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Avengers: Secret Wars isn’t a full MCU reboot, Kevin Feige says
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has pushed back against the idea that Avengers: Secret Wars, due in 2027, will be a full reboot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the film being widely expected to reshape the franchise significantly. Speaking to Happy Sad Confused's Joshua Horowitz and separately to Chinese media, Feige said the studio is drawing inspiration from Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars comic run, which will result in a "streamlined, simplified, single universe" after the story concludes, with some elements staying familiar and others changing substantially.
In the comics, Hickman's Secret Wars unified Marvel's Ultimate Universe with its main continuity, with Doctor Doom becoming a god-like ruler of a patchwork world called Battleworld before the Prime Universe was restored in an altered form. Feige has previously suggested the MCU could see dead characters return with new actors, such as a possible recast of Tony Stark, and has told Variety that the upcoming X-Men film will play a key role in folding those characters, along with the Fantastic Four, into the main universe after years of narrative struggles since Avengers: Endgame.
In short
- Feige denies Secret Wars (2027) will be a full MCU reboot
- Film draws on Hickman's 2015 comic to "streamline" the universe
- X-Men and Fantastic Four expected to join the main MCU afterwards
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The scale of change being described—a fundamentally reshaped universe with dead characters returning as recasts, reality itself altered by a god-like force, and a new "streamlined, simplified" continuity emerging from the ruins—constitutes a practical reboot in all but name. The comic precedent involved complete universe mergers and fundamental alterations to reality. When the essential nature of the MCU's world and characters transforms so radically, calling it merely a "reshaping" understates the magnitude of what audiences will experience.
The case against
Feige's framing distinguishes continuation from reboot: the plan maintains familiar elements whilst transforming others, integrates mutants and the Fantastic Four into the existing narrative rather than abandoning it, and builds upon established continuity instead of discarding it. A true reboot would start fresh; this instead leverages prior stories as foundation for a unified universe. Reshaping and reimagining the franchise's structure is fundamentally different from erasing what came before.
Explained simply
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the interconnected series of films and television shows produced by Marvel Studios that has told a continuing story since 2008. Over that time, Avengers films have served as major events that conclude chapters of the story and bring together multiple character threads. Avengers: Secret Wars, due in 2027, is expected to be another such pivotal moment that substantially reshapes the franchise's direction.
The MCU has faced storytelling challenges since Avengers: Endgame in 2019, particularly in how to integrate the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters, whose film rights Marvel Studios only recently acquired. Speculation has grown that the Secret Wars film could serve as a reset—a chance to reboot the franchise with new versions of familiar characters and cleaner narrative continuity. This possibility has generated widespread discussion about whether the studio will completely overhaul its fictional universe.
Secret Wars is based on a 2015 comic storyline in which the Marvel Universe undergoes a radical transformation before being restored in a changed form. Marvel Studios is drawing inspiration from this comic's structure to create a streamlined version of the universe with some familiar elements preserved and others substantially altered. The exact details of what will remain and what will change have not yet been fully explained.