The superhero genre has proved a smorgasbord of trilogies over the course of its history – but only some have no bad movies in their roster. A franchise pulling off a stellar trilogy is infinitely harder than simply releasing one good movie, since the challenge of making each installment work separately and yet also as one enтιтy is readily apparent.
This appears to be a particularly tricky thing to pull off within the superhero genre, wherein a trilogy often also has to navigate being in a wider universe, and giving any heroes a steadily increasing sense of prowess while also convincingly pitting them against stronger and stronger threats. Ultimately, this makes these five superhero movie trilogies all the more impressive.
The ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool Trilogy
The ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool trilogy is not often cited as the pinnacle of superhero cinema – but this is arguably because of its efforts to be an entertaining and blood-soaked trilogy that leans more into comedy territory than just about any other superhero movie trilogy. This has paid off for each installment, but proved particularly successful for 2024’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine.
As the film that brought Ryan Reynolds as ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine into the MCU timeline – and cemented the idea the Fox X-Men universe is part of the MCU multiverse – it’s perhaps no surprise that ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine resonated with audiences. However, the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool trilogy’s consistent results show its success is down to much more than that.
The ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool trilogy’s comedy adapts the тιтular antihero’s conventional brand of jokes effectively, and its quippy and fourth-wall breaking approach provides a satisfying contrast compared to much of what’s considered the norm for superhero movies – a concept furthered by ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool’s history of not holding back when it comes to violence.
With an ability to convey more tragic or somber moments when the need arises, the trilogy also manages to ensure that its playful approach to things still has audiences invested in the narrative and those within it, making it the final of a range of vital cinematic ingredients that have ensured the trilogy’s consistent success.
The MCU Spider-Man Trilogy
Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s versions of Peter Parker proved Spider-Man was a perfect movie hero, but Tom Holland’s take on the iconic Marvel web-slinger went even further. Having been established by Captain America: Civil War, the stage was set for the MCU’s Spider-Man a year before his first solo movie – and this appears to have majorly paid off.
The MCU Spider-Man trilogy manages to blend being their own distinct enтιтy with tying into not just the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also the wider Spider-Man movie mythos, thanks to the return of Garfield, Maguire, and a series of their movie antagonists in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Behind all of this, though, is the core appeal of Tom Holland’s endlessly charming take on Peter Parker, and each installment’s ability to be its own heartfelt look at Spider-Man and his story, while also steadily showing us the young hero growing into his own in a way that felt natural and yet like fresh ground in some ways.
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the horizon, hopefully the next Spider-Man movie will be able to mirror the heart and spirit of the original trilogy, and mesh what made it universally appealing with the franchise’s plans for Spider-Man’s future, capitalizing on how the initial films effectively now serve as an extended hero origin story for Parker and his journey.
The Captain America Trilogy
Captain America’s trilogy does have a little extra edge on most other trilogies, given Captain America: Civil War is essentially an Avengers movie. However, the fact Cap is able to carry an Avengers-level movie under his banner reflects both the mantle’s importance in the MCU, and the scale the Captain America movies have worked on since pretty much day one.
Focused on the wider world and the complicated setup of factions like SHIELD, the Captain America trilogy is able to provide a lot of big swings and revelations while never feeling like it steps too far away from Steve Rogers, and the story of his ever-growing importance in the MCU until his retirement.
Ultimately, Captain America: Civil War is one of the most exciting and important movies in the MCU, Captain America: The First Soldier is a stellar demonstration of what makes Steve Rogers into such a colossally important hero in the first place, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is quite possibly the best MCU movie ever.
Looking back, it’s easy to see why Captain America’s trilogy results are so consistently strong, and why no movie in this selection has under 80% in terms of its Rotten Tomatoes critic score. While Captain America: Brave New World saw less majorly positive results, hopefully Sam Wilson’s future can mirror the successes of the original trilogy more closely.
The Dark Knight Trilogy
Given the prominence of the MCU in the past 17 years, it’s no surprise that the majority of superhero trilogies without one bad movie have the franchise’s stamp on them. However, the MCU isn’t the only source of stellar superhero trilogies – something proved by The Dark Knight trilogy, which is one of the best superhero film series of all time.
While The Dark Knight Rises has seen some criticisms leveled at it for the way it ties up the trilogy, it’s still a solid film with a nuanced depiction of Gotham and its major players. On some levels, the very high standard held for The Dark Knight Rises is simply down to how much The Dark Knight impressed audiences.
Though The Dark Knight is held in considerably higher regard than its predecessor and successor film-wise, the overall trilogy still lives up to a consistently high standard, which brings a welcome range of figures into its gritty but spectacle-filled take on the Caped Crusader and his time as Gotham’s vigilante defender.
The Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy
The first Guardians of the Galaxy movie catapulted its unlikely band of space brigadiers into being one of the most famous Marvel superhero teams of all time – and the trilogy never stopped providing hits over the course of its 9-year-long run.
The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy is one of the most broadly appealing trilogies in the superhero genre, since it blends the genuine tragedies of all its main team alongside larger-than-life worlds and characters, some of the funniest sequences and lines in the entire MCU, and a healthy dose of the best soundtracks in Marvel’s movie history.
This combination was unsurprisingly a successful one, and one that built to new heights with each instalment – thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 providing one of the MCU’s most underrated villain stories via Star-Lord’s father Ego, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 giving Rocket Raccoon one of the most emotionally devastating backstory reveals of all time.
While other superhero trilogies have arguably stronger individual films, the way the Guardians trilogy is able to be so consistently solid in terms of depth, story, and everything that goes into making movies work is worth its own consideration and appreciation, particularly as it’s not clear when or if we’ll get another installment of the MCU movie series.
