Why I Think Avengers: Secret Wars Can Still Make Its December 2027 Date

Reports suggest Avengers: Secret Wars has been delayed once again, with filming now reportedly set to begin in January or February of 2027. I think Marvel can still make its December 2027 release date, and if it can't, I have no issue with the movie moving to May 2028.

If that reported schedule is true, Marvel would have 10 to 11 months to film, edit and complete what is supposed to be one of the biggest superhero movies ever made. I'm not going to lie: for a movie of this size and scope, that is a tight turnaround.

Secret Wars is meant to close out the entire Marvel movie universe

The scale is what makes the schedule look so daunting. We're talking about the conclusion not only to the Multiverse Saga, and not only to the MCU, but to the entire Marvel movie universe, going all the way back to the Fox X-Men, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and even Wesley Snipes' Blade. This is a movie that could make Avengers: Endgame look small by comparison.

So naturally, people are looking at this reported filming schedule and wondering how Marvel is going to pull it off, and not only pull it off, but pull it off well. I think that's a fair question. But there's a big difference between saying this schedule is less than ideal and saying there's no possible way Marvel can finish the movie in time while keeping the quality we would hope for.

Work on Secret Wars has likely been underway long before cameras roll

Cameras not rolling on Secret Wars doesn't mean the film isn't being worked on, with things like visual effects. It has also been reported that some filming for Secret Wars has already been done on the set of Avengers: Doomsday and during the reshoots for Doomsday. Principal photography not having started doesn't mean work on the movie hasn't begun.

I think it's safe to assume the script for Secret Wars is mostly finished, or at least as finished as the Russos want it to be before filming. The major sequences have already been well planned out. In fact, they've likely already begun animating the effects for those scenes, based on the digital storyboards created for movies like this before they're even made.

Think about the kind of movie this is: a multiversal Battleworld, the Void, many different universes and CGI characters, enormous battles, and potentially entire universes colliding if we see incursions. Those things require months of planning and development, then months more of many digital artists working around the clock. There's no reason to think that work has to wait until filming is finished. In fact, it never does. Doing visual effects before or during filming is very commonplace, especially on big productions like an Avengers movie. If that work is already underway, the 10 to 11 month turnaround starts to look less impossible.

The timeline leaves roughly five to six months for post production

Let's say Marvel begins filming in January or February, and principal photography takes around six months. I would think somewhere between five and seven, so I'll average it out at six. That would mean wrapping around the end of June or sometime in July, which still leaves roughly five to six months before the movie hits theaters in December.

Five or six months of post production on a movie of this magnitude is certainly a very aggressive way of doing it, but it's not impossible. Post production doesn't begin the moment the film wraps. Editing can happen throughout production, and visual effects artists can be working on sequences while other scenes are still being filmed.

These are also the Russo brothers. They aren't first time directors. They have made movies on this scale with Infinity War and Endgame, and they will have Doomsday under their belt. So in reality, it isn't necessarily 10 to 11 months to make the entire movie from scratch. It's 10 to 11 months between the beginning of principal photography and the theatrical release, and those are two very different things.

I wouldn't be surprised if AI tools play some role

I know this is a controversial subject, but I wouldn't be surprised if AI plays some type of role in helping Marvel's digital artists get more work done in less time. Before anybody panics, I'm not talking about Marvel typing a prompt into an AI generator and having it produce the final battle of Secret Wars. That is not what I am suggesting, and I certainly don't want to see talented visual effects artists replaced by AI.

What I mean is that they will likely be using AI type tools that could potentially help artists accelerate some of the more time consuming technical aspects of their work. I am not endorsing that. I'm acknowledging that those tools exist, and they are likely going to be used for things like rotoscoping, cleanup, tracking, upscaling and other repetitive processes that can take an enormous amount of time. With AI, those take far less time, so that could also factor into whether they can complete a movie of this scale so quickly.

Avengers: Doomsday has already done much of the heavy lifting

Here's something I think people are overlooking. Secret Wars isn't being made in a vacuum. It's the second half of a two part story, and Doomsday will have already done a tremendous amount of the heavy lifting. Marvel and the Russos have already assembled this enormous cast, developed the visual language of these movies, figured out the production pipeline and who these characters are, where they are and how they interact, and established the look and feel of this moment in the Marvel universe.

Many of the characters, costumes, environments and digital assets developed for Doomsday could potentially carry over into Secret Wars. That would make the production feel less like starting from the bottom and more like a continuing trajectory on an already moving train. That's a significant advantage, because shutting down a production and starting again from scratch can be a real uphill climb. If you keep your momentum from the previous film, as they did with Lord of the Rings and, I think, Avatar 2 and 3, you can get much more done at a quicker pace.

Infinity War and Endgame, which the Russos also made, were developed and produced as interconnected projects. They were two very different films, but they benefited from having so much creative and logistical groundwork established at the same time. Much of the startup work done to get Infinity War going could be transitioned over to Endgame, so that pre planning didn't have to happen all over again. That doesn't mean Secret Wars won't be incredibly difficult to finish. There's still going to be an enormous amount of work involved.

A move to May 2028 would be a fine release window

I want to be very clear: I have no issue whatsoever with Marvel delaying Secret Wars to May of 2028. I think there's a compelling argument that May would be an absolutely fine window. Avengers movies used to come out in the spring. The Avengers released in May, Age of Ultron released in May, and Infinity War and Endgame both released in late April. There was something special about kicking off the summer movie season with an enormous Avengers event, and I would have no problem with Secret Wars returning to that.

Not that I have any problem with a Christmas release. That's also a great window, perhaps nowadays an even better one for an Avengers movie, especially with Disney not currently having a Star Wars movie to release. Disney's Star Wars movies famously tended to release in December, which pairs well with toy sales, so you can see how that translates over to the Avengers franchise.

A delay would mean bad optics, not a movie in trouble

Moving the movie from December 2027 to May 2028 would come with its own problems. The second Marvel announces a delay, we're going to get a ton of headlines about Secret Wars being in trouble, tweets about Marvel panicking and the movie falling apart behind the scenes, and goofy thumbnails of Kevin Feige looking sad and Doctor Doom with a big red X over his face. You know the drill.

Secret Wars has been delayed before, and I'm not going to pretend another delay would be great optics, especially after all the release date changes we've seen throughout this Multiverse Saga, particularly around these Avengers movies. But personally, I think we might be putting way too much stock into release date changes automatically meaning a movie is in trouble. The general public knows Doomsday is coming in December, but they have no idea when Secret Wars is coming. Most don't even know it's coming at all, so delaying it isn't going to affect public opinion of the movie.

Sure, a delay can sometimes mean something has gone wrong. It can also mean the studio wants more time to make the best movie possible. With a movie like Secret Wars, I would much rather Marvel take an additional five months to get everything right than rush it out the door because they promised a December release. This movie needs to deliver. I want it to be an epic: "3 hours plus of just nonstop gold." If that means waiting until May of 2028, I'm completely fine with that.

I don't expect Secret Wars to be delayed, largely because of Doomsday

Do I think Secret Wars is actually going to get delayed? If you made me answer now, I would say no. I think Marvel is going to find a way to make the December 2027 date work, and the biggest reason is Doomsday. I do think that movie has already accomplished much of the most difficult work the Russos, Feige and Marvel faced in getting these movies off the ground, so Secret Wars should have a much easier road.

I would also have a hard time imagining Kevin Feige or the Russo brothers willingly putting out a movie they know isn't ready when pushing it back a few months could meaningfully improve it. If they were faced with that, I think they would delay it. Of course, Feige does have a boss, and it's no longer Bob Iger but the new Disney CEO. I think there was one movie, maybe The Force Awakens, where Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm wanted a few more months, J.J. Abrams wanted more time as well, and Bob Iger said no. So I guess it's possible Feige and the Russos could want a delay and the Disney bosses could say no, though hopefully that wouldn't happen.

It's also possible they've already decided to delay Secret Wars and are waiting until after Doomsday releases to announce it, so the news doesn't cloud Doomsday's marketing. After Doomsday comes out, they could make a big Secret Wars announcement with a sneak peek teaser and a new poster, and slip in that it's releasing in 2028 now. The general public wouldn't care. Hardcore fans might notice the change, but I think once that initial response is over, no one will care, and Secret Wars would still be fine. A Secret Wars delay would of course mean X-Men gets delayed too, but I see no problem with that either.

Aggressive doesn't mean impossible

As things stand, I'm not ready to sound the alarm. A 10 to 11 month window from production to release for a movie this size is aggressive, but aggressive doesn't automatically mean impossible. We as fans only see a fraction of the work happening behind the scenes, and there's likely much being done on Secret Wars that we don't even know about.

So I'm optimistic. I think Secret Wars can and will make its December 2027 release, but if they delay it, I don't care. I'm confident Kevin Feige and the Russos will make whatever decision they think is best, and if they reach a point where they feel they can't make the date, they'll do the right thing and delay.