitpicking but it is worth noting and tracking as things continue to develop.
After finishing up an incredible run in theaters, Deadpool & Wolverine is now available digitally and, as of November 12th, is streaming on Disney Plus where it’s sure to generate another round of hype. According to Feige, fans can probably expect to see more of the odd couple. “The plans with Deadpool and Wolverine will always be the same,” teased Feige. “We’re always wondering where we can fit them in, and how quickly.” With rumors that both characters will have roles in the studio’s 2027 Multiverse Saga finale, Avengers: Secret Wars, it may not be too long before the deadly duo suits up again.
Despite apparently sacrificing herself to destroy the Darkhold in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda Maximoff’s future in the MCU has never really been up for debate. In late 2022, Feige made it clear that the studio had plans for the character and recently those plans have started to take shape with WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer rumored to be developing a solo Scarlet Witch project. Even star Elizabeth Olsen has recently teased a very specific direction in which she’d like to see the character’s story move, leaving little room for doubt that Wanda will indeed be back in the MCU.
And now, whatever room remained to harbor doubt was wiped out by Feige in Brazil.”We had Agatha All Along on Disney+ just now, and that series was great for us. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about Wanda in fans’ minds,” said Feige. “So all I can say is that we’re excited to find out when and how Scarlet Witch can come back.” New rumors suggest the character will play a large role in Avengers: Doomsday; if those rumors are true, we’ll likely find out soon as the film is expected to go before cameras in early 2025.
Fans have been eagerly awaiting Marvel Studios’ take on the X-Men since the live-action rights to the characters were acquired as part of Disney’s 2019 merger with Fox. And while some mutants have been sprinkled into other projects over the past few years, the studio does have much larger plans for the X-Men, including a film being written by Michael Lesslie. While there was some hope it might end up in the Multiverse Saga, Feige put all that talk to bed in Brazil.
“When we were preparing for Avengers: Endgame years ago, it was a matter of getting to the grand finale of our narrative, and then we had to start all over again after that,” Feige explained. “This time, on the road to Secret Wars, we already know very well what’s going to happen. be the story until then and beyond. The X-Men are an important part of that future.” With a script already in the works, it’s very possible that Phase 7 of the MCU (if Phases are even a thing anymore) could lead off with Marvel Studios X-Men.
Perhaps in part because of the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios made the choice to develop a film around the Eternals, an obscure group of characters created by Jack Kirby in the 1970s. However, rather than lean into what Kirby intended the characters to be, the studio stripped them of everything their creator built into them that was of interest. The result was a film that was poorly received critically despite having one of the MCU’s most impressive ensemble casts.
Before it flopped in theaters, there seemed to be big plans for the characters introduced in Eternals. That no longer seems to be the case with Feige already saying “there are no immediate plans for Eternals 2” earlier this year and now indicating that whole the studio remains “very proud of that movie” adding that cast was incredible” while giving no indication that’s something he’s actually attempting to do.“We’d be lucky to get any of them back at some point,” he closed, which would be a strange thing to say if he were planning on using the characters.
Originally in development as a film for a 2019 release, Marvel’s Inhumans was pulled from the slate in 2016. From there, the property moved to Marvel TV and ultimately turned into one of the most ridiculously embarrassing projects the company ever produced.
Though Anson Mount‘s Black Bolt did appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s never really seemed as though Feige had large-scale plans for the Inhumans within the confines of the MCU. And if his response to a question about the characters is any indication, he still doesn’t have any. “We’ll see where, if, and when, they return,” replies Feige to an inquiry about their MCU future. At least we’ll always have that great moment where one of Marvel’s most disciplined heroes accidentally killed himself!
Source: Omlete
With any luck, Marvel Studios’ well-documented Multiverse Saga struggles may be on the way to being a thing of the past. Not many studios could have survived the deluge of debacles that Marvel rolled out in 2022 and 2023; however, following a string of successful projects in 2024, it seems as though Kevin Feige and crew–under a mandate from Bob Iger–have found a way back to the top of the food chain. And while the return to form is a welcome one, projects such as Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion still exist and the events depicted within them cannot be entirely discounted as the MCU forges ahead.
The studio’s mid-2023 course correction hasn’t had time to be fully realized as yet but with a somewhat improved Captain America: Brave New World and a much-improved Thunderbolts* headed to theaters in 2025, the enjoyment of the fruits of Iger‘s mandated labor is within reach. Not every project was given the same grace as those two, however, and as the second half of the Multiverse Saga gets rewritten on the fly, it’s clear that some of the studio’s original plans will never come to fruition. Eternals 2? Nope. Thor 5 starring Hercules/ Maybe. The Kang Dynasty? Ope. Armor Wars? We’ll see. However, even though direct sequels and the big ideas set up to unfold within them may never see the big screen, recent rumors about the future of the MCU may provide a gateway to make good on a pair of projects that probably should have turned out quite a bit better than they did.
Whatever the plans for Phase 6 were in 2022, they have become something quite different in 2024 No one change can tell the whole story of what went down behind the scenes but the shift in the studio’s plans for director Destin Daniel Cretton are very telling. Once on track to helm two of the studio’s most important Phase 6 films (a Shang-Chi sequel and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty) is now helming Spider-Man 4. 1+1 means Spidey 4 is now pretty damn important to whatever plans Marvel Studios has for to start bringing the Multiverse Saga to a close.
Recent reports indicated that the fourth installment in the Tom Holland-led franchise underwent an overhaul that saw it evolve from a street-level team up to a multiverse story and recent rumblings have begun to reveal the nature of the new script written by Spidey vets Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Should the latest rumors prove true, Marvel Studios and Sony will expand their collaboration beyond their already impressive efforts and will oversee a creative crossover event of unprecedented magnitude. An increasingly louder and louder buzz points towards Marvel incorporating Sony’s most marketable Spidey-adjacent star, Tom Hardy, into the MCU following Venom: The Last Dance. Furthermore, as Hardy’s Eddie/Venom joins the narrative, so will the film’s villain, Knull, the creator of the symbiote race and one of Marvel Comics’ most powerful and frightening new villains. And incredibly enough, Knull has connections that extend well-beyond the Spider’s web that could easily be weaved into the character’s MCU arc and, in doing so, make good on a pair of moments that currently sit near the top of the studio’s list of recent missteps.
As fans prematurely bemoan Spider-Man 4 potentially telling “another multiverse story” (like the last one was sooooooo bad), the true nature of Knull and the storytelling potential it offers is being overlooked. Sure Spider-Man: King in Black would feature two characters who originated in a universe other than Earth-616’s but recent retcons to the history of the Klyntar have blazed a trail that, quite honestly, Marvel Studios’ Parliament would be foolish not to explore on the MCU.
Retcons have allowed comic book writers the ability to make changes great and small to previously established canon in order to make room for (sometimes) exciting new stories. So far, this is territory into which the MCU hasn’t waded very far but should they choose to work with Sony to bring the terrifying King in Black into their sandbox, they have a great opportunity to easily retcon some small pieces of previous films which might, in the end, make them feel a little more important.
Thor: Love and Thunder had plenty of problems and though the film’s cold open wasn’t one of them, the type of increased creative collaboration with Sony that would allow Marvel Studios to include Knull in Spider-Man 4 could work in favor of at least making the fourth Thor film feel a bit more important than it did. Though it wasn’t seen on screen, the battle between Gorr’s god, Rapu, and the Dark Shadow Lord that left the former dead played out on the pages of 2013’s Thor: God of Thunder #6. However, in Jason Aaron’s iconic run, the character who fought the gold-armored god (and was stabbed in the melon by a spear!) was Knull. And just as in the film, and as one might expect from being stabbed in the head, Knull appeared to be dead and his Necrosword was scooped up by Gorr, who then used it to butcher gods across the cosmos.
It took Knull more than one hundred years to recover from his wounds. After his recovery, the primordial god began to use his powers to create the symbiotic parasites that eventually became the Klyntar race of which Venom is a member. It’s not entirely clear how long Gorr was actively killing gods in the MCU but the point of retcons is that it doesn’t really matter. Thor: Love and Thunder‘s Dark Shadow Lord could easily be retconned as Knull and the Shadow Realm and Shadow Monsters Gorr had access to in the movie could easily be tied to Knull’s title as the King in Black and the god of darkness. Truthfully, it would be incredibly foolish of Marvel Studios not to take advantage of the opportunity to make these changes should Knull be part of the plans for the MCU’s Multiverse Saga.
For far too long now, it’s been very clear that not only do Marvel Studios’ mid and post-credit stingers distract audiences from the very films they pay to watch but also hold no promise of an eventual payoff. In simple terms, the studio has played fast and loose with what they stick on after the body of the film, making the stingers either irrelevant of a problem for the “next guy up” to solve. There are no stronger examples of this than both of the stingers attached to Eternals but Spider-Man: King in Black could very well help save one of them.
Thanks to one of the film’s stingers, Kit Harrington‘s Dane Whitman seemed to be destined to do…something…after Eternals. Whitman’s destiny as the Black Knight was teased before being interrupted by the offscreen voice of Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury Mahershala Ali‘s Blade. Two years later, Blade still hasn’t even begun production and Harrington‘s MCU future remains dishearteningly undefined. However, Whitman’s Ebony Blade could be the key to unlocking the potential of one of those two characters and possibly even both.
Marvel Studios has made it clear they’re not interested in pulling directly from the pages of Marvel Comics and in this case, that could work in their favor. Whitman’s Ebony Blade has an interesting history that itself was retconned during the King in Black limited comic book series. Its MCU history is completely unknown which means the creatives have been handed a blank slate and could smartly craft something that could allow Harrington to bolster the supporting cast of Spider-Man 4 while making the Ebony Blade an important MacGuffin in the battle against Knull.
While there once was some chance that Harrington might lead a Black Knight solo project that could serve to tell the long history of the Ebony Blade and the cursed knights who wielded it over the years, that’s incredibly unlikely to happen now given Disney’s new marching orders for their major studios. However, tossing Whitman into the mix of Spider-Man: King in Black would allow for a far more condensed version of the story to be told, as happened in the King in Black event series. And while a one-to-one adaptation of that won’t happen, that’s in the best interest of the potential story. For a long time now, Marvel Studios’ plots have always been simpler than those speculated or made up by fans and it could happen again with Whitman’s Ebony Blade. In the comics, the blade was forged from a substance known as Starstone which was created during the Big Bang. A powerful relic from the beginning of time, the Ebony Blade was sought after by Knull during his attempted conquest of Earth. It’s easy enough to imagine Knull, an Eldritch god who himself came to be during the birth of the cosmos, seeking out such a relic as he comes to Earth-616 in Spider-Man 4, giving Whitman a reason to have existed in the MCU in the first place and allowing for the Eternals‘ stinger to have some serious significance rather than being yet another throwaway scene. Ali’s Blade could provide some exposition while also helping fight off Knull’s horde of invaders and most everyone would start feeling quite a bit better about most everything.
Of course, everything you just read is dependent, first and foremost, on the rumors of Knull joining the MCU being accurate. Beyond that, it’s not hard to start to see pathways that would allow for “yet another multiverse” movie to be one of the more exciting films in what remains in the Multiverse Saga while also upping the profile of some of the MCU’s less-than-beloved projects from its first half.
Though no direct sequel to Eternals is in the works at Marvel Studios, Head Honcho Kevin Feige recently teased that the events of the film will indeed continue to influence the ongoing shared narrative of the MCU. Tonight, during the studio’s big Hall H panel at SDCC ’24, the cat was let out of the bag.
After months of rumors, it was confirmed that the body of Tiamut–the large Celestial that began to emerge from the ocean in Eternals–is composed of adamantium and will be central to the plot of Captain America: Brave New World.
Updating…
Marvel Studios’ Eternals opened to incredibly poor reviews when it hit theaters in 2021. At the time, seeing an MCU project miss so badly with critics was a bit of a shock. While several other projects have joined the Chloe Zhao-helmed film in the past few years that haven’t been well-received, it still stands out among the duds. More than other projects such as The Marvels or Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Eternals doesn’t truly seem to fit into the MCU mold despite its storyline having some major consequences for the shared universe.
Though rumors persisted for some time that a follow-up project or two were in the works, the gravity of its failure to land with anyone made it seem like a longshot to ever have a direct sequel. Now, as Marvel Studios looks to reestablish itself as the box office bull it once was, studio head honcho Kevin Feige has addressed the future of the franchise.
While Feige did also confirm the major world-changing events of Eternals will be addressed in the MCU–“There are, and I think you’ve seen maybe in a trailer we’ve released recently, an acknowledgment of some of those events. Certain giant things came out of the ocean,” Feige told Inverse–it’s unclear if any of the film’s ensemble cast will have any role in future projects. That’s not entirely surprising as Kumail Nanjiani, whose Kingo was one of the highlights of Eternals, indicated in a 2023 interview that he hadn’t heard of any plans to move forward with a sequel.
Yeah! I mean, listen, I have plans today. I don’t know if they have plans. I would love to come back. But I’m sort of waiting to hear when or if that’s going to happen. I’m hoping I get to do more. I had a great time playing that character. It’d be a shame if he’s a sort of one and done. But, you know, the decision’s not mine to make.
-Kumail Nanjiani on the future of the Eternals franchise
As it stands, it would seem that the loose ends of Eternals will stay loose and have no significant impact on the remainder of the Multiverse Saga.
Since Bob Iger‘s return as Disney’s top dog, the House of Mouse’s major studios have been reflecting on the work they have been churning out. Chief among those is Marvel Studios, who after a string of projects that were critical and/or financial disappointments, has been mandated to slow down production and get back to the basics of what made the MCU the cultural phenomenon it was. The strikes served as a blessing in disguise in that regard, allowing Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios Parliament to rework several projects that were already in production and get ahead of the curve on others. As a result, it seems as though the end of the Multiverse Saga may ultimately be delayed a bit and while fans wait to find out when it will wrap up and what new projects will join those already known, a new rumor may help put that puzzle together.
According to Marvel Studios insider Daniel RPK, Disney has decided not to move forward with a trio of sequels, effectively killing three Marvel Studios franchises. The scooper reports that the studio has decided not to move forward with more projects in the Captain Marvel and Ant-Man franchises and has “shelved” a sequel to 2021’s Eternals. The moves come as Iger reportedly wants Marvel to put their energy into projects that are sure-fire hits and reduce the number of risky projects in the pipeline.
The Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, was a disappointment at the box office, falling well short of the big money its predecessor made in 2019. The target of a preemptive and hateful social media campaign that was successful in keeping fans out of theaters, the film has been fairly warmly received as it made its way to Disney Plus. The same can not be said, however, for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Plagued by rewrites, the film–which was supposed to be a major cornerstone of the Multiverse Saga–is the most critically panned MCU project. Neither of those projects were as risky as Eternals, which was also well-lambasted by critics. Word of development on a sequel to Eternals had been making its way around for some time but for now, it seems fairly unlikely to move forward.
The rumor mill for Marvel has been going in full force. While many complain there are too many projects rolling out, it seems like there are countless more that are simply rumors without any actual release or even an official announcement. Still, among those that have long been hinted at potentially being in development was the sequel to Chloé Zhao‘s Eternals.
Up until now, it was just a rumor based on some theories. The first film wasn’t a critical darling and faced similar harsh criticism like the recent Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Yet, there was still a lot of potential in exploring these characters and the vastly unique sci-fi world offered at the end of the story. When asked in an interview with Hollywood Reporter if there was any truth to these rumors, Zhao gave a curious defensive reaction.
No comment.
Chloé Zhao
It’s not the kind of reaction you’d usually get, as many would just talk about the possibility of directing a sequel and returning to that world. Yet, the very direct “no comment” opens up the possibility that there are talks that she’s not going to risk talking about. Of course, that is also just an overanalysis of how some tended to react when they didn’t want to risk giving away any information. Still, we’ll have to probably wait quite sometime before we find out what exactly the future has in store for the Eternals moving forward.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
As Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania join it as the most harshly reviewed film in Marvel Studios’ history, a new report indicates that 2021’s Eternals will have a sequel. Though the critical response to the film was poor and audience scores didn’t indicate it was a big hit with fans in theaters, it has found a new life on Disney Plus becoming the streaming service’s biggest film debut. It now seems possible that the streaming success of Eternals may have given the franchise new life.
According to insider KC Walsh, an Eternals sequel has been given the green light at Marvel Studios and has recently been added to the production schedule alongside the previously announced sequel to Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.
Though no further details were provided about when the films might go into production, a quick peek at Marvel Studios’ existing slate would indicate that fans should not expect Eternals 2 or Shang-Chi 2 until 2025 at the earliest. As it stands, there are 2 untitled Marvel Studios films scheduled to release in 2025 and 3 in 2026. With news breaking now about these two projects, it’d would be reasonable to assume under normal circumstances that they’d be ready in time for 2025 but times they are a changing.
In what may come as a surprise to some, Marvel Studio’s Eternals was the most streamed film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2022. The Chloe Zhao-directed film ranked 13th in Nielsen’s list of the Top 15 Streaming Movies of 2022, and is the only film from Marvel Studios present. Below is the full list of films and their view count.
The list from Nielsen highlights the dominance that both Disney+ and Netflix hold in the streaming landscape. Based on their view counts and subscriber numbers, the two are definitive benchmarks for successful streaming services. This group of 15 films also highlights the domination child-oriented family movies hold in the film industry.
When it comes to Eternals specifically, this type of data could be seen as a promising sign for fans of the original film. While the 2021 theatrical release was one of the lowest performing from both financial and critical perspectives for Marvel Studios, it appears the film has found a sizeable audience on Disney+. With that in mind, one could see such a high view count as a check in the plus column for continuing the franchise for at least a sequel project (if it was ever in doubt to begin with). Though an interesting possibility could then be to move the Eternals franchise exclusively to Disney+. The film has at least appeared to be more accessible via streaming. And allowing a longer runtime that isn’t constrained for a sequel could help further expand the stories of these characters, something that could’ve helped the critical success of the rare mixed performance of a Marvel Studios film.
Source: The Direct
