The Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought several non-Marvel Studios-produced Marvel movies into the franchise thanks to the multiverse. Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel Studios have spent the last 15 years creating a sprawling universe filled with some of the biggest and most obscure comic characters. There have been 30 MCU movies during this time that encom Phases 1-3 (the Multiverse Saga) and Phase 4 (the beginning of the Multiverse Saga). The latter has helped the MCU multiverse continue to grow substantially and bring characters and Marvel movie franchises from the past into the saga.
Marvel Studios might be known as the king of superhero entertainment now, but there are plenty of Marvel movies made before 2008 that were not meant to connect to a more extensive franchise. Thanks to multiverse-focused MCU projects like MCU multiverse is quickly expanding to include several non-Marvel Studios movies. Here's a breakdown of the more than a dozen Marvel movies now part of the MCU multiverse.
5 Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man Trilogy
Tobey Maguire's Iron Man's alternate post-credits scene where the wall-crawler was referenced.
It was not until Spider-Man: No Way Home that Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker officially ed the MCU. The multiverse movie brought Tobey back as Spider-Man 14 years after he last played the role. Tobey Maguire was not the only Spider-Man trilogy cast member to appear in the multiverse film. Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, and Thomas Haden Church's Sandman came back through the multiverse to fight Tom Holland's Spider-Man. Spider-Man: No Way Home ultimately let Tobey Maguire return to help cure his Spider-Man's past villains and be a mentor for Holland's version.
4 Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man Movies
Andrew Garfield's Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4, a reboot of the web-slinger brought Andrew Garfield into the lead role. He starred as Spider-Man in two films, 2011's The Amazing Spider-Man and 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The films were not directly connected, although attempts were made to have Avengers Tower appear in the New York skyline of the sequel. Instead, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man existed in a separate universe from the MCU and had to compete with the franchise's rapidly growing box office directly.
The confirmation that The Amazing Spider-Man movies are part of the MCU multiverse came in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker returned through the multiverse as a result of Doctor Strange's spell going wrong. This also led to Amazing Spider-Man villains Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans) returning for the event film. Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man got his redemption by saving Zendaya's MJ through this crossover and reignited hopes of him returning for a bigger role in the future thanks to how well he was used.
3 Sony’s Venom Franchise & Morbius
Sony's other Spider-Man-related movies, like Morbius, are also connected to the MCU multiverse - whether Marvel Studios approved or not. The Spider-Man villain universe began in 2018 with Tom Hardy's Venom and continued three years later with Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The two financially successful movies then led to the release of Jared Leto's Morbius. Their relationship with the MCU was questioned for years due to producers mentioning that they were "MCU adjacent" even though Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios were not involved in their development like they were with Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy.
Sony's hope that the Venom franchise and other movies would become part of the MCU materialized with Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene. The scene showed Tom Hardy's Venom transported to the main MCU timeline, and it was there that audiences saw him again briefly in Spider-Man: No Way Home's post-credits. This scene ended with Venom returning to Sony's universe, but it still confirmed that the Venom movies are Marvel movies part of the MCU multiverse. The same is true for Morbius after its confusing post-credits scene that brought the MCU's Vulture to a new universe as an unexplainable result of Spider-Man: No Way Home's final spell.
2 Fox’s Main X-Men Movies
Most of 20th Century Fox's X-Men: First Class' younger reboot, and even the three Wolverine solo films starring Hugh Jackman. Although the franchise existed separately from the MCU, Kevin Feige got his start by producing these movies. The X-Men timeline might be somewhat confusing and not entirely line up, but these ten movies should count in the MCU multiverse, with the inconsistencies possibly being attributed to branched timelines.
The reason these Fox X-Men movies count as non-Marvel Studios movies part of the MCU multiverse, but something like New Mutants should not, is due to the characters that have appeared so far. A Professor X variant from Earth-838 appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This immediately links the original X-Men trilogy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the Wolverine trilogy, as Patrick Stewart appeared in each. The rest of the X-Men: First Class films are then linked to the MCU multiverse thanks to Deadpool 3.
1 The First Two Deadpool Movies
Ryan Reynolds' first two Deadpool movies will also be part of the MCU multiverse. Audiences initially met the new and improved portrayal of Wade Wilson in 2016 when the first Deadpool debuted with its proper R-rating. The film's success led the way for Deadpool 2 to be made at Fox without Marvel Studios' involvement. In fact, the Deadpool movies repeatedly poked fun at what the MCU was doing. Reynolds referenced Marvel characters like Hawkeye, Winter Soldier, and Thanos during his tenure with the character when Marvel Studios had no direct input on what jokes he could or could not make.
Deadpool might not be in the MCU yet, but that will change with Deadpool 3. The 2024 MCU movie is confirmed to bring Ryan Reynolds' Merc with a Mouth to the shared universe. Co-star Hugh Jackman indicates that time travel will be involved, so the exploration of time could open the door for Deadpool (and maybe even Wolverine) to jump to the MCU timeline. Speculation about the Time Variance Authority's role in Deadpool 3 could also plausibly explain how the crossover happens. Of course, this is Deadpool, so no explanation or a fourth-wall break about the Disney/Fox merger could be all audiences get in the Marvel Studios-produced MCU sequel.
