Why Avengers: Secret Wars Is The Only Marvel Movie Premiering In 2027

Marvel Studios has blown the minds of San Diego Comic-Con attendees in the past during its legendary appearances in Hall H, but by comparison, the company's 2026 presentation was slightly muted. Still, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige did have a few surprises to unveil, including the release windows for two newly announced movies coming in 2028. But the fact that those films are coming in 2028 means that "Avengers: Secret Wars," the sequel to this year's highly anticipated and much-hyped "Avengers: Doomsday," is going to be the only Marvel Studios movie released theatrically in 2027.

Here's what Feige told Empire on the matter:

"A lot of it is a strategy we've talked about for a while, of focusing on quality [...] We always try to focus on quality, but when quantity is so much, you get spread thin. We didn't want to be spread thin, and the Avengers is as important as it comes. And 'Secret Wars,' in particular for Empire readers, who know the comics, is a setup in and of itself to the future, to what's next."

Enjoy that quick trip to Understatement City? We don't need to rehash the nitty gritty of how Marvel found itself in this position. Let's just say ramping up the number of productions to fill Disney+ with TV shows didn't help, and leave it at that for now. But Feige is certainly correct when he says the Avengers is "as important as it comes" for Marvel (each "Avengers" film has made well over a billion dollars, and "Avengers: Endgame" earned $2.7 billion worldwide alone to briefly become the highest-grossing movie ever, unadjusted for inflation), and "Avengers: Secret Wars" is poised to reset the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. But will Feige be able to return Marvel to its former glory?

To be clear, I don't think Marvel Studios will ever fully regain the stranglehold it had on pop culture from 2008-2019. But after last week's underwhelming "Doomsday" trailer, I saw a lot of people online talking about how Marvel is cooked and the age of the superhero movie is over. I understand why folks would say that: establishment films like "The Mandalorian and Grogu" and "Supergirl" recently tanked, while this year's "Obsession" and "Backrooms" showed that a different kind of movie could become a blockbuster. A large portion of people who post about movies online are seemingly eager for Hollywood to stop feeding them old franchises. But even if we are actually on the verge of a new era, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," "Avengers: Doomsday," and "Avengers: Secret Wars" are undoubtedly still going to be very big deals at the box office — and that's not even factoring in the solo "X-Men" movie that's on the way.

Kevin Feige may be bruised, but he's not down for the count. The two films he announced at Comic-Con were "Ghost Rider," directed by Shawn Levy ("Star Wars: Starfighter," "Free Guy") and starring Ryan Gosling, and "Black Panther 3," directed by Ryan Coogler ("Sinners," the other "Black Panther" films) and starring David Jonsson as Chadwick Boseman's character's grown-up son. It remains to be seen whether audiences will actually show up for a "Ghost Rider" movie, but "Black Panther 3" seems like a surefire winner, especially since the previous two films in that franchise made $1.3 billion and $859 million, respectively.

The superhero movie isn't dead, regardless of how badly some people want that narrative to be true. Diminished? Definitely. But not dead. And if Feige can genuinely focus on quality, as he says, and help shape "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" into great movies that large amounts of people truly love, we could be looking at a comeback unlike anything we've ever seen before.