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.