Summary
- Marvel's Phase Six is highly anticipated, with a Fantastic Four movie and improved visual effects.
- Visual effects workers at Marvel ratified their first labor contract, leading to better working conditions.
- Delays in post-production give teams more time to perfect visual effects, as seen in DCU's Supergirl movie.
Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Six is one of the most anticipated since two phases—Avengers: Endgame’s Phase Four—for good reason. It features a Fantastic Four movie, two Avengers movies, and potentially the start of a “Mutantverse.”
But beyond its blockbuster titles, Phase Six may also mark a major turning point for the MCU in an area that’s long needed improvement: visual effects. While generally okay across the board, some Marvel Studios productions of late have seen questionable VFX outputs. Worse, the studio’s reputation among VFX professionals has been increasingly strained, plagued by reports of overwork and unrealistic deadlines. Now, with a newly ratified labor contract in place, the visual effects pipeline is poised for a much-needed overhaul.
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An IATSE Contract Has Been Years In The Making At Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios Has A Poor Working Relationship With VFX Employees
For years, there has been a call for the unionization of visual effects workers, much like their practical effects counterparts. Last week, Variety broke that VFX workers at Marvel Studios have officially ratified their first labor contract, which includes overtime pay, industry pension, health plans, meal penalties, rest periods, favorable turnaround times and raises of 3.5% and 4%, secured in last year’s negotiations by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). If there’s any indication that the long-standing VFX issues at the studio will improve, it’s this.
It needs reminding that the VFX working environment at Marvel Studios has been anything but healthy. For years, workers have voiced their toxic working relationship with the studio with regard to workload and unrealistic turnaround times. Multiple reports have been released of visual effects teams tasked with overhauling the entire third act of a blockbuster with barely two months to release. The result is workers breaking down, crying, or having anxiety attacks. A former Marvel VFX artist famously wrote on social media:
They're a horrible client, and I've seen way too many colleagues break down after being overworked, while Marvel tightens the purse strings.
Marvel’s gigantic status in the industry renders any attempt to decline such demands almost always futile. Visual effects companies always want to be on the good books of the studio behind the most successful franchise in history; stating the obvious about deadlines may sometimes be tantamount to kissing future high-paying contracts goodbye.
The MCU’s Overall Visual Quality Has Been Disturbingly Inconsistent
Who Would Have Guessed That Stretching the Post-Production Pipeline Thin Would Negatively Affect Output?
Since at least the past decade, the MCU’s visual quality has had something of a win-some-lose-some streak. While the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain America films mostly hit the mark (heavy on the “mostly” since that T’Challa-Killmonger final brawl and the obvious green screen in Captain America: Brave New World are eyesores not so easily forgotten), others like Thor: Love & Thunder, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law had infamously terrible CGI shots.
Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars Are the Biggest Beneficiaries of this Development
The Recent Delays Give Post-Production Teams Room to Breathe
There are actually two beneficiaries of the new IATSE contract: employees and Marvel Studios themselves. On the latter, two upcoming titles, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, will reap more than others. Prior to the recent pushbacks to December 2026 and 2027, both films were scheduled for May of the respective years. Avengers: Doomsday, in particular, only started filming on April 28—a year to its original release window. It’s a woefully inadequate timeline for the trio of production, post-production, and marketing to perfect their works in a visual-effects-heavy title that both films will be.
In Hollywood, the typical turnaround time from filming to release for superhero blockbusters averages around 16 months. That’s largely due to the sheer scale and complexity involved, especially for a grand ensemble like Avengers: Doomsday. These films demand heavy visual effects (VFX), CGI characters—some of which require months of painstaking frame-by-frame animation—and elaborate sets. It’s not for no reason that Avengers: Endgame wasn’t cleared for release until 18 months after principal photography began.
James Gunn’s DCU Knows How To Properly Treat VFX Teams, At Least So Far
The newly-christened DCU, by contrast, gives post-production teams all the time in the world to do their magic. Sometime last year, James Gunn promised to be the opposite of Marvel:
“If you do some research, you’ll see my films have always taken a different approach and I’ve always given my VFX artist-collaborators time to do their jobs properly, and the respect they deserve. And the quality of the VFX in those films is uniformly great because of it (and because my friends at Weta and Framestore and ILM and more are amazingly talented).”
He kept his word.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow’s post-production team has the rare luxury of 13 months to polish the film before its scheduled release on June 26, 2026. Superman commenced filming on February 29, 2024, and is scheduled for release on July 11, 2025. This extended post-production window has given the team ample time to refine and polish several previously rough visual effects shots, something attentive viewers may have already noticed. For instance, in the teaser, there's a scene where a man in a crowd hurls a canned item at David Corenswet’s Superman. Kal-El noticeably flinches when it hits his head. However, in the official trailer, that same shot has been altered—his eyes remain completely still, projecting a more composed and invulnerable Man of Steel. And that’s not the only upgrade; across the trailer, several formerly unfinished or rough-looking VFX shots have been visibly cleaned up and finalized.
Thunderbolts* Is Hopefully the First In A Long-Running Streak of Phase Six Visual Glory
Thunderbolts* relied on practical effects perhaps more than most MCU films this decade. But where visual effects were called for, it didn’t slouch. The Void and his dark realm are solid, as is the whole of the third-act brawl. Hopefully, this is the start in the change of attitude at Marvel Studios.