Though not many were convinced they could pull it off, Marvel Studios once planned to roll out a pair of Avengers films in six months. During the studio’s Hall H panel at SDCC ’22, Kevin Feige revealed that 2025 would feature the studio’s first Avengers films since 2019, with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty arriving in May and Avengers: Secret Wars in November. It was an ambitious plan but one that would certainly have ended up with Marvel all but printing its own money.
The Phase 6 double dip wasn’t in the cards for the studio. A pair of strikes, some box office duds and a pivot to a new villain later, May 2025 has come and gone without an Avengers movie and it will now be December 2026 before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters. As part of Disney’s new strategy, Doomsday will be the only Disney-owned Marvel film in theaters in 2026 and 2027 isn’t looking much better, with an untitled film on the books for July and Avengers: Secret Wars in theaters in December. For a studio struggling to hit big at the box office, less needs to be more…which means that July 2027 film needs to hit and hit big.
While Marvel Studios Multiverse Saga slate has been through plenty of shuffling and canceling, a recent trade report indicated that the studio intends to hold onto the July 2027 date. If that’s indeed that case, the studio really only has two apparent options.
A Small-Budget, Non-Multiversal Flick
If Marvel Studios is intent on putting a film in theaters in July 2027, they sure haven’t given any indication that it will be a property of which the public is not already aware. As of now, the hiring of new writers or directors has not been made public and no new production companies that aren’t already believed to be accounted for have been made. That would mean that the film would be something that’s been in development for a few years and that would, of course, bring to mind Blade.
Though a series of unfortunate events has befallen the film, most recently resulting in it being removed from the studio’s 2025 slate, a recent update from Kevin Feige made it sound as though Blade was headed in a positive direction and would eventually make it’s way to theaters. With a script that’s been in the world for years and at least a partial cast, Blade is precisely the type of project that the studio could pull together in a short amount of time, assuming they find a director willing to give it a run. It’s also the type of film they could produce on a relatively low-budget, allowing them to get a dub at the box office while spinning a yarn that won’t detract from but could add to the overarching Multiverse Saga plot–similar to Ant-Man and The Wasp and Captain Marvel, both of which released between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame–while also telling a standalone tale.
An All-New, All-Different Avengers Film
And then there’s another option…Marvel Studios making good on its insane plan to roll out two Avengers films in a calendar year…
After rolling out an Avengers film every three years before dropping Infinity War and Endgame one year apart, the studio has used the first five years of the Multiverse Saga to spin a whole lot of disparate tales and introduce a whole lot of new characters…only to never follow up on very many of them. That’s left a bad taste in the collective maw of fandom as heroes such as Shang-Chi, Moon Knight and She-Hulk have been, to date, one-and-dones. And now, as the Multiverse Saga finds itself accelerating to its end, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine incorporating them all into the cast alongside the stars announced as part of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday; however, releasing a third Avengers film in theaters in July 2027–between Doomsday and Secret Wars–might provide the narrative runway to make it possible.
Verily, Disney’s new approach has shorted Marvel…but a “secret” third Avengers film would ensure that the studio would own the box office for 12 months. Whether it’s Avengers: Time Runs Out, Avengers: Battleworld, Avengers: Everything Dies or Avengers: Illuminati (an Illuminati project was 100% in development at the studio at one point in time), a bridge spanning Doomsday and Secret Wars is a fascinating and cash-rich opportunity for Marvel.
Logistically, it’s a legitimate possibility that work has been being done on these films, even under different names, for at least three years. Ideas can be cut and pasted and altered under the purview of the new creative team. Typically, principal photography on a Marvel Studios film lasts 3-4 months… Doomsday is already in its fifth month. Secret Wars was originally set to film back-to-back before a year’s with if space was added..but who is to say that between now and September 2026, cameras aren’t continually rolling?
Given there’s no shortage of exciting potential storytelling opportunities including characters old (Steve Rogers) and new, the potential for a third Avengers film in the Multiverse Saga cannot be dismissed out of hand. The studio put a significant amount of time and resources into multiple projects that no longer have a place in the saga; however, that leaves them with a chunk of material from which to draw the skeleton of a third film which fits nicely into the continuity of the saga.
And, of course, they could just bail on the date…
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