All told, Marvel Studios will probably be happy to bid farewell to Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when its concluding installment, "Thunderbolts*," kicks off the 2025 summer movie season in May. Though there have been a couple of blockbusters in this six-film cycle ("Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and "Deadpool & Wolverine"), the phase got off to a rough start in 2023 with the critical and commercial disappointment of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." It then went on to hit even choppier waters with the box office failure of "The Marvels," leading some to wonder if the McU's spectacular run, which stretches back to 2008's "Iron Man," had finally come to an end.

With Marvel having caught a breather in 2024 with the preordained success of "Deadpool & Wolverine," we'll finally learn just how much (or little) audiences are invested in the ongoing MCU saga when "Captain America: Brave New World...