MCU Phase 5: The state of marvel in 2025

As we reach the end of the MCU Phase 5 with the release of Thunderbolts* on May 2nd, its time to reflect on the state of Marvel studios and where is it headed in 2025. How did the movies and shows perform? What was the audience response to them and did they succeed in living up to expectations put on them? Was the MCU Phase 5 a success or not and the real question on everyone’s mind: Can Marvel recreate the magic with Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars Lets dive deep and explore this topsy-turvy journey

The post endgame journey

Avengers Endgame was the pinnacle of storytelling from the MCU, a satisfying conclusion to its 10 year long infinity saga. It also meant bidding farewell to the two biggest and most beloved faces of the MCU Captain America and Iron Man. Them leaving lead to a loss of interest in casual audiences and what follow ,dentin of Marvel studios.

What followed was something neither the fans nor Marvel itself was ready for. Post endgame journey for marvel has been turbulent, running into a myriad of problems.

Quantity over Quality: it all started with Marvel announcing too much content under the new Disney CEO Bob Chapek, resulting in drop in quality for the sake of quantity. It resulted in less focus on each project: scripts feeling half-baked with too many re-writes, Vfx artists being heavily overworked and given short notices for deadlines resulting in a decline in CGI quality. Most importantly the connectivity and shared narrative which made the MCU special seemed missing, with a number of post credit scenes of projects leading nowhere and feeling irrelevant. Simply put it started feeling directionless.
Focus on Diversification over storytelling: in this era there was a shift towards diversity and inclusiveness with the goal of targetting new audiences and expanding their territory. They introduced female leads, characters from various racial and cultural backgrounds which were not in spotlight in the earlier phases. This strategy unfortunately backfired for the most part and has done the most damage to the fandom. While the idea was commendable, the execution often felt inconsistent and half-hearted. Many of these projects struggled not because of the diverse leads, but due to more effort going in representation creating compelling characters as seen in phases till now. This lead to fans turning away with the narrative that MCU is woke now. As a result there was premature judgement and unfair criticism for even those projects which were made with genuine heart and effort.

Unfortunate circumstances : Adding fuel to the fire, there were some unforseen real world incidents for marvel studios which signifacntly affected their storytelling plans. One of the most emotional blows came with the untimely passing of Chadwick Boseman who played the role of T’Challa, The Black Panther. Black Panther Wakanda Forever had to undergo major script changes, passing on the mantle to shuri. The movie offered him a beautiful and heartfelt tribute and was even received well by the audience despite the obstacles, but left fans wondering what it could have been with T’challa facing his arch nemesis Namor. There were also fans who were unhappy with T’challa not being recasted.
Another major incident was the was the legal controversy of actor Jonathan majors who played kang the conqueror, the central villain of the multiversal saga. With assault allegations and a subsequent conviction, they were forced to pivot from Kang to Dr Doom as the big bad and a lot of set up done for his character, felt wasted.
There were some other obstacles like changing of director midway(Multiverse of madness) and projects getting modified and delayed due to the pandemic

The biggest mis-step in MCU phase 4 and 5 was the absence of a satisfying conclusion in the form of an avengers movie, which would have addressed the criticisms about connectivity of the projects and the disconnect with the new characters, This ended up being the most divisive era of MCU with some old fans turning away, along with new fans joining the fandom.Marvel studios knew they got to make big changes in their plans on seeing the failures of highly anticipated Antman Quantamania and The Marvels which became their first official flop at the box office

MCU Phase 5 Review: A breakdown

MCU Phase 5 was the beginning of their course correction after realising things were not going according to plan. It was another mixed bag of a phase with the highest of highs and lowest of lows altogether. A brief discussion and insight into MCU Phase 5 projects

Antman and the wasp: Quantumania : This was a movie from which marvel studios had very high hopes,to the extent of pitching it as an avengers level movie, as it was going to introduce the main villain of the multiverse saga. They hoped to provide fans a taste of the threat they were building towards. But unfortunately it failed to meet the expectations and creating hype for Kang among audience.

Strengths

Creative Worldbuilding:It was an interesting idea to set the movie in the The Quantum Realm. It provided a fresh, visually unique setting from previous ant-man films
Kang’s Introduction: Jonathan Majors delivered a standout performance, making Kang a compelling new threat. His dynamic and rivalry with Antman was the highlight of the movie
High-Stakes Conflict: The idea of Kang vs. Ant-Man was definitely an intriguing concept on paper.
Despite everything it was a decent entertainer and at that time the 2 Post credit scenes teased an exciting future,

Weaknesses

Unconvincing Threat: Kang being defeated by Ant-Man (with ants!) hurt his credibility as the next big villain. Did not go well with the fans and the hype for hi dwindled
Emotional Disconnect: The heart of the antman movies; The father-daughter bond between Scott and Cassie lacked depth and was not explored much
Wasted Potential: MODOK was reduced to a joke, and the ambitious setting wasn’t used to its fullest.
Flat Ending: A weak climax and post-credits scenes that went nowhere—especially after Marvel pivoted from Kang to Doctor Doom
A lot of the flaws would have been ignored if they had given a better ending to the movie which didnt diminish the threat of kang. Adding insult to their wounds the post credit scenes which actually seemed promising ended up going nowhere as they were forced to pivot to Doom

Guardians of Galaxy Vol 3:

This was another project in the “MCU is back” list . It was being highly anticipated to be good as it was James gunn returning to direct and to give this family of misfits a satisfying farewell.

✅ Strengths

Rocket Racoon: The Heart of the movie- The spotlight in this movie is on the fan favorite Rocket Racoon as it establishes him as the heart of the movie. It delves deep into his traumatic backstory as he once again faces the evil behind his cruel fate, The high evolutionary.

High Evolutionary is a villain people absolutely love to hate. It makes the victory at the end feel very sweet and satisfactory

Tone of the film: It strikes an ideal balance between comedy and seriousness, with the jokes landing for the most part. The stakes feel very high and personal in this one

The ideal conclusion to this chapter: The resolution of this chapter for the guardians is highly satisfactory. Each member gets their moment to shine and while it’s sad to see the team break, they all get meaningful conclusions to their stories

This one was highly emotional and a real tear-jerker and loved a lot by the fans too.

One take scene: The film has some great action including an incredible one take action scene with all the guardians in it. Probably is among the best action scenes in MCU

🌌 Impact on the MCU

There was a bittersweet feeling among the fans as it marked the end of Gunn’s stint with Marvel and start of his journey with DC Studios, in an era where mcu really needed trusted film-makers

Secret Invasion: This was one of the most forgettable projects in MCU Phase 5 and of the post endgame era. Yet another disney+ project which wasnt planned properly and didnt know what it wanted to be. The most disappointing part was that the idea of a skrull invasion which should have been an avengers level threat and was extremely wasted. It should have been a issue with big stakes for their world but seemed very small scaled here. Sad part is it had a good bulid up for the first 3 episodes with Nick Fury,Talos and a challenging antagonist, but amounted to nothing by the end with a very poorly planned idea with Super skrull G’iah.

Loki S2

From the bottom of the pits of disney+ to the summit, Loki S2 shows what a rocky journey it has been for MCU Phase 5 as well.

✅ Strengths

Stronger Narrative & Storytelling: Season 2 built upon the success of Season 1 and even managed to exceed the expectations. It finally placed him at the center of the narrative which felt missing earlier. Loki outsmarting He who Remains highlights his intellect ,which he is famous for
Exceptional Direction & Vision: Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead did a masterful job and gave us a very emotionally impactful conclusion to a character arc in MCU. Their storytelling elevated the mythos of Loki to new levels of divinity. His big sacrifice at the end highlights his development from being a selfish and envious brother to a selfless god

Tom Hiddleston’s Performance: Hiddleston’s passion for the character shines through every frame, culminating in perhaps the most emotionally satisfying performance of his MCU journey.

❌ Weaknesses

Dense Lore and Complexity: The multiversal stakes and time-loop-heavy explanations might feel overwhelming for casual viewers not following every piece of the Marvel puzzle.

📣 Fan Reaction

Widely praised by fans and critics alike, Loki Season 2 is often cited as one of the best Disney+ Marvel shows to date.
It was seen as a redemption story not just for Loki—but also for Marvel’s TV division, proving that with the right talent and creatives, small-screen projects can deliver big-screen impact.

🌌 Impact on the MCU

The director duo are a blessing for the MCU in this phase. They have created their own legacy with quality projects like Moon-knight, Loki and recently Daredevil Born Again. Loki S2 is a glimpse to what the Multiverse saga can be in the right hands

The Marvels:

The positive momentum built by GOTG3 and Loki S2 was yet again broken by another mediocre project, The Marvels feat. Captain Marvel, Kamala/Ms Marvel and Monica Rambeau.

🟢 Strengths

the chemistry between the 3 actresses was charming and they had a fun dynamic
Couple of good and unique fight scenes because of their power swapping situation, but it could have definitely be explored a bit more
Kamala khan is the heart of the movie with a charming and earnest performance by Iman Vellan
Its a fun unserious popcorn flick, for someone in the mood for that

🔴 Weaknesses

let down by the surface level treatment of its story, not exploring it enough for people to care about it.
A Heavily under-developed villain does not help its case. We do not get to know her and her cause well enough to be interested and feels like just another villain who wants to destroy our main heroe’s life
There is more personality to Captain marvel here but not much depth is given to her and treats her more like a side character in her own movie.
Yet another project where the director was not able to execute the vision to its full extent and underwent a whole lot of reshoots.

🎯 Fan Reaction:

However its not as bad as some of the other projects in this phase
despite all the criticism and box office failures ,it has managed to garner its own little fan base who do really appreciate the movie.

As 2023 came to an end with the box office failure of the Marvels , with it came the realisation for MCU that they had to focus more on Quality than Quantity. So they decided to release only one movie in 2024 Deadpool and Wolverine and a couple of shows on Disney+

Echo: one of those shows which was announced in the “lets make a show on ever side character” era of chapek. They decided to just dump its all 5 episodes at once and forgot if it ever existed. So did the fans

Deadpool and Wolverine:

This one was highly anticipated since its trailer dropped and surprised all of us. It was a dream come true for OG Marvel and X-men fans who were waiting for this collab since the failed attempt with Deadpool’s debut in Wolverine: Origins. It was not only the entry of Deadpool and Wolverine in the MCU but also a heartfelt love letter to FOX X-men with a tribute to other marvel characters from Fox studios as well.

🟢 Strengths

Became the first R rated movie to cross 1B at the box office, all it took was giving the fans what they want.

The nostalgia and cameos apart, treating our two title characters with due respect and giving satisfying conclusion to their arcs went a long way for this to happen.

Reminder of the pure fun of the superhero genre and celebration of their favorite characters on the big screen.

Fan service done right: The cameos here were quite enjoyable, specially those names which were not expected to return like Blade and Gambit. The chris evans cameo as Johnny storm was definitely one for the ages!

🔴 Weaknesses

a great theatre experience but undoubtedly flawed as a movie. The premise of the multiversal adventure felt messy with more unexplained rules to the MCU multiverse
This trend of nostalgia is definitely a double edged sword though, as their is less effort on development of new characters. One can just hope they dont take the wrong ideas from it
.

Agatha All Along

This was undoubtedly the surprise hit of Disney+, with many not expecting much from it initially. However, backed by a talented cast—including the ever-enigmatic Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal aka Lady Death—it quickly became a standout entry in the MCU’s streaming slate.

🟢 Strengths

Fresh Genre Blend: As the MCU’s entry into the musical witchcraft genre, it brings a refreshing, unique energy to the franchise.
Stellar Cast: Kathryn Hahn (Agatha), Aubrey Plaza (Rio), and Joe Locke (Billy Maximoff) are a delight to watch. The ensemble cast, including the coven members, adds charm and depth.
Unique Yet Familiar: While it shares a tone with WandaVision, the series carves out its own identity and charm with quirky storytelling and magical flair.
Compelling Mystery and Twists: The unfolding of the mystery of the Witch’s Road and The Song is both surprising and impactful—gives a whole different perspective to the show
Episode 7 Masterclass: A standout in MCU television. It elevates the narrative of Lilia’s character with effective writing and visual storytelling that recontextualizes the entire show Something totally unexpected from her character. It’s the kind of payoff that rewards patient viewers.
Agathario: Need we say more? The chemistry between Agatha and Rio became a fan-favorite element—tragic, chaotic, and unforgettable.

🔴 Weaknesses

Niche Appeal: The genre and tone may not align with traditional comic book fans’ expectations, making it a harder sell to some.
Slow Start: The first few episodes can feel sluggish or scattered before the main story finds its rhythm.

MCU in 2025

Finally seems like The MCU has learned some lessons in 2025 and are focusing on Quality over quantity. From adding popular comic characters in ongoing movies to halting production midway and overhauling the entire creative team, they have made a lot of changes this year. Lets have a look at the released projects so far and what is in store for us in this year

A lukewarm start with Brave New world:

The year began with hope for marvel studious. They aimed to course correct after a shaky phase 4 and 5 with Sam Wilson’s Captain America.

The potential was there but it failed to create the impact they were looking for. It it was yet another movie troubled by multiple re-shoots and lack lustre storytelling.

There was an attempt to salvage the film by adding Red Hulk and improving the action scenes which proved to be only partially successful.

Their flawed marketing strategy of over-exposing Red Hulk worked against the film. The eventual reveal lost some of its charm

Delivered a fairly grounded political thriller — something the MCU hasn’t attempted in a while — but it wasn’t enough to revive the declining fandom

Sam wilson unable to win over the wider fan base as captain america along with modest box for such a marquee title became a real red flag for MCU

Quality Content but worrying fan reception

The next two projects: Daredevil Born again(on D+) and Thunderbolts* were a significant improvement in quality from what came before.

Daredevil Born Again

Matt Murdock’s return : via Disney+ was a long-awaited moment. After seven years, fans were eager but ts production was marred with controversies as it underwent a change in creatives along with the vision for the show midway

Creative overhaul :Proven director duo of Benson and Moorehead were brought in to steady the ship. Dario Scardapane ,The Director of Punisher series from netflix joined as the showrunner

They saved the sinking ship as they brought much needed tonal consistency and visual flare to provide a worthy sequel to the iconic Original series

An admirable effort considering the circumstances, as they were had to blend the newly reworked material to the original footage

While the show wasn’t as well received as the original series( a very high bar) it found its own audience and was appreciated by fans

Despite the critical acclaim its viewership was hugely disappointing as it missed featuring in Nielsen’s Top 10 chart. This was increasingly becoming a big sign of worry for marvel studios

Thunderbolts: The Surprise of the year

Unexpected win: The least anticipated out of all the releases this year but proved to be a winner among the fans.

Real cinema :Refreshing to again see a marvel film with heart and a real purpose. Its relevant messaging and relatable characters touched the hearts of people

Yelena and Bob became fan favorite characters and the other ignored characters got relevant again

Hiring competent Director and crew proved to be the key yet again. Jake Schreier of Beef fame was at the helm of affairs

A worrying Trend: While it was critically acclaimed, disappointingly proved to be a flop at the box office. A number of factors contributed to it but the hit to the marvel brand was undeniable now

Fantastic Four: First Steps

The final and the most anticipated marvel movie of the year is almost here. Its clash with DC’s Superman in July makes it even more important. Its been a while since a Marvel vs Dc clash of this scale and the box office tracking of both promise of a worthy spectacle. Hoping its a win for the superhero community and people show support to both

High Stakes: The stakes couldn’t be higher for a single movie as they are for Fantastic 4: First steps. Not only does it have the responsibility of reviving the fandom, laying a solid groundwork for Dr Doom but also has the enormous weight of pleasing the Fantastic 4 Fandom. They are still searching for a live action move which does justice to Marvel’s First Family

Myriad of Controversies : there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the movie ever since the castings were announced. While Ebon Moss as Thing and Vanessa kirby as Sue Storm were received well , there was a lot of skepticism for Joseph Quinn as Storm and specially Pedro Pascal as Reed. Some fans seem to be tired of seeing pedro pascal in every movie and others think the role of reed does not fit him well.
- A typical section of marvel fandom was further enraged as they revealed the silver surfer to be female instead of Norrin Rad, despite her being a character from comics too. The claims of marvel going “woke” started yet again
- Cast interviews: In an interview about their characters Vanessa kirby and Joseph quinn revealed some details and changes which did not sit well with some people. Their apparent modernization was taken way out of context, certain segments were cherry picked and used by those who thrive on negativity.
- Sue the Leader: The most recent buzz which caught attention is about Sue being the one to lead the team. Words of Producer Grant Curtis were taken out of context as he was trying to state the importance of Sue storm for their family, as a glue which keeps them from falling apart. It was taken as her being the face of the team and the leader over Reed, which has not been stated anywhere by anyone. The Invisible Woman given the importance she deserves should not be a problem and shouldn’t be such a big point of contention. Any judgements regarding the execution should be strictly reserved for after the film releases.

Despite the negativity surrounding it a large portion of the fandom is excited for the movie. A well made trailer definitely increased expectations and fans are eager to experience their family dynamic and how they handle the threat of Galactus in an alternate universe.

The Superverse Guardian