Is the MCU Officially Back? Three Straight Rotten Tomatoes Wins Say Yes

For a few rocky years, “Marvel fatigue” became one of the most repeated phrases in entertainment coverage, with even loyal fans admitting the franchise had lost some of its spark. Diminishing box office returns and mixed critical reception across several post-‘Endgame’ releases only reinforced that narrative.

Lately, though, the story looks very different. A string of recent Marvel Studios releases has posted some of the strongest critical and audience numbers the franchise has seen in years, sparking real conversation about whether the MCU is genuinely finding its footing again.

That resurgence starts with ‘Thunderbolts*,’ which quietly rebranded itself as ‘The New Avengers’ in its closing moments and went on to post an 88% critics’ score alongside a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Bringing together a team of antiheroes including Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, and Ghost, the film earned praise for leaning into flawed, morally complicated characters rather than another straightforward hero ensemble.

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ followed with similarly strong numbers, landing at 86% with critics and 90% with audiences on the Popcornmeter. Set against a retro-futuristic 1960s backdrop, the film introduced Marvel’s First Family to the MCU proper, with its critics’ consensus specifically praising the cast chemistry and period aesthetic that finally gave the franchise a Fantastic Four movie worthy of the characters’ legacy.

Now ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ has joined that streak, currently sitting at 91% on the Tomatometer from 158 reviews as it heads into its opening weekend. The film follows Peter Parker four years after the events of ‘No Way Home,’ fighting crime full-time in a city that’s forgotten who he is, all while an unseen new threat closes in around him.

What’s notable about this run isn’t just the individual scores, it’s the pattern across three very different corners of the franchise. A gritty antihero team-up, a period-piece reboot, and a fourth solo Spider-Man outing have each managed to clear the 85% mark with critics, something that would have felt unlikely during the franchise’s rougher post-Endgame stretch.

Audiences have responded just as enthusiastically, with all three films landing comfortably in “Certified Fresh” or “Verified Hot” territory on their respective Popcornmeter scores. That kind of alignment between critics and general audiences has become something of a rarity for big franchise releases in recent years, where the two groups often land on very different verdicts entirely.

Part of what’s fueling this streak also seems to be increased interconnectivity between projects, with characters and storylines bleeding across films in ways that feel more purposeful than some of the franchise’s earlier, more scattershot Phase Four and Five efforts. Threads introduced in one movie are paying off in the next, rather than existing as isolated standalone entries.

Whether this momentum carries through the rest of the year remains to be seen, especially with ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ still looming as the franchise’s biggest swing yet. But for a studio that spent years fielding questions about whether it had lost its magic, three strong outings in a row is exactly the kind of streak that quiets that conversation, at least for now.

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