Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Thunderbolts*Although the MCU’s Multiverse Saga has earned criticism for lacking a new Avengers movie, Marvel has retroactively made just one phase, MCU Phase 4, the only one that doesn’t feature the iconic team. MCU Phase 4 was the one to launch the Multiverse Saga with 2021’s Black Widow, a prequel that mostly took place just after the events of Captain America: Civil War. It wasn’t until the Multiverse Saga’s second movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, that the new Saga got underway in earnest, debuting a brand-new protagonist in the form of the тιтular hero.

It was around here that the Multiverse Saga began to stumble. Not only was Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings followed by the MCU’s lowest-rated movie at the time with Eternals, but fans would spend the next four years wondering if we would ever see the comparatively popular Shang-Chi. Even more pressing was the question of when the newest iteration of the Avengers would ᴀssemble, potentially spotlighting the MCU’s newer characters. Prospects were initially bleak as Marvel announced Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (now Avengers: Doomsday) for the latter half of MCU Phase 6 – but Marvel just flipped the script.

Marvel Revealed Thunderbolts* Is Actually A New Avengers Movie

Valentina Allegra De Fontaine Announced The Team In A Press Conference

Thunderbolts* helped to stoke the controversy over the Multiverse Saga when it was first announced, promising to star some of the MCU’s lesser-known characters who were ostensibly taking up space that the likes of Shang-Chi or the Avengers could occupy. The conspicuous asterisk in the тιтle, however, was enough to stoke a firestorm of speculation as it became clear that not everything was as it seemed. Vindicating many of the foremost theories to emerge from the last few years, Thunderbolts* then revealed by the end of the movie that its real тιтle was The New Avengers all along.

The final scene of Thunderbolts* saw the тιтular team cajoled into a press conference by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who had been attempting to replace the Avengers with her own pawn, where they were unwittingly announced as the New Avengers. The Thunderbolts* post-credits scene then takes place 14 months later, with the team now embracing their government-sanctioned role as the New Avengers. In a wildly unorthodox move from Marvel, this led to the real-world replacement of the movie’s тιтle in official materials and billboards.

Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers Was The Final MCU Phase 5 Movie

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is The First Movie Of MCU Phase 6

The decision to change Thunderbolts* from a relatively nondescript MCU team-up movie into a bona fide Avengers movie is huge. Not only does it confirm that a new iteration of the Avengers for which fans had been clamoring for years has been marketed to them for the past year, but it also means that MCU Phase 5 was punctuated by an Avengers movie after all. The only difference from other MCU Phases is that this one was announced after its release.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will launch the final phase of the Multiverse Saga, MCU Phase 6, which will also play host to the expected Avengers double-whammy: Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). This means that Thunderbolts* ᴀssumes a similar position to Avengers: Age of Ultron in being the Avengers movie to punctuate the penultimate phase of its saga. Thankfully, Thunderbolts* has fared better critically than Avengers: Age of Ultron and could herald a new and positive trajectory for the Multiverse Saga.

MCU Phase 4 Is Officially The Only One Without An Avengers Movie

This Didn’t Help To ᴀssuage Criticisms Against It

One of the main criticisms leveled at the Multiverse Saga is its lack of an Avengers movie. The Infinity Saga proved that the MCU’s shared narrative is best served when each phase is punctuated by a team-up movie like the Avengers to help tie the narrative together. The absence of such a movie in MCU Phase 4 might have something to do with the generally negative reactions to it, as its lower-rated MCU movies are accompanied by others that have yet to be followed up on.

Although there are glaring outliers, Thunderbolts* revisited a surprising number of narratives. Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, and, to a certain extent, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are all connected to Thunderbolts* and its characters. Compounding this was the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene that directly set up an upcoming movie, instead of leaving yet another MCU tease that may never be elaborated upon. Sure, it didn’t go as far as a traditional Avengers movie would to coalesce surrounding narratives, but it certainly helped to end MCU Phase 5 on a positive note.

Upcoming MCU Movies

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  Thunderbolts*

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Doomsday

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Spider-Man: Brand New Day

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

  
  
  
  

  
  

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