The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a film franchise and shared fictional universe that is the setting of superhero films independently produced by Marvel Studios, based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The shared universe of the films, much like the Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
The first film to be released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was Iron Man (2008), followed by The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), and Iron Man 3 (2013). Five additional films are in various stages of development as of August 2013: Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) are in post-production, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is filming, Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is in pre-production and Ant-Man (2015) is in the early stages of development. Three untitled films are slated for release in 2016 and 2017.
The films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe have received both critical and commercial success, and the franchise as a whole ranks as the third highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Outside of feature films, the franchise has expanded into comic books, a series of short films called Marvel One-Shots, and the upcoming television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
