Regardless of whether you prefer your superhero content in the form of epic blockbuster movies, streaming TV series or good, old-fashioned comic books, Marvel has a lot planned for 2024. Deadpool is finally joining the MCU, X-Men: The Animated Series is returning on Disney+ and the Ultimate Universe is back at Marvel Comics. And that’s not even counting the many Marvel games that are currently in development.
From movies to TV series to comics to video games, here’s a full breakdown of everything you can expect from Marvel in 2024.
The MCU’s Smaller Year
No one can deny that the MCU had a rough go of it in 2023. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperformed, while The Marvels was an outright box office bust. On the streaming side, Secret Invasion proved to be one of Marvel’s biggest critical misfires in years. And that’s not even getting into the effects of the monthslong Hollywood strikes, or how the recent criminal conviction and subsequent firing of Kang actor Jonathan Majors will affect the overarching MCU story.
In light of all those problems, it’s not surprising that Marvel Studios is taking a step back in 2024. Expect an unusually light year in terms of new MCU content, with only one new movie and two live-action series currently on the slate. The last time we only got one new MCU movie in a single year was way back in 2012 with The Avengers.
The good news is that this one movie is a pretty big deal. The currently untitled Deadpool 3 is due for release on July 26, 2024. This is the movie that bridges the gap between Fox’s X-Men Universe and the MCU. Not only is Ryan Reynolds returning as the wisecracking, fourth wall-breaking Wade Wilson, he’s bringing Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine along for the ride. We’re finally getting the Deadpool/Wolverine team-up we always wanted, the ending of Logan be damned!
All signs point to plenty more veterans of the Fox Marvel movies putting in appearances, too. Set photos have already spoiled some returning villains, and Jennifer Garner is reportedly reprising her role as Elektra. What’s next, a full-fledged reunion of the 2005 Fantastic Four cast? Anything is possible in a Deadpool sequel.
Marvel is keeping the plot of Deadpool 3 tightly under wraps for now. Rumors suggest the TVA from Loki will factor in, which makes sense given that Wade was running amok in the timeline when last we saw him in 2018’s Deadpool 2. The question is whether this sequel is meant to be a standalone buddy team-up or something that helps pave the way for Avengers: Secret Wars.
The studio also has two live-action series debuting on Disney+ in 2024. The first is Echo, a Hawkeye spinoff starring Alaqua Cox as the hard-hitting criminal enforcer and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk. Between the gritty tone and the inclusion of Daredevil veterans like D’Onofrio and Charlie Cox, the series may just be what we need to tide us over until Daredevil: Born Again (though with that series undergoing a creative overhaul, we’re not holding our breath for it to hit in 2024). All five episodes of Echo will premiere on both Disney+ and Hulu on January 10.
Much later in the year, the Wandavision spinoff Agatha: Darkhold Diaries will pick up where WandaVision left off. Kathryn Hahn is back as the mischievous spellcaster Agatha, and she’s joined by a cast that includes Joe Locke, Patti LuPone, Aubrey Plaza, Sasheer Zamata, Maria Dizzia, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Okwui Okpokwasili. Emma Caulfield and Debra Jo Rupp will also be reprising their WandaVision roles. There’s no word on if we’ll see Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch stop by, but rumors suggest Locke is playing Wanda’s son, Wiccan.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the Ironheart series has finished production. It’s not currently on the schedule for 2024, but that could potentially change if Marvel Studios decides it has a hole to fill.
Sony’s Marvel Movies to the Rescue?
With Marvel Studios and DC both taking a much-needed breather in 2024, there’s suddenly a void in the superhero movie department. Leave it to Sony to step in with no fewer than three new live-action movies set in their so-called “Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.”
The first of these is Madame Web, which stars Dakota Johnson as precognitive heroine Casandra Webb. While there’s no indication that Spider-Man himself is appearing (which is par for the course for these Sony movies by now), we are getting multiple Spider-Women in the form of Sydney Sweeney’s Julia Carpenter, Celeste O’Connor’s Mattie Franklin and Isabela Merced’s Anya Corazon. Madame Web hits theaters on February 14.
Then, the long-delayed Kraven the Hunter is set to open on August 30. This villain-centric film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff, Ariana DeBose as Calypso, Russell Crowe as Nikolai Kravinoff, Fred Hechinger as Chameleon and Alessandro Nivola as Rhino.
Finally, Venom fans can look forward to a third movie on November 8. We know very little about this sequel other than that star Tom Hardy is returning and that Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor are joining the cast. Writer Kelly Marcel is also making her debut behind the camera for Venom 3.
The question is whether any of these Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movies can scratch that Marvel movie itch. The Venom series has its fans, but Morbius didn’t exactly open to a warm welcome in 2022. Is there a demand for Spider-Man movies without Spidey in the spotlight? We’ll find out over the course of 2024.
Sadly, there’s one Sony movie fans shouldn’t be holding their breath for in the new year. While Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was originally dated for March 29, it’s since been pulled from Sony’s release schedule. We’ll probably have to wait until at least 2025 to see how that trilogy wraps up.
X-Men: The Animated Series Returns
Alongside their two live-action MCU shows, Marvel also has a new animated series hitting Disney+ in early 2024. And it’s a big one. X-Men ‘97 is the continuation of the classic X-Men: The Animated Series, and it picks up where the old show left off. Magneto is now leading the X-Men, and the team faces new threats from the Sentinels, the Hellfire Club and Mister Sinister.
X-Men ‘97 features many returning faces from the original series, including Cal Dodd’s Wolverine, Lenore Zahn’s Rogue, and George Buza’s Beast. The series was created by Beau DeMayo, who previously served as a writer on Moon Knight. Fans can look forward to a 10-episode first season, with at least one more season already in the works.
We’re also hoping to finally learn more about Marvel’s long-gestating Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (previously known as Spider-Man: Freshman Year), which focuses on a young Peter Parker early in his costumed career. That series is still slated for a November 2024 release, but we’ll see if it sticks to that release date.
Other than that, it’s always possible the third season of What If…? could drop before the end of the year, but the long gap between Seasons 1 and 2 doesn’t give us much hope. There’s also the newly announced Black Panther spinoff Eyes of Wakanda, which is expected to drop in 2024.
Marvel’s Biggest Comics of 2024
It may be a relatively light year on the film and TV front, but we can always count on Marvel to offer plenty of new reading material. All eyes are on the X-Men line in 2024, as Marvel wraps up one major era of the franchise and begins a new one.
Five years after dramatically reshaping the X-Men line with 2019’s House of X and Powers of X, Marvel is finally bringing that storyline to an end. Fittingly, they’re doing so with two new, interconnected series called Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X. The X-Men are making their final stand against their enemies at Orchis, and we’ll learn once and for all whether the new mutant nation can survive or if mutants are destined to be hunted and feared for all time.
As if that weren’t dramatic enough, we’re also getting the first big showdown between Wolverine and Sabretooth in the Krakoan era. That violent cash will play out in a new storyline called Wolverine: The Sabretooth War.
Once those stories wrap up in Summer 2024, Marvel’s Executive Editor Tom Brevoort is making the jump from the Avengers line to spearhead a new direction for the X-books. We know very little about what Marvel has planned for the X-Men at that point. Will we see a return to a familiar status quo, with the X-Men operating out of their mansion in New York? Will there still be a mutant civilization on Mars? Will the X-Men still be immortal? For now, we can only wait and speculate.
January 2024 also marks the true start of Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe imprint. The new Ultimate line isn’t a direct continuation of the old one, but the goal is the same – to give readers fresh, updated takes on iconic characters that aren’t tied down by decades of continuity. All eyes are on Jonathan Hickman and Marco Chechetto’s Ultimate Spider-Man, which features an older, married Peter Parker just becoming Spider-Man for the first time. The Ultimate line also includes Bryan Edward Hill and Stefano Caselli’s Ultimate Black Panther and Peach Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men.
Marvel usually kicks off the summer season with a major crossover event, and 2024 is no exception. This year’s big crossover is Blood Hunt, by writer Jed MacKay and artist Pepe Larraz. When the world is trapped in an eternal night, the vampire hunter Blade will have to rally the Avengers, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man to save humanity from the vampire hordes. Blood Hunt will be published as a limited series, but expect plenty of tie-ins and spinoffs as this conflict expands to encompass the entire Marvel Universe.
And those are just three of Marvel’s big comic book projects planned for 2024. Elsewhere, we’re looking forward to the return of Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin as The Amazing Spider-Man nears the issue #50 mark. And we’ll meet a brand new Moon Knight as Marvel launches Vengeance of the Moon Knight in January.
Finally, we’re waiting to see what Marvel has in store for the Star Wars line as the Dark Droids crossover wraps up. What new Star Wars comics will we see in 2024? Will Marvel continue focusing on the post-Empire Strikes Back era, or will they move into the period of the sequels? There’s still so much territory to explore in a galaxy far, far away.
Marvel’s Upcoming Video Games
2023 was a great year for Marvel gamers, as we finally got to play Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. We’re not necessarily expecting another AAA Marvel game to drop in 2024, but with five major games in development right now, it’s always possible.
Spidey fans can almost surely look forward to some Spider-Man 2 DLC in 2024. The main game leaves plenty of room for more story content, with villains like Carnage and Chameleon being set up as future threats in a post-Venom New York City.
Beyond that, Insomniac is hard at work on their Wolverine game. Again, we’re not expecting that game to release so soon after Spider-Man 2, but we’re hoping to at least learn more about the studio’s latest Marvel adventure and see some actual gameplay footage. At this point, it’s been over two years since Insomniac first teased Marvel’s Wolverine, and we’re getting itchy to stab some bad guys.
That leaves four other Marvel games in various stages of development. EA has both an Iron Man game and a Black Panther game, both of which are still shrouded in mystery. There’s also Skydance’s World War II-era Black Panther/Captain America game. And let’s not forget Bethesda’s Blade game, which was one of the big surprise reveals at The Game Awards. It’s probably too much to hope any of these games will see release in 2024, but there’s always a chance we’ll be proven wrong.
Which Marvel projects are you most excited for in 2024? Will Deadpool 3 be just what the MCU needs to turn itself around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
For more on what’s coming in the new year, check out what to expect from DC in 2024 and what to expect from Star Wars in 2024.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.