View source for Marvel Cinematic Universe

{{Infobox Media franchise
 | name           = 
 | image          = Marvel Cinematic Universe.png
 | caption        = 
 | creator        = [[Marvel Studios]]
 | owner          = 
 | origin         = ''[[Film:Iron Man|Iron Man]]'' (2008)
<!-- Print publications -->
 | books          = 
 | novels         = 
 | short_stories  = 
 | comics         = [[Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in comics]]
 | graphic_novels = 
 | strips         = 
 | magazines      = 
<!-- Film, television, video and web -->
 | films          = [[List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films|Marvel Cinematic Universe films]]
 | shorts         = [[Marvel One-Shots]]
 | tv             = [[List of Marvel Cinematic Universe television series|Marvel Cinematic Universe television series]]
 | wtv            = ''[[WHIH Newsfront]]''<br/>''[[Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot]]''
 | atv            = 
 | tv_specials    = 
 | tv_films       = 
 | dtv            = 
<!-- Games -->
 | games          = 
 | rpgs           = 
 | vgs            = 
<!-- Audio -->
 | radio          = 
 | soundtracks    = 
 | music          = [[Music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe]]
<!-- Miscellaneous -->
 | toys           = 
 | attractions    = 
 | otherlabel1    = 
 | otherdata1     = 
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}}
The '''Marvel Cinematic Universe''' ('''MCU''') is an American media franchise and shared universe that is centered on a series of superhero films, independently produced by [[Marvel Studios]] and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by [[Marvel Comics]]. The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, television series, and digital series. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. [[Phil Coulson]], portrayed by [[Clark Gregg]], is an original character to the MCU and the only character to appear across all the different media of the MCU.

The first film released in the MCU was ''[[Film:Iron Man|Iron Man]]'' (2008), which began the first phase of films culminating in the crossover film ''[[Film:Marvel's The Avengers|Marvel's The Avengers]]'' (2012). Phase Two began with ''[[Film:Iron Man 3|Iron Man 3]]'' (2013), and concluded with ''[[Film:Ant-Man|Ant-Man]]'' (2015). The films are currently in Phase Three, which began with the release of ''[[Film:Captain America: Civil War|Captain America: Civil War]]'' (2016). [[Marvel Television]] expanded the universe further, first to network television with ''[[Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]]'' on [[ABC]] in the 2013–14 television season, followed by online streaming with ''[[Marvel's Daredevil]]'' on [[Netflix]] in 2015 and ''[[Marvel's Runaways]]'' on [[Hulu]] in 2017, and then to cable television with ''[[Marvel's Cloak & Dagger]]'' in 2018 on [[Freeform]]. Marvel Television has also produced the digital series ''[[Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot]]'', which is a supplement to ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D''. Soundtrack albums have been released for all of the films, along with many of the television series, as well as the release of compilation albums containing existing music heard in the films. The MCU also includes [[Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in comics|tie-in comics]] published by Marvel Comics, while Marvel Studios has also produced a series of [[Marvel One-Shots|direct-to-video short films]] and a viral marketing campaign for its films and the universe with the faux news program ''[[WHIH Newsfront]]''.

The franchise has been commercially successful as a multimedia shared universe, though some critics have found that some of its films and television series have suffered in service of the wider universe. It has inspired other film and television studios with comic book character adaptation rights to attempt to create similar shared universes. The MCU has also been the focus of other media, outside of the shared universe, including attractions at the [[Disneyland Resort]] and [[Discovery Times Square]], two television specials, guidebooks for each film, multiple tie-in video games, and a commercial with [[Coca-Cola]].

== Development ==

=== Films ===

By 2005, [[Marvel Entertainment]] began planning to independently produce its own films and distribute them through [[Paramount Pictures]]. Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, including a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox. Marvel made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution. [[Avi Arad]], head of Marvel's film division, was pleased with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films at Sony, but was less pleased about others. As a result, they decided to form [[Marvel Studios]], Hollywood's first major independent movie studio since DreamWorks.

Arad's second-in-command, [[Kevin Feige]], realized that unlike [[Spider-Man]] and the X-Men, whose film rights were licensed to Sony and Fox, respectively, Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of the [[Avengers]]. Feige, a self-professed "fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators [[Stan Lee]] and [[Jack Kirby]] had done with their comic books in the early 1960s. To raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel's plan was to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them together in a crossover film. Arad, who doubted the strategy yet insisted that it was his reputation that helped secure the initial financing, resigned the following year.

In 2007, at 33 years old, Feige was named studio chief. In order to preserve its artistic integrity, Marvel Studios formed a six-person creative committee with people familiar with its comic book lore that included Feige, Marvel Studios co-president [[Louis D'Esposito]], Marvel Comics' president of publishing [[Dan Buckley]], Marvel's chief creative officer [[Joe Quesada]], writer [[Brian Michael Bendis]], and Marvel Entertainment president [[Alan Fine]], who oversaw the committee. Feige initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of these films as the "Marvel Cinema Universe", but later used the term "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Marvel has designated the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth-199999 within the continuity of the company's multiverse, a collection of fictional alternate universes.

As of January 2022, 27 films have already been released, 8 other movies are at some various stages of scheduling/planning/production. The whole movies {{w|List of highest-grossing films#Highest-grossing franchises and film series|globally engrossed more than 25.4 billions dollars}}, making the MCU the most prolific franchise of all-time (and counting).

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