Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a group of American superhero films and television series produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films and series are set. The phase includes television series produced by Marvel Studios and Marvel Studios Animation for the streaming service Disney+, as well as a television special marketed as a "Marvel Television Special Presentation". The phase began with the film The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July 2025 and is set to end with the film Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027. Phases Four, Five, and Six make up "The Multiverse Saga" storyline.

Kevin Feige is producing every film in the phase, with Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Rachel O'Connor also producing Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)—a co-production between Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures—and Marvel Studios executives Louis D'Esposito and Jonathan Schwartz also producing the crossover film Avengers: Doomsday (2026). The films star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic in First Steps and Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Brand New Day. Many actors from previous Marvel projects return for Doomsday and Secret Wars. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is distributing the films except for Brand New Day, which was released by Sony Pictures Releasing. The phase's films have grossed over  billion at the global box office.

The phase's series are released under different labels: "Marvel Animation" for the animated series; "Marvel Spotlight" for the more standalone series Wonder Man (2026); and "Marvel Television" for other live-action series. The television series star ensemble casts for the animated miniseries Eyes of Wakanda and the first season of the animated series Marvel Zombies (both 2025), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams / Wonder Man in Wonder Man, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil in the second and third seasons of Daredevil: Born Again (2026–27), Paul Bettany as Vision in VisionQuest (2026), and Hudson Thames as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the second season of the animated Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2027).

In addition to the feature films and television series, the phase also includes the television special The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026), starring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle / Punisher. Some tie-in comic books are also included. The re-release of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Avengers Endgame: Encore (2026), during the phase featured additional footage that connected Endgame to Doomsday. Additionally, the second and third seasons of the Marvel Studios Animation series X-Men '97 are being released on Disney+ alongside Phase Six as part of the Multiverse Saga.

Development

By April 2014, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that additional storylines for their media franchise and shared universe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), were planned through 2028. During Marvel Studios' panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Feige announced several films and Disney+ television series in development for Phase Four of the MCU, before revealing the film Blade and a Fantastic Four film were also in development. After the panel, Feige confirmed that Blade was not part of the Phase Four slate at the time, and that what was announced was the full Phase Four slate at that point, despite Marvel already developing further projects at that time. Fantastic Four was formally confirmed in December 2020; the film was believed to be a part of Phase Four at that time.

By June 2021, in addition to What If...?, Marvel Studios was developing a slate of at least three more animated series. During the Disney+ Day event in November 2021, Marvel Studios announced the What If...? spin-off series Marvel Zombies. By the end of November 2021, producer Amy Pascal said that Marvel Studios was planning at least three more Spider-Man films starring Tom Holland with Sony Pictures after Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and the following month, Marvel Studios and Sony were actively beginning to develop the story for the fourth MCU Spider-Man film. Also in December, Destin Daniel Cretton was revealed to be developing a comedy series through his company Family Owned, as part of his overall deal with Marvel Studios to develop television projects for the studio for Disney+ in addition to returning to write and direct a sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). In April 2022, Feige said he and Marvel Studios were on a creative retreat to plan and discuss the MCU films for the following 10 years, and in June 2022, said information on the next saga of the MCU would be provided in the following months, with Marvel Studios being a "little more direct" on their future plans to provide audiences with "the bigger picture [so they] can see a tiny, tiny bit more of the roadmap" following the clues included during Phase Four. Cretton's series was also revealed to be Wonder Man that month.

At Marvel Studios' San Diego Comic-Con panel in July 2022, Feige announced that Fantastic Four would be the first film of Phase Six. He also announced that the phase would conclude with two ensemble films, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, both to be released in 2025, and that Phase Six, along with Phase Four and Phase Five, would be part of "The Multiverse Saga". The films were respectively inspired by "Kang Dynasty", a 2001 comic book storyline written by Kurt Busiek in which Kang the Conqueror travels through time to enslave humanity, and Secret Wars, the name of a 1984–85 comic written by Jim Shooter and a 2015–16 comic written by Jonathan Hickman that both follow various Marvel characters who converge on the planet Battleworld. Feige noted that while not all projects in Phase Six or the previous two phases would directly tie into the larger multiverse storyline, the various storylines that would weave together leading into Secret Wars was "a whole new aspect to the MCU". At the panel, Feige also confirmed the film Blade for Phase Five. Following Marvel Studios' SDCC panel, Disney announced a third season of What If...? and a second season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, then titled Spider-Man: Sophomore Year. In October, Marvel Studios delayed Blade to September 2024 and pushed back the releases of Fantastic Four and Avengers: Secret Wars as a result. In early February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the company would be re-evaluating the volume of content it outputs as a way to cut costs over the next few years. Shortly after, when reflecting on the amount of Disney+ content released for Phase Four in a short time frame, Feige anticipated that Marvel Studios would look to space out the releases of the Disney+ series in Phase Five and Six or put fewer out each year "so they can each get a chance to shine".

The start of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike in May 2023 was not expected to impact the MCU projects in production, or preparing to begin production, at that time, namely Wonder Man and Fantastic Four, with Marvel Studios reportedly planning to shoot what they could during principal photography and make any necessary writing adjustments during each project's already scheduled reshoots. Production on Wonder Man was shut down by the end of the month, with plans to resume filming when the strike concluded. In June, Disney delayed Fantastic Four to May 2, 2025, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to May 1, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars to May 7, 2027, in part due to the writers' strike and Disney's intentions to improve the quality of MCU content from writing through post-production, after disappointing reception and lower box office earnings for several recently released films following the COVID-19 pandemic. The following month, Iger stated the company would be reducing spending and creation of Marvel content, admitting that Marvel Studios' expansion into Disney+ series and more films had "diluted focus and attention" after a number of underachieving films at the box office in Phases Four and Five. In early September 2023, Marvel Studios announced Wonder Man had an undetermined release, due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes and a desire to slow down their content output and make each of their titles "an event".

When the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike ended that November, Disney delayed several films to accommodate the resumption of production, including moving Blade to November 7, 2025, making it part of the Phase Six slate. Also that month, it was reported that Marvel Studios executives had discussed potentially bringing back the original Avengers cast, including Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, as well as alternative plans for the Multiverse Saga due to Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors's legal issues surrounding assault allegations from earlier that year, including pivoting to focus on another comic book antagonist such as Doctor Doom. The following month, Disney and Marvel Studios fired Majors after he was found guilty of harassment and reckless assault in the third degree. His character had been set to be the main antagonist of the Multiverse Saga, particularly The Kang Dynasty. By then, Marvel Studios had begun to internally refer to that film as Avengers 5. Additionally, Marvel Studios Animation announced the series Eyes of Wakanda, which was planned to be released in 2024. Fantastic Four was retitled The Fantastic Four in February 2024, when its release date was moved to July 25, 2025, swapping with the Phase Five film Thunderbolts*.

In May 2024, Iger said Disney planned to release two, or at most three, Marvel films and two Marvel series a year moving forward. This was down from up to four films and around four series being released in some recent years, and was part of the company's larger strategy to reduce its content output and focus on quality; at that time, four films were still planned to be released in 2026. He said Marvel content would continue to balance sequels with new franchises. Later that month, VisionQuest, a spin-off series from WandaVision (2021) centered on the character Vision, was revealed to be in development for release in 2026; it concludes a trilogy of series that includes WandaVision and Agatha All Along (2024), and was previously being developed by those series' creator Jac Schaeffer. In July 2024, The Fantastic Four was further retitled The Fantastic Four: First Steps, while Avengers 5 was titled Avengers: Doomsday along with the announcement of Downey playing a new villain, Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom, in that film and Secret Wars.