If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Yes, Disney has pushed out the release dates for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars - but this shows that Marvel is serious about regaining its mojo

Fans will have to wait longer for the next two Avengers movies, but it's a sign that the wait will be worth it

Published on Fri May 23 2025

Popverse's top stories

Yes, it’s true: Disney has pushed once again rearranged the Marvel Studios release calendar, pushing both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars out by seven months each, moving the movies to December 2026 and December 2027, respectively. But do not panic: this is a good thing. Really.

As things stood before these switches, these two movies — which look set to be some of the biggest MCU productions to date, just based on the Doomsday casting announcements alone — were operating on a genuinely insane timeframe to reach the original release dates of May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively. Production on Doomsday began on March 26, 2025, just 14 months ahead of the original release date of the movie — and production on Secret Wars was intended to start immediately afterwards.

Using the shooting schedules of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame as comparisons, it’s likely that Doomsday would be shooting until fall 2025, if not later. Infinity War took six months to shoot, from January through July 2017; Endgame took roughly the same amount of time, from August 2017 through January 2018. If this comparison is roughly correct, Doomsday would wrap initial production around October 2025, leaving just seven months for post-production and any required reshoots if the movie were to meet its original May 2026 release date; again, by comparison, Avengers: Infinity War had 10 months, and Avengers: Endgame more than a year. Endgame also required reshoots a year after initial photography; that time simply wouldn’t be available on the previous release schedule.

Moving the Avengers movies out to new dates is a sign that Disney and Marvel aren’t going to rush these movies to hit previously anticipated points in the calendar, which should be taken as a good sign for the final films by MCU fans. (It’s also a sign that Disney and Marvel are serious about slowing down and focusing on quality of MCU stories again.) That it has the added benefit of giving Disney’s other big nerd-centric summer 2026 release — The Mandalorian & Grogu, scheduled for a May 22 2026 in-theater date — more time to breathe in theaters is just gravy for the House of Mouse.

The new release dates for Marvel’s Avengers movies are:

Avengers: Doomsday — December 18, 2026
Avengers: Secret Wars — December 17, 2027

If it helps, think of them as holiday gifts to you and your loved ones. Destructive, multiverse-wrecking holiday gifts.

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time, and get ready for all the free Marvel comics coming as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day / Comics Giveaway Day events.

Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.