With Phase 4 in the books, all eyes turn toward the Marvel movies that will start to fill out Phase 5 in 2023. The year is sparse regarding theatrical releases, but that’s primarily due to the chain reaction of delays Blade set off when it lost its director, and the script was thrown into rewrites.
That’s not to say we aren’t in for a treat in 2023 when it comes to Marvel blockbusters. Most will be centered around the building up around the new big-bad, Kang, which will lead into the next Avengers movie, The Kang Dynasty. If Phase 4 was marked by grief, Phase 5 looks to return the MCU toward its next existential threat.
| Marvel Movie | Release Date |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | February 17, 2023 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 | May 5, 2023 |
| Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse | June 2, 2023 |
| The Marvels | July 28, 2023 |
| Kraven the Hunter | October 6, 2023 |
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
The first Marvel movie of 2023 will be Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While some fans deride the tiny Avenger, I like Paul Rudd’s portrayal of Scott Lang/Ant-Man. He may not have the most exciting superpowers, but when he gets sucked into the Quantum realm, we are finally introduced to Kang in his comic-book-accurate purple armor. That alone is enough to fill the seats, as fans have been waiting to see the villain that will lead into Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
There’s also the rumor that Scott Lang will die in the movie, but with the induction of the multiverse in Phase 4, are any heroes or villains actually dead? They can easily rotate a variant in, or perhaps it will be the variant that meets his end in the movie.
Get your tickets at the usual suspects when they go on sale in the new year. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hit theaters on February 17, 2023.
Here’s the first trailer:
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Wrapping up the trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to kick off the summer movie push for Marvel Studios. We have yet to get an official trailer, but the James Gunn-helmed movie will follow the band as they still reel from the loss of Gamora but rally to protect one of their own. Rumors point to Rocket being the member of the group that is imperiled.
With the recent holiday special airing on Disney+, we should start to see the marketing behind the movie ramp up in early 2023 and go into overdrive after Ant-Man hits theaters.
Barring unforeseen delays, the film will hit theaters on May 5, 2023.
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse (Sony/Marvel)
While technically outside the MCU, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse is by far the most hotly anticipated release from the Marvel world in 2023. It will look to top the wild success of the first film by using six different animation styles. The last one won an Oscar, so this type of ambition will surely get some award-season buzz later in 2023.
An upcoming Empire Magazine spread revealed the number of animation styles:
“We’re taking those tools, adding all the things we learned on The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and then growing them further to accommodate the ambition of this movie,” he explained. “Which is to wow you every time you enter a new environment and also to make sure that the style of the movie reflects the story and that the images are driven by feelings, as opposed to some egg-headed art project. Which it also is, by the way!”
The sequel follows the same MCU-like plot of a multiverse set purely inside the Spider-Man universe Sony is trying to cultivate. It follows Spider-Man 2099, voiced by Oscar Issacson, as he builds a team to repair the damage when Wilson Fisk’s collider machine is destroyed, creating a rift in the multiverse.
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse will debut in theaters on June 2, 2023.
The Marvels
Captain Marvel was one of the more interesting movies to emerge from Phase 3. It continued the trend of MCU going outside of Earth and introducing more villains that could imperil the globe. The sequel, The Marvels, will combine Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, Teyonnah Parris’s Monica Rambeau (Wandavision), and Imman Vellani’s Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) in a theatrical release most expect will focus on the Skrull invasion we should see play out in Secret Invasion, an upcoming Disney+ series starring Samuel L. Jackson.
It finishes out the MCU slate for the summer. There have yet to be any trailers released, but we are starting to see the first theatrical posters featuring the characters.
The Marvels will hit theaters on July 28, 2023.
Kraven the Hunter (Sony/Marvel)
Rounding out the 2023 new Marvel movies will be an entry from Sony, Kraven the Hunter. Kraven is a known villain of Spider-Man and continues Sony’s push to create a universe around villains the company hopes will culminate in a Sinister Six-style movie. Thankfully for the studio, the bar couldn’t be any lower after Morbius’s embarrassment.
The film will star Aaron Taylor Johnson as the titular character and forms an origin story. You may recognize the name if you’re a Marvel fan. He was in Avengers: Age of Ultron as Quicksilver, brother to Wanda.
Little details have emerged on the movie, outside of numerous pandemic-related delays that have pushed the film from the beginning of 2023 to Fall 2023. Sony has shown promise with the Spider-Verse films, but the villain origin stories have fallen flat. We will see if they can reverse the trend next year.
Considering the pace Marvel has adopted in recent years, the slate of movies is sparse. That’s primarily due to Blade, which had a cascade effect on delaying multiple films as Marvel Studio films had to be pushed back from their original release date.
The big push from Disney/Marvel will come from Disney+, with multiple original series hitting in 2023 to flesh out the story arcs for Phase 5.