Will the new year be a good year for the MCU?

Welcome to the first edition of Popculturology of 2025. Wow, 2025. This year sounds especially futuristic. Maybe it’s because I’m going to turn 40 this year? (Yikes.) It feels like it was just yesterday I was eating M&Ms with MM printed on them on New Year’s Eve 1999. Anyways, it’s now the future. And we have pop culture news to discuss.

The MCU’s big year

With the calendar now reading 2025, we’ve entered one of the most important years in MCU history. Marvel Studios only released one film in 2024 as it looked to reset its release schedule in the aftermath of the disappointing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels in addition to the dual work stoppages as writers and actors sought more fair contracts from the Hollywood studios.

The one movie that Marvel Studios released in 2024 was pretty successful, with Deadpool & Wolverine grossing $636.7 million in North America and $1.338 billion worldwide. Can the studio continue to find that same success with the three MCU movies that are set to be released in 2025? Avengers: Doomsday, the film that will bring Robert Downey Jr. back to the MCU along with directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, looms in May 2026.

• Captain America: Brave New World (Feb. 14): This will be the fourth Captain America movie and first since Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson took over the mantle of Captain America. Brave New World will also be the first time we see Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross, taking over the role from the late William Hurt. The twist that Ross, now president of the United States, turns into the Red Hulk has been splashed across the trailers and promotion for this movie. Between the Red Hulk and the return of both Tim Blake Nelson and Liv Tyler from Edward Norton’s The Incredible Hulk, Brave New World feels more like a Hulk sequel than a Captain America sequel.
  • Why it matters: It’s been a long time since we got an Avengers movie. With Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers and Downey’s Tony Stark gone, the team will need a new leader to face the threats that await in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Will Brave New World prove that Mackie’s Wilson can be that leader?
  • Box office legacy: Captain America: Civil War, the most recent Captain America movie, grossed $408.1 million in North America and $1.152 billion worldwide. It helped that that one was basically an Avengers movie in disguise.

• Thunderbolts* (May 2): Ah, the mysterious Thunderbolts*. Just what is that asterisk hiding? Is this really a Dark Avengers movie? Marvel Studios has given this one not only its major tentpole spot at the beginning of May but also declared that its the finale to Phase Five. (Remember phases? They don’t feel like they matter much for the MCU anymore.) Thunderbolts* will bring together characters from across recent MCU films and TV shows, assembling a ragtag team of villains that you probably forgot.
  • Why it matters: Like I said, Marvel Studios is treating Thunderbolts* like it’s a major piece of the Multiverse Saga puzzle. I’m not quite sure why yet, but it’ll be a huge test to see whether or not the studio can draw an audience with characters like Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova or Wyatt Russell’s John Walker.
  • Box office legacy: Without knowing exactly what Thunderbolts* is supposed to be, it’s hard to pinpoint how it should play at the box office. With Pugh and David Harbour returning from Black Widow, should this be viewed as a sequel to that movie? Black Widow’s box office numbers are an outlier with the film being the first MCU movie released during the pandemic era.

• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25): Of all the 2025 releases for the MCU, there isn’t one bigger than the studio’s reboot of the Fantastic Four. While we got teases of this team with a Richard Reed variant played by John Krasinski in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and a Johnny Storm variant played by Evans in Deadpool & Wolverine, First Steps is the official introduction of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as these characters. With this movie being the furthest out release-wise, we’ve seen almost nothing from First Steps compared to Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.
  • Why it matters: First Steps is not only the first film in Phase Six but it’s the final film that Marvel Studios has on the calendar before Avengers: Doomsday. Will the film establish how Downey is playing Doctor Doom, the major villain in the next Avengers movie? And after getting several attempts to deliver Fantastic Four movies from Fox, can Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios get it right?
  • Box office legacy: The stakes are high for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Marvel would love to see Avengers-esque box office numbers from this one. I’m sure they’ll happily settle for a performance that outdoes that of 2005’s Fantastic Four ($154.7 million domestic, $333.1 million worldwide), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($131.9 million domestic, $289.5 million worldwide) and the commercial and critical bomb that was The Fantastic Four ($56.1 million domestic, $167.8 million worldwide).