Marvel's Phase 7 Reportedly Mapped Out With 9 Movies, Including a New Avengers Team-Up

New reporting suggests Marvel's Phase 7, the stretch of movies coming right after Avengers: Secret Wars, will consist of nine films total. That slate is reported to include five solo films and four team-up films, and one of those four team-up films is reportedly an Avengers title.

That is a genuinely big deal to me because of how long fans had to wait this time around. Nothing in Phase Four, nothing in Phase Five, nothing in Phase Six gave us a new Avengers movie until Doomsday and Secret Wars finally arrived. If this report holds up, we will not have to wait three or four more phases for the next one. That said, I think the Avengers film we get here might look a little different than people expect, and I will get into why below.

X-Men Cast Revealed With Adam Driver Playing Mr. Sinister

The X-Men film is confirmed, and we already have a cast. Sadie Sink is playing Jean Grey, Kit Connor is Cyclops/Scott Summers, Christopher Abbott is Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving is Emma Frost, and Adam Driver is Mr. Sinister, which I absolutely love as a piece of casting. There are also actresses cast as Rogue and Storm.

From what has been heard, this is shaping up to be a fairly classic X-Men story, with Mr. Sinister as the villain. There have been rumors, nothing confirmed, that Apocalypse could show up and be teased in this film. It is also expected to deal with X-Men versus humanity, though it is not yet clear if Magneto will appear, even if that storyline is expected to at least be set up here. The events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day are also expected to directly affect the X-Men in this movie, and this version of the team is going in completely new, not carrying over from the X-Men who appeared heading into Avengers: Doomsday.

Ghost Rider Brings Ryan Gosling Into the MCU After He Pitched Kevin Feige Himself

Ghost Rider is confirmed with Ryan Gosling, and the story behind how he got there is one I really like. Kevin Feige said he had spoken with Gosling about joining the MCU for a while, including a possible Nova role. But Gosling ended up going to Feige with Shawn Levy, who he had just worked with on a new Star Wars film and who previously directed Deadpool and Wolverine for Marvel. Gosling had reportedly been reading Ghost Rider comics on his own and decided the story could work.

According to that account, Gosling and Levy agreed on set that Ghost Rider was the right project, took it to Feige, and Feige agreed to move forward. As I said in going through this, that tells me there is a lot of passion behind it, similar to how the Russos and Stephen McFeely reportedly waited on Avengers: Doomsday until something clicked in a way that made them feel they had to tell that story.

Black Panther 3 Raises the Question of Whether David Jonsson Is T'Challa Jr. or a Variant

Black Panther 3 is coming with David Jonsson as the new Black Panther, and Denzel Washington is confirmed to be in the film as well. There have been reports for some time that this new Black Panther will show up in Avengers: Secret Wars. The big question is whether he is really T'Challa Jr. or some kind of multiversal variant. The signs point toward him being T'Challa Jr., but that raises questions about how it fits with Shuri and Storm, and whether a new Wakanda is coming from a different universe entirely, since Phase 7 is described as a new universe built partly from multiple different universes.

I think that mix of some familiar elements with a lot of new ones is the right call, since it lets Marvel keep characters like Spider-Man or the Thunderbolts around rather than wiping everything clean. Some people would rather see a full hard reboot with a clean break, even if that means losing a lot of characters and stories. I would rather see the soft reboot approach that keeps some characters while bringing in new ones.

Shang-Chi 2 Is Confirmed to Be Moving Forward After Stalling for Two Years

Shang-Chi 2 has been confirmed at this point, even though it was actually first confirmed two years ago before stalling out amid changes at Marvel. Simu Liu is expected to play a fairly big role in both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, and Shang-Chi 2 is expected after that.

Spider-Man 5 Is Essentially Confirmed After Brand New Day's Success

Spider-Man 5 is also essentially confirmed given that Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the third biggest movie of all time and was a massive success. A recent report suggested director Destin Daniel Cretton has already signed on to return, but that report was speculation and is not official yet. Given how well Cretton worked with Tom Holland and Zendaya on this last film, it seems safe to assume he returns for the next trilogy, even if Marvel has only confirmed that Spider-Man 5 is happening and not exactly when. Based on the schedules of the actors and director involved, a lot of people think it lands around 2029, which is not too far off considering Brand New Day just extended its theatrical run.

Doctor Strange 3 Could Introduce the Illuminati to Set the Rules of the New Universe

Doctor Strange 3 was confirmed a while back, and unless plans have changed, it is still expected to happen, though it is the one film on this list that is not locked in the way the others are. My own take is that it should be an Illuminati film, and that it should actually be one of the first movies of Phase 7 so the Illuminati can be established early and lay out the rules of this new universe.

I see that team as the ones who would be responsible for enforcing those rules, making sure there is not another Kang or Doctor Doom situation and that the multiverse does not get destroyed again, or alternatively policing a single timeline the way He Who Remains once did. The Illuminati in the comics are made up of leaders from different teams, including Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Professor X, and Mr. Fantastic, though the MCU version will likely differ somewhat. Their judgment tends to land in a gray area, which I think opens the door to good stories, and I would count this as one of the four team-up films.

Nova Is Expected as a Solo Film That Introduces Annihilus

Nova is expected to be a solo film, and I think the character deserves one given how big an introduction this is. From what has been heard, the villain will be Annihilus, and there is a chance the film touches on the Annihilation event from the comics.

That event is a massive one involving Star-Lord, Gamora, and a lot of the Guardians, so my guess is Marvel needs to build up more before going straight into it. Nova might instead tease Annihilus as the villain first, with the larger Annihilation wave arriving later. I do not see Nova counting as one of the team-up films.

Deadpool 4 Is Set Up as an X-Force Style Team-Up

Deadpool 4 is expected to be one of the bigger team-up films in this slate. Ryan Reynolds has already said it is an ensemble film and that he does not think Deadpool works well as a solo character, which points toward something close to an X-Force film. I think that is pretty much guaranteed and confirmed to be one of the team-up entries.

The Ninth Film Could Be an Avengers AXE Crossover With the X-Men and Eternals

One report has said one of the first crossover events for the new saga is going to be an AXE event involving the Eternals, which in the comics stands for Avengers, X-Men, Eternals. That setup already exists in the MCU, since Arishem returned at the end of Eternals saying he would scan the memories of the Eternals and come back to Earth for judgment, referencing the celestial that was seen forming in the ocean.

Based on that setup, the Eternals would have to return to Earth and warn the Avengers and X-Men that a celestial is coming to destroy the planet unless it is stopped. The three groups would likely clash with each other at first before coming together to fight the celestial. My own reasoning is that this AXE story probably cannot be the ninth film unless the Avengers team is already established, so I think a more standard Avengers film needs to come first, especially if Marvel is recasting Iron Man and Captain America as previously discussed. It is possible Doomsday and Secret Wars already establish that team well enough to skip a separate solo Avengers film, or Marvel could simply use the start of the AXE film itself to bring back the Eternals and explain the threat before building to the big team-up fight.

Putting it all together, the nine films reportedly lined up are X-Men, Ghost Rider, Black Panther 3, Shang-Chi 2, Spider-Man 5, Doctor Strange 3, Nova, Deadpool 4, and the Avengers/AXE film, though Doctor Strange 3 is the one still not fully locked in.