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Following reports that Thunderbolts* will be the third Marvel movie to fail to break even at the box office out if its last four releases, it’s worth wondering what Marvel Studios is doing in response — especially as the company’s release schedule continues to fill up with an increasing amount of mystery movies.

Disney announced earlier this week that a new, untitled Marvel project had been added to its release slate for December 15, 2028 — meaning that, as things currently stand, Marvel will release no less than four movies theatrically that year. (Other, also untitled, Marvel movies are currently scheduled for February 18, May 5, and November 10, 2028, respectively.)

Assuming this schedule holds — which is by no means a safe bet — this means that 2028 will see Marvel Studios double its output of the preceding two years; as the studio heads towards the end of its current Phase 6 era, it’ll be releasing only two movies per year in 2026 and 2027: Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday in 2026, and an untitled mystery movie and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027. This year, Marvel is releasing three movies: Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps; in 2024, it only released Deadpool and Wolverine.

Seemingly such a high number of untitled movies on Marvel’s calendar is a rarity; traditionally, Marvel has announced its projects years in advance as a way to build audience excitement for its projects. However, that’s backfired on the studio more than once, as in the case of Blade, its seemingly-stalled reboot of the Wesley Snipes-starring vampire hunter franchise. Originally announced in 2019, the movie was scheduled in 2022 for a 2023 release date — only to be pushed to a 2024 date three months later after its original director left the project. In June 2023, its release was pushed out again, to February 2025, only to be moved once again on November 2023 to a November 2025 date — and, in October 2024, removed from the calendar altogether with the movie apparently in limbo. (The studio is still "committed" to the movie, says studio head Kevin Feige.)

Such delays may have made Marvel nervous about committing in public to projects and release dates that may not happen — as has, undoubtedly, an increasingly weak box office for its releases. Multiple features are known to be in development at the studio, including a second Shang-Chi movie and at least one X-Men project (potentially helmed by Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier; there’s a second feature that Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds is said to be working on a pitch for, although he’s said that Marvel hasn’t even seen it yet, never mind approved it); sequels are also expected for both Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four.

Of course, keeping the titles a mystery serves another purpose for Marvel at this point — maintaining secrecy surrounding its upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars two-part finale to its Multiverse Saga. If no-one knows what movies are to follow, then it’s more exciting for fans to speculate about who survives the story and makes it into the post-Secret Wars MCU, after all… but given that Marvel potentially spoiled Thunderbolts* with its initial cast announcement for Doomsday, and then again spoiled Thunderbolts* with its own promotion for Thunderbolts* four days after release, it’s worth wondering just how much Marvel Studios actually cares about maintaining spoiler rules versus building audience anticipation for future projects at this point.

So Marvel has five mystery movies in its future at present, including four in the same year. Bluntly, we expect that 2028 line-up to switch down to three at some point in the next few months, if only because May seems to be staked out as a potential month owned by Disney sibling Lucasfilm for new Star Wars projects now, considering the May 2026 release for The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the May 2027 release for Star Wars: Starfighter. Three Marvel movies a year doesn’t feel like overkill — we’re living that this year, after all — and it also feels potentially manageable from a production standpoint. But… when will fans get to see this vague future take a more definite shape?

Marvel is, let’s remember, skipping its traditional San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel this year — and there’s no D23 Expo to announce upcoming projects in 2025, either. Will we really all be waiting until summer 2026 before we know what’s coming up in the MCU? Maybe — and perhaps that’ll give Marvel enough time to get everything in place for it to happen smoothly and successfully, in the process.

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