What did Kevin Feige actually say about a reboot?
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has said flatly that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will not be rebooted after Avengers: Secret Wars wraps Phase Six. Asked directly by Josh Horowitz on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast whether next year’s team-up film would reset the franchise, Feige’s answer was a single word: “No.”
He didn’t leave it there. “I look to the comics, as I always do, in terms of our storytelling,” he said, adding that “in both the Secret Wars – but particularly the [Jonathan] Hickman Secret Wars from 10 years ago – there’s a nice roadmap to where we can go.” Hickman’s Secret Wars, published across 2015 and 2016, tells a multiverse-ending story pulling in heroes and villains from across the Marvel universe. Feige is treating it as inspiration, not an instruction manual for wiping the slate clean.
So is it a reboot or not? Why the confusion?
The confusion is understandable, because Feige himself has used softer language before. Speaking to Variety in 2025, he called “reboot” a “scary word” that “can mean a lot of things to a lot of people,” and said Marvel was “thinking along” the lines of “reset” and “singular timeline” — pointing to the upcoming X-Men film as where that would happen. So the current “no reboot” is more precise than absolute: no hard reset, but a franchise willing to reshape itself.
Muddying it further, Doomsday and Secret Wars co-director Joe Russo has publicly described this year’s Avengers film as going “back to phase zero.” Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Russo said the aim was “starting over from scratch” so that “everybody feels like this isn’t leaning on anything from the past.” That is a director talking about tone and momentum rather than continuity being erased, but it’s the kind of quote that keeps reboot theories alive. The most cautious read of all this: expect a big shift in direction, not a factory reset. IGN’s report on Feige’s no-reboot comments lays out the full exchange.
What does this mean before Doomsday hits UAE cinemas?
For UAE Marvel fans, the practical takeaway is that the story you’ve been following isn’t about to be thrown out. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to reach UAE cinemas on 18 December 2026, matching the global date, with Avengers: Secret Wars set to premiere on 17 December 2027. Feige’s “no reboot” line suggests both films are meant to carry the current MCU forward rather than restart it.
We still know remarkably little about Secret Wars itself, and the first proper Doomsday trailer only just arrived — which hasn’t stopped fans from picking it apart frame by frame. Our sister site IGN Middle East has a breakdown of the film’s official plot description and “three distinct universes” framing, and eagle-eyed viewers are already convinced the trailer is hiding secret characters. Until Marvel says more, Feige’s comic-book roadmap is the clearest signal we have of where the MCU is actually headed.
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