- Marvel has delayed the release of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars
- The movies were supposed to arrive in May 2026 and May 2027
- Their worldwide launch dates have been pushed back seven months
Marvel has delayed the release of Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel.
In a move that won’t come as a surprise to many, the comic titan has pushed back the launch dates for Doomsday and its follow-up Avengers: Secret Wars.
The pair had been slated to land in theaters on May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027. Now, you can expect to see Doomsday release in theaters worldwide seven months later than planned, with Avengers 5 now set to arrive on December 18, 2026 and Secret Wars‘ launch pushed to December 17, 2027.
The next two Avengers movies are set to be the biggest undertakings in Marvel Studios’ history. Per Deadline, sources close to the production of both films say they’re among the most ambitious projects that parent company Disney has ever produced, too. To quote Thanos, then, it was inevitable that Marvel would need more time to make both flicks.
Why Avengers 5 and 6’s release-date delays are so significant
Make no mistake, Disney and Marvel have made the right call to delay the release of Doomsday and Secret Wars. The overall response to Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) projects since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame has been mixed. While some films and Disney+ shows have been critical and commercial successes, others haven’t been greeted as enthusiastically or made as much money as Marvel would have hoped.
Disney and Marvel can’t afford to fumble the proverbial bag with Doomsday and Secret Wars, especially given the amount of money it’ll collectively cost to make them. Add in the talent behind and in front of the camera – Avengers: Doomsday‘s initial cast alone is 27-deep – and the pressure to deliver two more top-tier Avengers movies is most certainly on.
Their release date postponements also raise other potential issues.
For starters, Doomsday and Secret Wars‘ delay could have a significant impact on Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The webslinger’s next big-screen adventure was set to arrive between the pair, with its initial launch date penciled in for July 24, 2026. Spider-Man 4 suffered its own release setback in February, but its launch was only delayed by a week to July 31, 2026.
The big question now is whether Brand New Day will swing into cinemas on that revised date. Depending on which online rumors you believe, Spider-Man 4 will either be a multiverse-style movie like Spider-Man: No Way Home was, or a more grounded, street-level flick.
If it’s the former, and if Brand New Day‘s plot is dependent on events that occur in, or run parallel to, Avengers: Doomsday, the next Spider-Man movie’s launch date will likely have to be pushed back again.
Should Brand New Day be moved into 2027, we could see a repeat of 2023 when only one MCU film – Deadpool and Wolverine – landed in theaters, with 2026’s sole Marvel movie being Doomsday. That’s on the basis that Avengers 5, aka the second Marvel Phase 6 film, doesn’t suffer another release date setback.
These delays could have a huge knock-on effect for Marvel’s small-screen offerings, too.
If Brand New Day keeps its mid-2026 launch date, a whole year will have passed between the final MCU film of 2025 – The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which arrives on July 25 – and Tom Holland’s next outing as Peter Parker’s superhero alias. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it means MCU devotees will look to Disney+, aka one of the world’s best streaming services, for their Marvel fix.
Fortunately, Marvel has plenty of TV-based MCU content in the pipeline. From Ironheart‘s release in late June to Daredevil: Born Again season 2’s launch next March, there are currently five live-action and animated series set to debut on Disney’s primary streamer.
In light of Doomsday‘s delay, though, will Marvel tweak its Disney+ lineup and further spread out its small-screen content to fill the void?
Right now, Born Again‘s second season is the only series confirmed to arrive in 2026. There are other shows in the works that are expected to debut next year, but they aren’t likely to be ready until mid- to late 2026. To offset a potentially months-long barren spell in the MCU that Doomsday‘s delayed release has caused, Marvel might opt to push animated series Eyes of Wakanda or Wonder Man, the final live-action MCU TV show of 2025, into early 2026.
I guess we’ll find out more about any further release-schedule changes when Marvel takes to the Hall H stage for its now-annual presentation at San Diego Comic-Con, the 2025 edition of which runs from July 24-27.
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