Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or simply, the MCU is a connected franchise of films, television shows, comic books, and short films.

Production
Marvel Studios unveiled plans for several live-action films based on their characters in 2005, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Ant-Man. In 2006, they set dates for each of the standalone films featuring the characters, with Iron Man releasing on May 2, 2008, Ant-Man on May 1, 2009, Thor on May 7, 2010, and Captain America on May 6, 2011, followed by a potential Avengers film, crossing the characters over. A Hulk film was planned, for a reboot of the 2003 film, though Marvel could not work out an agreement with Universal Pictures. Ant-Man was pushed back to August 7, 2009. After the immense success of Iron Man, a second film was announced, intended to be released in 2012. However, due to worry that the public would forget about the hero, the sequel was moved up to 2010, taking Thor's release date, partly due to Thor going through rewrites and not being able to make the 2010 date. Thor was moved to June 3, 2011, while Captain America was later pushed back to July 22, 2011. Because of to the hype surrounding the Iron Man character, an Avengers film was quickly announced, with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star. Paul Rudd and Evangelline Lilly made new deals to appear in the film along with two Ant-Man sequels. With the subsequent casting of Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America, they both signed onto The Avengers as well. Joss Whedon signed on to direct in mid-2010, along with Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson announcing they would be reprising their roles as Hawkeye and Black Widow in the film. The Hulk, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver were all announced to appear in the film when the film's premise was announced in September 2010, along with Tom Hiddleston returning as Loki. Throughout the next six months, Mark Ruffalo joined the film to play Bruce Banner, while Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were cast as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Cobie Smulders was announced to play Maria Hill in February 2011.

Marvel Studios revealed that the next films after The Avengers would be grouped together into a Phase Two. Iron Man 3 was officially announced with a release date of May 3, 2013 in October 2010. Ant-Man & the Wasp was announced in May 2011 along with a second Thor film, anticipating the release of the first film, to be released on July 3, 2013 and June 7, 2014, respectively. A sequel to Captain America was announced in late 2011 to be released in 2014. Discussions for a potential Guardians of the Galaxy film went underway in early 2012, with an official announcement coming at San Diego Comic-Com International that year, along with the official title Thor: Ancient Winters for Thor 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier for Captain America 2, with a release date of July 11, 2014 for the latter film being announced as well. The November 7, 2014 date for Guardians of the Galaxy was announced later into 2012. A sequel to The Avengers had been planned as the second in a trilogy of films, though it was also officially confirmed at SDCC 2012 for a potential release of May 1, 2015, before a title announcement at the next year's Comic-Con.

In late 2012, Feige worked to integrate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Amazing Spider-Man had just been released and had succeeded at the box office. However, Amy Pascal refuses to allow the MCU access to their once again successful character. By February 2013, discussions had flared up once again, and Andrew Garfield was making a deal to appear in the second Avengers film. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was delayed from its original May 2, 2014 to July 10, 2015. Thor: Ancient Winters took the May 2, 2014 spot. Garfield revealed that he would not appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron later into 2013, but he stated that filming for for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would state in the summer of 2014. However, in January 2014, it was revealed that the film would now be a reboot, simply entitled Spider-Man and that Garfield would be recast, after creative differences.