Highlights
- Phase Five of the MCU shows potential with standout entries like Deadpool & Wolverine but struggles with bloated content and missed opportunities.
- Not all Phase Five projects hit the mark, as seen with disappointing entries like Secret Invasion, Echo, and The Marvels.
- Despite some missteps, Phase Five also includes successes like Loki Season Two and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, offering unique and rewarding experiences.
Even Deadpool knows that the MCU has hit a bit of a low point when it comes to Phase Five. Whether it’s just far too much content across movies and streaming or superhero fatigue is naturally setting in, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had more downs than ups with Phase Five, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a bundle of joy to be shared from within.
The MCU continues to expand across the multiverse with Phase Five, and a few setbacks and misdirections has made the franchise a tad inaccessible to some less-die-hard fans, but there are some MCU movies and shows that are enjoyable regardless of MCU veteran status.
7 Secret Invasion (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%
- Directed by: Ali Selim
- Release Date: June 21–July 26, 2023
- Episodes: 6
Nick Fury finally returns to Earth when he discovers a secret invasion of shapeshifting Skrulls that have begun infiltrating government power. With no Avengers to aid, Nick Fury must rely on black ops tactics and other spies like Maria Hill and Everett Ross to thwart the invasion and save humanity from a seemingly invisible threat.
Despite the cool and mature premise, and Samuel L. Jackson in the lead as Nick Fury, Secret Invasion is one of the rare moments in the MCU where it falls flat. It’s a fantastic cast, but they cannot save an unnecessary show that just isn’t very thrilling and results in a lackluster CGI fight.
6 Echo (2024)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
- Directed by: Sydney Freeland, Catriona McKenzie
- Release Date: January 9, 2024
- Episodes: 5
Returning to the street-level antics of New York City, Maya Lopez is further explored and fleshed out as a character who must face her past to connect with her roots as a Native American. Echo serves as a reminder that the street-level heroes and villains still exist in the MCU’s first R-rated series. One that also sees the return of the Kingpin.
Despite its R-rating label, Echo doesn’t impress and just keeps the bar at a standard mediocre point. There isn’t much interest or excitement to be gained with the series, and the only true moments of longing are when Kingpin or Daredevil shows up to remind audiences of what could have been.
5 The Marvels (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%
- Directed by: Nia DaCosta
- Release Date: 10 November 2023
Carol Danvers continues her adventures across the galaxy as Captain Marvel, but a destabilizing universe creates a mysterious entanglement with Kamala Khan and Captain Monica Rambeau, two women with great powers and an even greater connection to Captain Marvel. As a trio, the three must save an entire universe. That is if they can learn to work together.
The underlying problem with The Marvels comes from the fact that the MCU just feels too bloated with content. For fans to truly grasp The Marvels, they would need to have watched plenty of other MCU shows just to know who these characters are. On top of that, the vision for the movie doesn’t thrill outside of a few spectacles, and it’s still just a safe and standard MCU movie.
4 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 46%
- Directed by: Peyton Reed
- Release Date: 17 February 2023
Scott Lang’s life has been up-sized thanks to his career as an Avenger. Now with a celebrity status, Ant-Man and the Wasp continue their adventures and aid in the research of the Quantum Realm. That is, until a great and microscopic evil threatens to break the barriers of the multiverse, and a new Avengers-level threat emerges.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a disappointing yet fine MCU movie, where the potential could have been so much more than what was given. Unnecessary comedy and dodgy CGI interfere with what could have been a dramatic beginning to the future of the MCU. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a set-up for a movie that will probably never happen with the real-life troubles with Johnathan Majors, leaving this movie in an awkward spot in the MCU’s most awkward phase.
3 Loki – Season Two (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%
- Directed by: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Dan Deleeuw, Kasra Farahani
- Release Date: October 5–November 9, 2023
- Episodes: 6
Season 2 of Loki has the lead character entangled directly with the unraveling of the multiverse, and the threat that will see his timeline, his friends, and all existence fade into nothingness. With the future remaining uncertain, and mysteries plaguing the Time Variance Authority, Loki must discover his glorious purpose to save the future of all futures.
Despite being a TV series, this MCU entry feels utterly cinematic with its depiction of characters, drama, and spectacle. Loki is exciting, and every episode remains unpredictable, shocking, yet fun. The character study and deep dive of Loki cement him and Tom Hiddleston as one of Marvel Studios’ very best, and it’s a show that will have audiences viewing the Multiverse through a different lens.
2 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
- Directed by: James Gunn
- Release Date: 3 May 2023
Despite the grief that torments Peter Quill’s heart, the legendary Star-Lord must assemble the Guardians of the Galaxy once more to lead into a mission that may cost them their lives for the sake of their dear and dying friend, Rocket. As the Guardians attempt to save their friend, they uncover his past, and the terrifying threat of the High Evolutionary: Rocket’s creator.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 brings the music, the action, and the character drama to new heights, once again proving that James Gunn knows how to write and direct characters to a wonderful degree. To return to an isolated story outside of the Multiverse and Avengers-teasers is great, and a mature swan song to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy is rewarding, emotional, and unique.
1 Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%
- Directed by: Shawn Levy
- Release Date: 25 July 2024
When Wade Wilson’s universe is threatened with a cataclysm that could end the lives of those he cares about, he will stop at nothing and go to war with everything, including the TVA in order to save it. Deadpool’s universe-hopping adventure sees him pair with the one-and-only Wolverine to save both their worlds from a threat far greater than an Infinity Gauntlet.
Deadpool & Wolverine is the most recent MCU addition, and it is by far its greatest for Phase 5. The return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine shows that the character never left his DNA, and Ryan Reynolds is as funny and crude as ever as Deadpool in the first R-rated Marvel Studios movie, which doesn’t hold the punches on violence, humor, and cameos. It’s a movie with heart, and hilarity, and one that isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself and the past that it respects with 20th Century Fox.
Phase 5 Movies/Shows To Come
There are still quite a few movies and shows still to come in the MCU. Whilst Marvel Studios is planning a few projects outside of the ones listed below, they are not canon to the Sacred Timeline, and therefore will not be counted in the ranking system of Phase Five.
- Agatha All Along (18 September 2024)
- Captain America: Brave New World (14 February 2025)
- Thunderbolts* (2 May 2025)
- Eyes of Wakanda (2024)
- Daredevil: Born Again (2025)
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