The MCU’s Release Date Chaos Secretly Helps DCU’s First Movie

Superman: Legacy, the first movie in the new DC Universe, is being helped by the release date changes over at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The upcoming DCU and the long-running MCU share some connections, with the biggest of them relating to James Gunn. The director is responsible for the MCU’s popular Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and has now left Marvel for DC, spearheading the DCU and being the writer/director of Superman: Legacy. Several casting choices for the movie have been revealed, with David Corenswet leading Superman: Legacy as its title hero.

Superman: Legacy will be the DCU’s first movie, releasing in 2025, while the universe starts in 2024 with the animated Creature Commandos series, which Gunn wrote all seven episodes for. While Superman: Legacy‘s release date remains unchanged, the movie’s filming timeline suffered some setbacks due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. That, along with the Writers Guild of America strike, caused several production shifts on a wide array of Hollywood projects, including the MCU. Thanks to the release date changes Marvel had to make due to the strike, Superman: Legacy now has a better path to success.

MCU’s Avengers 5 Timeline Changes Make Superman: Legacy’s Release Less Contested

The MCU has not had an Avengers movie since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Phase 4 and Phase 5’s Avengers absence is set to end when Avengers: The Kang Dynasty comes around, with the movie releasing on May 2026. However, the Phase 6 Avengers film was originally set to arrive a year earlier, which would have put the debut of the next Avengers movie on May 2025, just a couple of months before Superman: Legacy‘s July 11, 2025, release date.

With the wave of Marvel release date changes, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty now premieres in 2026, leaving a much better release slot for Superman: Legacy. The first Avengers film since the behemoth Avengers: Endgame will undoubtedly steal away the spotlight from whatever movies release close to it. After the final DCEU movies underperformed — with only Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom still to go — Superman: Legacy would do well to have as little competition as it can, allowing the audience’s attention to be firmly on the movie, something that would not have happened if Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was in theaters at the same time.

What MCU Movies Are Releasing Around Superman: Legacy’s Debut

While Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will not bother Superman: Legacy, new MCU Phase 5 delays have left the DCU’s first movie sandwiched between two MCU entries. Fantastic Four premieres on May 2, 2025, which was revealed last year; and Thunderbolts will now release on July 25, 2025, merely two weeks after Superman: Legacy arrives in theaters. While the MCU competition has closed in on Superman: Legacy, both movies are not as much of a threat to the DCU film as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty would have been.

Despite audience interest in the new movie for Marvel’s First Family, all Fantastic Four entries so far have been modest at the box office. Adding to that, Thunderbolts focuses on a team of lesser-known characters, and in a world where the sequel to the $1 billion Captain Marvel is struggling at the box office, Thunderbolts does not look like much of a threat to Superman: Legacy. In the end, Marvel’s release date shifts silently help Superman: Legacy‘s chances of succeeding, as the DCU movie will not have to deal with possibly losing its audience to the first Avengers film since Avengers: Endgame, but rather go up against two unpredictable movies.