Marvel Studios has chosen to delay its next two high-stakes Avengers movies by seven months apiece.
Avengers: Doomsday moves from May 1 to December 18, 2026, while Avengers: Secret Wars shifts from May 27, 2027 to December 17 of that year.
Marvel owner Disney won’t have any concerns about moving the Avengers movies from their traditional early summer slots to the holidays.
But then there will be a break of a full year — long by Marvel standards — before Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July 2026, followed by another yearlong break between the two upcoming Avengers movies.
The two Avengers films ought to be more than enough to look forward to in the meantime.
The two highly anticipated Avengers films that Marvel Studios has decided to postpone by seven months each. The dates of Avengers: Secret Wars and Doomsday are changed from May 27, 2027, to December 17, 2026, and May 1, 2026, to December 18, 2026, respectively.
The delay, according to insiders who spoke to Deadline, is only necessary to accommodate the “gargantuan vision” of two movies that will be “among the biggest ever made.”. Perhaps Marvel is afraid of Grand Theft Auto 6. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who helmed Marvel’s two highest-grossing films, 2018’s Infinity War and 2019’s Endgame, as well as the two previous Avengers team-up films, are helming all three films simultaneously. Avengers: Doomsday is currently in development.
The Avengers films will not be rescheduled from their customary early summer release dates to the holidays, which won’t worry Marvel owner Disney. The third-highest-grossing Marvel movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, was released in mid-December 2021 and was an enormous success. (The Devil Wears Prada 2, another popular Disney film, will take the coveted May 1, 2026 slot from Avengers: Doomsday. ).
In an investor call, Disney CEO Bob Iger claimed that Marvel Studios had “lost a little focus by making too much,” but the move still represents a change from quantity to quality at the studio. Marvel is putting out three films in 2025 with a fair amount of success after only releasing one in 2024 (Deadpool and Wolverine): Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps. However, a full year—long by Marvel standards—will pass before Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July 2026, and then there will be another year off between the two upcoming Avengers films.
Variety emphasizes this point by pointing out that, although it has three slots set aside for Marvel movies in 2028, Disney has eliminated or substituted a number of slots for “untitled Marvel” projects in 2026 and 2027. It’s still unclear what these could be, as well as what the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s post-Secret Wars future holds in general. In addition to the troubled Blade, the status of the Armor Wars film is unknown, and there are still no clear plans for the Shang-Chi and Black Panther sequels. Above all, the prospect of a potential X-Men film, which at last appears to be taking shape, looms large.
Meanwhile, the two Avengers movies should be plenty to look forward to. Actors from the classic Fox X-Men films, newcomers from Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts*, MCU veterans, and wild cards like Channing Tatum’s Gambit make up Marvel’s multiverse assembled cast for Doomsday. Robert Downey Jr. is the team’s leader. not Tony Stark, but Doctor Doom. From here, they could truly go anywhere.
