Avengers

The Avengers are Marvel’s premier superhero team, assembled in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth’s mightiest heroes to face threats no single hero could handle alone. First assembled on screen in The Avengers in 2012, the team has grown and changed across five films spanning fifteen years, from the original lineup of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye through the expanding roster that will come together against Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, 2026.

The Avengers (2012)

Joss Whedon directed The Avengers from a screenplay he co-wrote with Zak Penn, releasing on May 4, 2012. The film assembled Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner as the Hulk, Natasha Romanoff as Black Widow, and Clint Barton as Hawkeye to stop Loki from using the Tesseract to open a portal over New York City for a Chitauri invasion fleet. The film grossed $1.52 billion worldwide, demonstrated that a shared cinematic universe could sustain an ensemble superhero event film at scale, and produced the Battle of New York that the MCU has referenced continuously in the decade since.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Joss Whedon returned for Age of Ultron, released May 1, 2015, in which Tony Stark’s artificial intelligence project creates Ultron, a rogue AI that decides humanity is the primary threat to Earth’s survival. The film introduced Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff, created Vision by uploading J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Mind Stone, and revealed that the Infinity Stones were an active and interconnected threat across the universe. It grossed $1.4 billion worldwide. The Sokovian Accords that emerged from the collateral damage of the Avengers’ operations set up the political conflict of Captain America: Civil War.

Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame (2018 and 2019)

The Russo Brothers directed both Infinity War and Endgame as a two-part conclusion to the Infinity Saga, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Infinity War, released April 27, 2018, followed Thanos collecting all six Infinity Stones and executing the snap that eliminated half of all life in the universe, killing half the Avengers in the process. The film ended with what appeared to be a defeat, a structurally unusual choice for a Marvel film that generated enormous audience discussion. Endgame, released April 26, 2019, picked up five years after the snap with the surviving Avengers executing a time heist to recover the Stones and reverse the damage. Tony Stark used the restored Infinity Gauntlet to eliminate Thanos and his army, dying in the process. Steve Rogers traveled back in time to return the Stones and chose to stay in the past, living out his life and passing his shield to Sam Wilson. Endgame grossed $2.79 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film in cinema history behind Avatar.

Avengers: Doomsday (2026)

Avengers: Doomsday releases December 18, 2026, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo in their return to the franchise, written by Stephen McFeely. Robert Downey Jr. returns to the MCU not as Tony Stark but as Victor Von Doom, the armored genius whose control over technology and magic makes him the most dangerous villain the franchise has ever placed at the center of a film. Chris Evans also returns as Steve Rogers, reuniting with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson in a lineup that brings together the largest cast in the franchise’s history.

The film unites Avengers veterans with the X-Men from the Fox film era, with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming, and Channing Tatum appearing in their roles as Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Mystique, Beast, Nightcrawler, and Gambit respectively. The Fantastic Four cast from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, also appear. The confirmed MCU roster includes Chris Hemsworth, Sebastian Stan, Paul Rudd, Letitia Wright, Wyatt Russell, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Florence Pugh, Simu Liu, Tom Hiddleston, David Harbour, Winston Duke, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, and Danny Ramirez. Tom Holland does not appear in Doomsday, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day serving as his primary 2026 Marvel film.

Doomsday was originally scheduled for May 2026 before Marvel pushed it to December 2026 to allow additional production time. Avengers: Secret Wars follows on December 17, 2027, completing the Multiverse Saga.