Marvel is finally starting to slow down, however, with merely six releases - three films, and three Disney+ series - inaugurating Phase 5 in 2023. That’s also dramatically accelerated the pace of Marvel’s storytelling: When the Multiverse Saga - which is currently set to span at least 37 titles across feature films and TV series (live-action and animation) - concludes in May 2027 with “Avengers: Secret Wars,” it will have lasted roughly half as long as the Infinity Saga.
The abrupt explosion in Marvel content is a direct result of the launch of Disney+, of course, and the mandate to populate Disney’s streaming service with a regular pipeline of episodic TV series within the MCU. Then, over just two years, Marvel Studios released 17 movies and streaming titles in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the first act of what studio chief Kevin Feige has christened the Multiverse Saga. From 2008 to 2019, Marvel Studios released 23 feature films in the three phases of the Infinity Saga, the most ambitious cohesive storytelling endeavor ever mounted by a single studio.
