Secret Wars Production Slips to January as Doomsday Runs Long

Industry insiders now put cameras on Avengers: Secret Wars in January 2027, leaving about 11 months before its listed December date. Disney has not confirmed the shift. Marvel still has the film on the calendar for December 17, 2027.

The last time Joe and Anthony Russo closed a saga, they did not leave that kind of hole. Infinity War and Endgame were one year of shooting, then one year of theaters. Doomsday and Secret Wars were sold as the same theatrical gap. They are not being built the same way.

A January Camera Call, Still a December Date

On October 1, 2026, Apocalyptic Horseman wrote that he had heard Secret Wars filming delayed to January 2027. Daniel Richtman, posting as DanielRPK, backed him the same morning: he had already flagged a slip from October into November, then wrote that it was January 2027 now.

Those posts moved the start of the main shoot, not the opening weekend. Marvel has not issued a new date. The movie remains listed for December 17, 2027 on the studio’s own films page, the only Marvel Studios title sitting in that year.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The claim: Horseman and Richtman independently put the main Secret Wars shoot in January 2027 after earlier talk of August, then October, then November.
• The studio: Disney has not confirmed a production change or a new release date.
• The listing: Marvel’s movies page still carries December 17, 2027 for Secret Wars and December 18, 2026 for Avengers: Doomsday.
• The directors: The Russos are in late post-production on Doomsday and, as of late July, were already prepping the follow-up.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Shared footage: Talk that some Secret Wars scenes were already captured on the Doomsday set has not been verified.
• The wrap window: Aggregators have circulated a January through late April or May shoot; the scoopers did not lock those end dates in the posts that landed first.
• A 2028 opening: A May 2028 landing is fan math, not a studio notice.

Replies under Richtman’s post treated January as spoiler control as much as a labor issue. Doomsday opens December 18, 2026. Keeping Secret Wars stages quiet until that weekend is out of the way would stop set photos from leaking the first movie. It would also burn the weeks the second movie was supposed to be using.

The Last Finale Pair Was Shot as One Movie

Infinity War started principal photography on January 23, 2017, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios and wrapped on July 14, 2017. Endgame started on August 10, 2017, under the working title Mary Lou 2, and wrapped on January 11, 2018. Twenty-seven days sat between the two wraps and starts. The crews were, in practice, making one production that happened to be two features.

Producer Trinh Tran later said they shot all of 2017, a full year of 12-hour days Marvel had never run on that scale. Kevin Feige had wanted to cross-board both scripts on the same sets and dropped the plan because Endgame was still being written. They shot one movie, then the other, with the same directors, the same editors, and almost no pause.

Infinity War opened on April 27, 2018, 15 months after cameras rolled. Endgame opened on April 26, 2019, 20 months after its first day. The theatrical gap between those two Fridays was 364 days, the one-year rhyme Marvel is trying to hit again with Doomsday and Secret Wars.

FIRST DAY TO RELEASE

The 2018 and 2019 movies did not get that one-year gap because someone wished it onto a slide. They got it because the second film was already in the can, in large part, before the first one left theaters.

Doomsday Took 20 Months From First Day to Release

Doomsday did not get a 27-day handoff. Cameras went up on April 28, 2025, at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, under the working title Apple Pie 1, with location work in Bahrain. Principal photography ran about five months and wrapped in September 2025. The film then moved into a long post-production stretch that still includes extra photography, with the Russos chasing a December 18, 2026 opening.

That is 20 months from the first day of filming to release, the same span Endgame used. It is also why Secret Wars has been sliding. The brothers are finishing one oversized movie before they can fully staff the next.

At San Diego Comic-Con on July 27, 2026, Anthony Russo described the overlap as already tight. He said they were deep into finishing Doomsday, down to Alan Silvestri’s score and the sound mix, and prepping Secret Wars at the same time. Asked when the second film would start shooting, he did not give a month.

Soon. So soon it makes us sweat a little bit.

Anthony Russo, director, San Diego Comic-Con

That “soon” was nine weeks before Horseman and Richtman moved the start into 2027. The sweat was the point. They were trying to protect Doomsday’s December 18 date first, after a shoot that, according to people around the production, went forward without a finished script and after Marvel had already thrown out its Kang Dynasty plan when it split with Jonathan Majors.

The Secret Wars date has already moved once in public. It sat on May 7, 2027, before Disney shifted both Avengers titles into December, pairing Doomsday with December 18, 2026. The winter slots copied the one-year gap. They did not copy the back-to-back cameras that made the gap possible last time.

Can Secret Wars Still Open in December 2027?

If cameras really start in January 2027, Secret Wars has 11 months to go from a first shooting day to a December 17, 2027 opening. That is four months shorter than Infinity War’s first-day-to-release span and nine months shorter than Endgame’s and Doomsday’s. Horseman has said a January start does not, by itself, kill the date. Richtman’s circle has described the studio as still pushing to hold December 17, 2027. Neither man is Disney, and Disney has not spoken.

HOW THE START DATE HAS MOVED

1. August 2026: Earlier reporting had the Secret Wars company aiming to go this summer, a window that never opened in public.
2. September 30, 2026: Richtman puts the start in November after an October plan falls out.
3. October 1, 2026: Horseman reports January 2027. Richtman agrees the same day.
4. December 18, 2026: Doomsday is due in theaters, 364 days before the listed Secret Wars opening, matching the Infinity War to Endgame gap of 364 days.
5. January 2027: Reported first day of the main Secret Wars shoot, with the listed premiere still December 17, 2027.

A five-month shoot that ran January through May would leave about seven months of post for a movie expected to be larger, and heavier in effects, than Doomsday. Doomsday had from September 2025 until December 2026 to finish, including those extra days of photography. Seven months is not that runway. It is the runway of a smaller film, or of a film whose hardest scenes were already shot, which remains the unproven hope sitting under every optimistic read of January.

The honest version is narrower. Marvel can still make December 17, 2027 if a chunk of Secret Wars already exists, if the Russos split units the way they did when Endgame was being assembled during Infinity War’s last months, and if post-production is allowed to run hot. It cannot make that date if January 2027 is a true first frame on a blank show and Doomsday’s extra photography keeps eating the same calendar.

Marvel Booked 2027 as a One-Movie Year

Look at Marvel’s movies page and 2027 has one studio film: Secret Wars. That was a choice. After 2025’s quieter returns, the studio cut volume and pointed the year at a single Avengers landing. Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* finished at $382 million and $415 million worldwide. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, released at the end of July 2026, then did $2.50 billion worldwide for Sony and Marvel.

Doomsday is supposed to ride that heat into December. Secret Wars is supposed to cash it 364 days later. If the second movie slides out of 2027, Marvel Studios has no other theatrical title in that calendar year to catch the spill. Sony still has animated Spider-Man plans, and Disney Plus still has series. That is not a December Avengers movie on 4,000 screens.

An empty 2027 is not a trivia note. It is the bill for the quality-over-quantity year the studio already advertised. The year with one movie in it is the year that movie has to land.

X-Men and Black Panther Sit Behind That Gate

The 2028 slate only works if Secret Wars actually closes the Multiverse Saga on time. Marvel has dated an untitled X-Men reboot to May 5, 2028, with Jake Schreier directing. Ghost Rider, with Ryan Gosling and director Shawn Levy, is dated July 28, 2028. Black Panther 3, with Ryan Coogler back and David Jonsson as T’Challa II, is dated December 15, 2028.

THE FILMS WAITING ON THE FINALE

• May 5, 2028: Untitled X-Men reboot, the first post-saga tentpole, sitting in the early-May window Marvel used to reserve for its biggest swings.
• July 28, 2028: Ghost Rider, already sold at San Diego Comic-Con as Gosling in the hellbike role under Levy.
• December 15, 2028: Black Panther 3, two days shy of a year after the current Secret Wars date, in the same holiday corridor Doomsday and Secret Wars were given.

If Secret Wars holds December 17, 2027, those three movies have a clean runway. If it slides into spring 2028, it lands on the X-Men date or forces that reboot to move. Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3 would then shuffle behind a saga that was supposed to be over. Cast deals, stage bookings, and IMAX paper for December 2027 would all have to be cut again. That is the second-order mess hiding under a January camera call.

Marvel can still hold the date it printed. The people closest to the shoot now say the cameras will not roll until the year after Doomsday’s long post is done. Last time the Russos ended a universe, the second movie was already shot before the first one opened. This time the second movie is still waiting on the first one to leave the cutting room.