The six films of the phase grossed over US$3.8 billion at the global box office and received generally positive critical and public response.

[1] Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, including a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox.

[2] Marvel made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution.

Feige, a self-described "fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe, just as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the 1960s.

[11] Soon after, Lions Gate Entertainment dropped the Black Widow project it had been working on since 2004, giving the rights back to Marvel.

It was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Ant-Man story influencing the birth of the MCU in the early films leading up to Avengers.

[32] Robert Downey Jr. was cast in the title role in September 2006, after growing out a goatee and working out to convince the filmmakers he was right for the part.

[45] Principal photography began on March 12, 2007,[46] with the first few weeks spent on Stark's captivity in Afghanistan,[47] which was filmed in Inyo County, California.

[48] Production also occurred on the former Hughes Airport soundstages in Playa Vista, Los Angeles,[49] with additional filming at Edwards Air Force Base[50] and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

[51] Downey improvised the film's final "I am Iron Man" line, which Feige felt was inline with the character's personality.

[54][55] The film ends with a post-credits scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, who approaches Stark regarding the "Avenger Initiative".

[56] Captain America's shield is also visible in the background of a scene; it was added by an Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) artist as a joke, and Favreau decided to leave it in the film.

[57] After being exposed to gamma radiation that causes him to transform into the monstrous Hulk, scientist Bruce Banner goes on the run and isolates himself from his love, Betty Ross.

It happens to be a scene where I basically approach [actor William Hurt's character General Ross], and we may be considering going into some sort of limited partnership together.

"[69] In addition, Captain America is briefly seen frozen in ice in an alternate opening of the film, included in the DVD release.

[36] In October 2008, Downey signed a new four-picture deal, that retroactively included the first film, to reprise his role and Don Cheadle was hired to replace Terrence Howard as James Rhodes.

[73][74] Jackson signed on to reprise his role as Nick Fury from the Iron Man post-credits sequence in up to nine films,[75] and Scarlett Johansson was cast as the Black Widow, as part of a multi-film commitment.

safe house contains several Easter eggs, ranging from footage from The Incredible Hulk displayed on a monitor to pointers on a map indicating several locales related to other Marvel films, including one pointing toward a region of Africa in reference to the Black Panther.

[37] In May 2009, Chris Hemsworth was in negotiations to portray the titular character,[91] and Tom Hiddleston was set to play his brother, Loki.

[101] The film ends with a post-credits scene featuring Loki, watching as Erik Selvig and Nick Fury discuss the Tesseract.

[105] In 1943, Steve Rogers is deemed physically unfit to enlist in the U.S. Army and fight the German Reich in World War II.

Recruited for a secret military operation, he is physically transformed into a super-soldier dubbed Captain America and must battle the Red Skull, head of a Nazi science division known as Hydra.

[31] Joe Johnston signed on to direct in November 2008,[39] and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely were hired to rewrite the script.

[118] The final scene of the film includes a brief appearance by Jackson's Nick Fury followed by a teaser trailer for Marvel's The Avengers after the credits.

[41] Marvel announced that Edward Norton would not be reprising the role of Bruce Banner / Hulk,[122] and in July 2010, Mark Ruffalo was cast in his place.

[124] Principal photography began in April 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico,[120] before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in August,[125] and New York City in September.

[126] The premiere was held on April 11, 2012 at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California,[127] and the film was released in the United States on May 4.

During Phase One, Marvel Studios lined up some of their films' stories with references to one another, though they had no long-term plan for the shared universe's timeline at that point.

He also enjoyed the character development heavily, saying that it was a critical element for the MCU's initial success, and observed the inclusion of Easter eggs as helping "to create a passionate fanbase that has stayed loyal to the franchise" and allowing for fans to be "constantly rewarded for paying attention".

[187] Meanwhile, Germain Lussier at Gizmodo also regarded Phase One as the best MCU properties up until that point in his retrospective review, observing the fact that the films had introduced comic book characters previously unknown to audiences and later uniting them for The Avengers.