Back in 2020, the year after Avengers: Endgame shut down the box office, there were no new Marvel shows or movies released. Zippo. Zilch. Nada. It was a kind of rare quiet we hadn’t seen for years before…and if Disney has its way, will never see again.
We’re here at the beginning of 2023, and Marvel Studios has a lot to offer us this year. We are here to be your guide. Here’s a roadmap of every Marvel movie and TV show coming out in 2023, laid out in chronological order.
What If…? season 2: Early 2023 on Disney+
The MCU is currently neck deep in the “multiverse saga,” which explores the possibilities of many alternate worlds, with many alternate heroes. What if Peggy Carter became Captain America instead of Steve Rogers? What if Doctor Stranger were evil? What if everyone was a zombie? And so on.
The first season of the show mostly had standalone episodes, but they added up something greater than the sum of its parts. The second season promises more multiversal mayhem. We don’t have an exact release date yet, but word is that it’ll be out in early 2023. We should know something specific very soon.
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: February 10, 2023 on Disney Channel
Didn’t see this one coming, did you? Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is an animated show based on the characters of the same names from Marvel Comics. Lunella Lafayette is a super-genius who accidentally brings Devil Dinosaur, a giant Red Tyrannosaurus Rex, to present day New York City.
Obviously this show has younger viewers in mind. We don’t expect it to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper, but it is a fun lark for the little ones.
Okay, now that we’ve talked about the Marvel show you didn’t know existed, let’s move on to the stuff no one can stop talking about:
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: February 17, 2023 in theaters
The first big Marvel movie of 2023 is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which has ambitions as big as its title is long. The first two Ant-Man movies were pretty light, so far as Marvel fare goes, and mostly focused on ex-con Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) reconnecting with his family and using his powers (shrinking and getting huge on command) to go on wacky misadventures.
That changes in Ant-Man 3, which will pit Lang and co against Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a megalomaniacal tyrant whom Marvel has tapped as the next huge Thanos-level villain to fight Earth’s mightiest heroes…but only if he can get past Ant-Man first!
The movie will be more serious and epic than we’re used to from an Ant-Man film. Buckle up.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: May 5, 2023 in theaters
2023 will also see the debut of the third movie in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, against directed by James Gunn. People have fallen in love with the unlikely band of misfits at the center of this series, including Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord; Thanos’ daughter Gamora; and the sentient, foul-mouthed raccoon bounty hunter Rocket.
This third and final Guardians movie has a lot of loose ends to wrap up. Gamora technically tied in Avengers: Infinity War, but there’s another version of her from an alternate reality running around, albeit one who has no memories of the Guardians. Vol. 3 looks to spend a lot of time with Rocket, exploring how he came to be the way he is. And of course Groot will be there, telling you who he is.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – June 2, 2023 in theaters
This year, Sony will debut the sequel to its 2018 hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This series may not technically be part of the MCU proper, but it dovetails very nicely with it, since it’s all about alternate realities.
In the first movie, Spider-Man, aka Miles Morales, met many different different of himself from sideways universes. The sequel will pump everything up: more universes, more Spider-People, more different animation styles, etc. The first movie was a breath of fresh air and the second looks be just as bracing and innovative.
Secret Invasion: Spring 2023 on Disney+
Enough movies. Let’s return to some Disney+ series, cause there are some big ones coming in 2023. The biggest of all may be Secret Invasion, which revolves around Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, who’s trying to thwart a clandestine alien takeover of Earth.
Some of the Marvel Disney+ series have seemed a little disposable, but it looks like Marvel Studios is taking this one seriously, packing it with cameos and presenting our heroes with a very interesting threat. There’s some big-name talent involved, too, including Oscar winner Olivia Colman and Game of Thrones veteran Emilia Clarke.
The Marvels: July 28, 2023 in theaters
Captain Marvel came out in 2019 and introduced the world to Carol Danvers, one of the strongest superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her new movie, The Marvels, will send her on a mission with a couple of more recent additions to the MCU: Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel; and Monica Rambeau, who gained superpowers in WandaVision.
The premise is this: whenever any of these three women use their powers, they start swapping places with each other, for reasons unknown. You can see what that looks like in the clip above, from the very end of the Ms. Marvel show on Disney+. The trio will have to team up to find out what’s going on. We’ll find out what’s up when they do in July.
Loki season 2: Summer 2023 on Disney+
Loki was one of the better Disney+ series released by Marvel so far. It followed the titular god of mischief as he created merry hell at the Time Variance Authority, a sort of extra-dimensional bureaucracy dedicated to making sure alternate realities don’t start getting out of hand. (Marvel is really going all in on this multiverse theme.) The first season also introduced us to a Loki variant named Sylvie as well as an amiable TVA bureaucrat named Mobius M. Mobius.
That season left off on a big cliffhanger, as Slyvie kills the mysterious being at the end of time known as He Who Remains, which creates an opportunity for his far more malevolent variant Kang the Conqueror to stake a claim on the TVA. This all sounds confusing, and it is, but it’s also funny and fleet-footed, with plenty of sci-fi-themed laughs and adventure along the way.
Loki is the first MCU series on Disney+ to get a second season, so expectations are high.
Echo: Summer 2023 on Disney+
Echo is a character introduced into the MCU in Hawkeye. When we meet her, she’s an assassin working for Kingpin, but by the end of that show, she shoots him and leaves him for dead. In her new series, she’ll return to her home in Oklahoma, where she reckons with her past and reconnects with her native American roots.
Of all the new characters introduced into the MCU over the past couple years, I don’t know if Echo (real name Maya Lopez) is the one most people were clamoring to get her own TV series. But Alaqua Cox is compelling in the role, and this could give Marvel the opportunity to explore some reaches of the MCU it hasn’t gotten to yet.
Ironheart: Summer 2023 on Disney+
Another newbie to the MCU, we met MIT student Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. An Iron Man stan who made her own flying metal suit, Riri will get her own show this year, where she’ll adopt the superhero persona of Ironheart.
Echo and Ironheart are both part of a new wave of Marvel superheroes who the studio may build up to become the next set of Avengers. A lot will depend on how much fans like this maiden flight.
Kraven the Hunter: October 6, 2023 in theaters
It’s time for one of our periodic excursions outside the MCU. While Marvel Studios has been dominated the box office, Sony has been trying to make a cinematic universe packed with…Spider-Man villains, some of them pretty obscure. A lot of people have heard of Venom, and his movies have done pretty well, but was anyone asking for a film about Morbius the Living Vampire?
Kraven the Hunter is a little more on the Morbius side of things. He’s a big game hunter who sets his sights on taking down Spider-Man…only Spider-Man can’t actually appear in these movies due to contractual issues. Will Kraven be compelling on this own? We’ll find out soon enough.
X-Men ’97: Fall 2023 on Disney+
Disney is ready to tickle your nostalgia bone with X-Men 97, a reboot of the ’90s-era X-Men cartoon that featured one of the most earworm-worthy theme songs of all time. Watch the video above if you don’t believe me.
The X-Men have yet to be integrated into the MCU proper, although Marvel Studios is inching towards it with shows like this. Who knows? Maybe they’ll find a way to tie this rebooted cartoon from three decades ago into the Multiverse Saga. It doesn’t pay to underestimate how weird comics can get.
Agatha: Coven of Chaos in late 2023
Finally, 2023 will (probably) bring us the first spinoff of a Marvel Disney+ show, with musically inclined witch Agatha Harkness going on her own magical adventure. Agatha, played with cackling delight by Kathryn Hahn, was introduced in WandaVision, where she endeavored to control Wanda for her own ends. She ended up regretting that decision, as Wanda forced her to live the rest of her days trapped in the life of a nosy sitcom neighbor.
And there she might have stayed, but Agatha proved so popular a character that Disney is giving her a show all her own! We don’t know what it’s about, but if there aren’t at least three musical numbers I will be disappointed.
Filming has begun on Agatha: Coven of Chaos, but there’s a chance this one could slip to 2024. We’ll be watching.
So that’s 13 Marvel movies and shows in all coming our way in 2023. Nine are set in the MCU…and a couple others may worm their way in there somehow. As always, it’s Marvel’s world, we’re just watching it.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels