Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU for short, is an ongoing series of films produced by Marvel Studios that feature characters from Marvel Comics. It started in 2008 with the release of Iron Man.
Contents
Films
The films are being released in "phases."
Phase One: Avengers Assembled
- Iron Man (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- Thor (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
Phase Two
- Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Ant-Man (2015)
Phase Three
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Black Panther (2018)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- Untitled Avengers Film (2019)
Television Series
The MCU has also produced television series to tie-in with the films.
- Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013)
- Marvel's Agent Carter (2015-2016)
- Marvel's Daredevil (2015)
- Marvel's Jessica Jones (2015)
- Marvel's Luke Cage (2016)
- Marvel's Iron Fist (2017)
- Marvel's The Defenders (2017)
- Marvel's The Punisher (2017)
Non-MCU
Although a considerable number of Marvel characters are a part of the MCU, there are still a few that are not, due to rights being owned by other studios. Among them is X-Men, which 20th Century Fox owns the rights. Another is Fantastic Four, also owned by 20th Century Fox. In addition, the film rights to Spider-Man, despite the inclusion of the character in the MCU with the release of 2016's Captain America: Civil War, continue to be owned and controlled by Sony Pictures. On November 6, 2017, Disney was in talks to purchase 21st Century Fox, which would mean the rights of X-Men and Fantastic Four would revert to Marvel.[1]