Despite recently going into production, we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the next two Avengers films. Both films were slated to release in May 2026 and 2027, respectively, but Disney has now moved both projects into the winter months.

Doomsday, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, will now release on December 18th, 2026, while Secret Wars moves to December 17th, 2027. Disney will now not be competing with itself in the month of May, as Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling, is facing little competition around its May 28th, 2027 release date. But it’s not an easy slam dunk for Doomsday now, as it’ll go head-to-head directly with Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune: Messiah. Will we see a “Dunesday” style marketing blitz a la Barbenheimer? Perhaps, it certainly has a nice ring to it. Considering Marvel’s diminishing returns lately at the box office, I’d say it’s them that would benefit from this type of viral marketing, as Dune: Part Two earned an impressive $714 million at the box office. Given the production budget of these Avengers films is going to be insane (RDJ is getting paid $80 million for both films, the Russos will get $80 million between the two of them), Disney and Marvel are looking to make a bigger impact at the box office, and the week before Christmas is historically a great weekend at the box office. Plus, Avatar 4 isn’t due until 2029. I’ll just note that paying $160 million on three people for these movies is completely insane when films like The Creator had a budget of $80 million.

Also interesting is now Spider-Man: Brand New Day will release before any of the Avengers films, instead of in between them. That film, currently shooting and directed by Shang-Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton, is targeting a summer 2026 release. Before, it was assumed that Brand New Day would segue straight into Secret Wars, but now we have to wonder if the film is being reworked slightly to serve this new timeline of events. Or is chronological order less of a priority now for Marvel?