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Avengers: Secret Wars is just over the horizon. The massive team-up film promises a spectacle that will close the book on both the Multiverse Saga and Marvel Phase 6. While we don't know exactly what that will entail, we're expecting some serious fireworks.
Before that, Avengers: Doomsday will set the stage for Secret Wars, building an epic showdown between universes. It's yet to be seen how the two films will connect, but we've gathered up all the info that's available, along with some hints from comics and from directors Joe and Anthony Russo that could point to aspects of the plot of Secret Wars.
Avengers: Secret Wars release date
Avengers: Secret Wars will be released on December 17, 2027.
It was originally announced for May 1, 2026, but that got pushed back amid strike-related delays. It was then pushed back to May 7, 2027, and is now delayed yet again. According to Deadline, this decision was made due to the fact that both Secret Wars and its predecessor, Avengers: Doomsday, have increased in scope.
Marvel has been pumping out a ton of shows and movies over the last year. However, the choice not to rush the new Avengers movies is one that the studio has carefully considered.
"When we were doing Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3, there were [fewer] projects over more years," Feige previously explained of the six-year gap between Avengers: Endgame and the next Avengers movie. "They were smaller projects and individual character stories, and it felt appropriate at that point that after every two or three years that it took for a phase, we would do an Avengers film."
Avengers: Secret Wars directors
During SDCC 2024, it was announced that the Russo brothers would direct Avengers: Secret Wars and its predecessor, Avengers: Doomsday.
This was welcome news to fans as the Russo brothers directed two of the best Marvel movies of all time, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. So, if anyone can close out the Multiverse Saga with a bang, these two can.
"Joe and I truly believed Endgame was the end of the road for us," Anthony Russo said. "In the time since, through a special story, we have come to potentially see a road to take with you all."
Since then, the Russos have been talking about the upcoming Avengers movies, with some details that will be key for the story moving forward.
"What's compelling about these two new Avengers movies is they're a beginning. It's a new beginning. We told an ending story, now we're going to tell a beginning story. And then who knows where we'll go from there. Maybe it'll be another 5 years but I think we just needed that time and perspective to figure out where it needed to go next, and the only thing that brought us back was the right story," Joe Russo said in an interview with Omelete.
Avengers: Secret Wars cast
SDCC 2024 revealed that Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom will play a role in Avengers: Secret Wars. We also know that the Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts will play a part in the upcoming Marvel movie.
That means we can expect to see Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Susan Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm. On the Thunderbolts side, we’ll see Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, and more.
However, apart from those two groups and Doctor Doom, no other casting announcements have been made yet. The 2015 Secret Wars comics that the movie looks set to be heavily based on also featured the likes of Thor, both Miles Morales and Peter Parker, Wolverine, Captain America, She-Hulk, and so many more.
Several Marvel villains also joined Doctor Doom in the comics, such as The Beyonder, The Lizard, Magneto, Molecule Man, and Kang the Conqueror. So, keep your eyes on this page, because we expect a lot more casting announcements to come our way in the future.
Avengers: Secret Wars plot
There have been two prominent Secret Wars storylines in Marvel comics, the first of which launched in 1984 as part of a collaboration between the comic book-maker and toy manufacturer Mattel. Their intention was to launch a line of toys alongside a huge crossover event in the comics. The first Secret Wars is therefore considered the first ever official Marvel crossover event, with the 12-issue series billed as the ultimate showdown between the most powerful heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe.
The story sees a villain called The Beyonder sending our heroes to a planet known as Battleworld, where they end up trapped and sent into battle against a horde of villains, with The Beyonder promising to grant the wishes of the winning side. Many heroes' storylines are drastically altered, including Spider-Man, who receives his famous all-black costume that ends up being a living alien symbiote – which attempts to take over Peter's mind before attaching itself to Eddie Brock and becoming Venom.
While the original Secret Wars is much-loved, the MCU seems set to be more akin to the 2015 comic book run that saw the destruction of the Prime Marvel Universe (Earth-616) as we know it. Essentially, The Beyonders – there are many of them – are trying to collapse the Multiverse through Incursions, which is when universes collide and become unstable. The Beyonders are doing this all by using Molecule Man, the only person who exists in basically the exact same context and identity in every world. He's essentially a failsafe whose powers can be activated by the Beyonders, destroying that universe.
However, the Beyonders are foiled by Doctor Doom. But, being a dastardly villain, Doom then reconstructs Battleworld using elements of different universes. Many heroes are drastically changed in the process, though the Avengers eventually come out on top and defeat Doom, who is known as God Emperor Doom. You can read much more about the Secret Wars comics here.
We've already seen the groundwork for this story being laid out. In Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Doctor Strange of Earth-838 causes an incursion, destroying his universe and another. The Multiverse itself has now been well-established thanks to the Doctor Strange sequel and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which featured multiple Peter Parkers. The theme continued into Loki season 2 as well as The Marvels, and we're guessing we haven't seen the last of that yet, either.
On top of that, Deadpool & Wolverine introduced how unstable timelines in the multiverse truly are. After all, the film focused heavily on the destruction of universes outside the Sacred timeline and the TVA - they always seem to follow one universe-ending problem or another. Incursions and the multiverse firmly falls into that bracket.
In the movie, we also saw a potential future with the Merc with a Mouth being held by Thor. So, Wade Wilson will probably have a bigger part to play in Secret Wars than we initially thought as well.
It looks like Secret Wars could mark the end of multiversal shenanigans, though, according to Kevin Feige. "We're utilizing that [story] not just to round out the stories we've been telling post-Endgame, just as importantly – and you can look at the Secret War comics for where that takes you – it very, very much sets us up for the future," he said in July 2025. "Endgame, literally, was about endings. Secret Wars is about beginnings... Reboot is a scary word. Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline – we're thinking along those lines."
That's everything we know so far about Avengers: Secret Wars. For much more on the MCU, be sure to check out our full breakdown of all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows coming soon. Or check out our guide on how to watch all the Marvel movies in order next!
