The next two Avengers films have officially been pushed back. Social media has been abuzz with the news that not only will the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday be moved back from May 1 to December 18, 2026, but that its planned sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars will also be delayed from May 7 to December 17, 2027.

This is hardly the most shocking news, considering the massive scale of these movies, but it still comes as a bit of a blow to those who are excited to see how Marvel concludes the latest batch of film and serial releases and if they can stack up the box office smash hits that were their technical predecessors in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Interestingly enough, this means that the latest in Sony’s contributions to the MCU, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with its projected release date of July 31, 2026, will now be out before the grand Avengers finale begins. Whether or not this will be addressed in either film is yet to be seen.

It also means that, as of now, Avengers: Doomsday will also be sharing its release date with another massive and long-awaited sci-fi smash hit in the making in Dune: Messiah!

What this means as a whole for the ever-pressing cultural juggernaut that is the MCU, meanwhile, is up in the air, but considering these delays are “only” about half a year, it appears to me that they are mostly precautionary measures to ensure that the final products will serve as the fitting conclusion they are intended to be.