Marvel Scraps Multiverse Saga, Confirms “Simplified” MCU Effective 2027

Nearly 17 years after Iron Man (2008) kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios is finally saying the quiet part out loud: the last several years haven’t gone the way anyone hoped, and it’s time to hit reset.

With Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) now anchoring Phase Six, the studio and its returning directors are framing these films as something much bigger than another crossover event. Think less “next chapter” and more “new book entirely.”

So what exactly is Marvel trying to fix?

Let’s not pretend fans imagined this. Captain America: Brave New World (2025) landed as a Phase Five theatrical release and still underperformed at the box office, which pretty much crystallized the vibe around the MCU at that point. Phase Four and Phase Five both took heat for feeling scattered — barely connected storylines, an overload of Disney+ shows that audiences were expected to treat as required reading, and a general sense that Marvel was chasing volume instead of quality.

Even Bob Iger agreed. The Walt Disney Company’s own (then) chief executive publicly admitted the studio had oversaturated the market in a way that watered down audience excitement. When the guy running Disney says the same thing fans have been saying on social media for years, you know something had to give.

Phase Four launched mid-pandemic, and that timing shaped a lot of its early identity. There were real wins — Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) became one of the biggest box office hits in franchise history, and Disney+ originals like WandaVision introduced a whole new format for MCU storytelling. But as the release schedule kept expanding, keeping track of what actually mattered to the bigger story got harder and harder.

Phase Five didn’t fare much better on the theatrical side. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and The Marvels (2023) both struggled to connect with audiences. The bright spots came from Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), which was a legitimate commercial win, and Thunderbolts* (2025), which was tonally different from many previous MCU movies.

Enter Phase Six — And a Very Different Robert Downey Jr.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) technically opened Phase Six, but the real turning point is Avengers: Doomsday, which brings Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man) back to the franchise — not as Iron Man, but as Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom. The Russo Brothers, who directed Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), are also stepping back behind the camera.

And according to the Russos themselves, this isn’t a victory lap. Speaking with Omelete, the directing duo made their intentions clear:

“It’s a beginning,” the Russo Brothers told Omelete, separating the new Avengers films from the sense of closure they gave audiences with Avengers: Endgame. They’ve also said they only signed back on because they found a story worth telling — which matters a lot, considering how burned out fans have gotten on legacy filmmakers returning for “one more.”

Kevin Feige Basically Confirms It: This Is a Full Reboot of Direction

If the Russos’ comments left any room for doubt, Kevin Feige closed that door. Talking to the Chinese press (via Comic Book Movie), the Marvel Studios president explained that Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are meant to do two things at once.

“We want to do two things,” Feige told reporters. “First, to bring some storylines to a close, those that started long before Iron Man, including the original X-Men characters. Second, to simultaneously set the stage for the future.”

He went further, describing what comes after the Multiverse Saga wraps: “Avengers: Endgame was truly an end, and since then, we’ve tried and experimented with many new things. But Avengers: Secret Wars is a beginning,” Feige continued. “It will establish a streamlined, simplified, single universe that we can keep up with. Some things will be familiar, but many, many things will be entirely new.”

“Going back to what we mentioned earlier about attracting young people and connecting with a new generation of audiences, that’s exactly what the next universe will be about.”

And despite years of “superhero fatigue” discourse, Feige isn’t hinting at Marvel slowing down. Quite the opposite:

“We were just in a Marvel Studios meeting room, planning movies all the way up to 2042,” he shared. “Whether we can make it to 2042? Who knows? Will it be those movies? Who knows? But this is how we approach and plan the vast amount of potential stories in the comics.”

Even Spider-Man Is Getting a Fresh Start

The reset energy extends to Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), too. His next solo outing, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is expected to open a new chapter following the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. That tracks with what Jon Watts, who directed Holland’s original trilogy, has said before — that his three films were really one long origin story, and that story is done.

Put it all together, and Phase Six starts to look less like a continuation and more like Marvel quietly closing a very long book and opening a brand new one.

How do you feel about Marvel leaving the MCU Multiverse Saga behind? Let us know in the comments.