Marvel Studios Confirms Historic Setting for Phase 5's Final Release

Marvel Studios' final Phase 5 entry, Ironheart, will make MCU history by taking place in a locale not often seen throughout Marvel Studios' history. Over the last 17 years, Marvel has planted roots in some of the most notable cities and memorable locations across the world (and in other worlds), giving each franchise a fresh feel upon arrival.

Marvel confirmed Ironheart will be mostly set in Chicago, Illinois, making it the first-ever MCU project to use Chicago as its main setting. With Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams calling the Windy City her hometown, this will be the longest period of time any MCU movie or Disney+ show has spent there, as it is expected to be highlighted in all six episodes.

Speaking with Marvel, producer Ryan Coogler highlighted the city's history but described it as "a part of our country that's still overlooked." He even compared the city to Riri herself in describing both as having an "armored exterior" while being "full of love" inside:

"It's a place that doesn’t get its due, so the character is kind of perfect. It's this young woman who has this chip on her shoulder and this armored exterior, but inside, she's just full of love. If that's not Chicago, I don’t know what is."

Chicago was previously seen in other MCU projects but with far less screentime. 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger utilized the Windy City as Steve Rogers visited on his USO tour in his Captain America costume. Also on the film side, Eternals used Chicago as Phastos' home, living with his husband and son (seen wearing a red Chicago Bulls jersey).

Disney+'s Loki Season 2 also travels to Chicago, going to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 as Loki and Mobius hunt down Victor Timely to fix the Sacred Timeline. Additionally, Moon Knight's Marc Spector calls Chicago home, but his solo series did not utilize the city much outside of the flashback scenes in Episode 5.

Most Frequent Settings in MCU Phases 1-5

Ahead are other major cities and locations that have been used as main settings for past Marvel Studios projects:

New York City, New York

Arguably, the most common city used in the MCU's vast history is New York City, the USA's most populous metropolitan area. Over the last 17 years, over 30 Marvel Studios movies and TV shows have taken place in the Big Apple, including as the core setting for the entire project or just in a few important scenes.

Most notably, the building formerly known as Avengers Tower and Stark Tower is on Park Avenue, roughly where the real-world MetLife Building is. Other important MCU landmarks that call New York home include the Sanctum Sanctorum.

NYC has been the central location for many of the MCU's biggest battles over the years, including the climactic moments of films like The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and countless others. 

Los Angeles, California

Moving to the west coast of the USA, Los Angeles, California, is another mainstay of MCU storytelling, with Marvel wanting to capitalize on possibly the most famous U.S. city outside of NYC. Close to a dozen MCU shows and movies have used the City of Angels as a core location for storytelling, but it is still far from the numbers NYC draws.

The most notable show to use LA as a main locale is She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters works there as a lawyer after graduating from UCLA. It was also originally Carol Danvers' home in the '80s and '90s, with fans seeing her go to a SHIELD field office there after engaging in a chase sequence near the Metro transit network.

Malibu, California

Located about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, Malibu is another important location used on occasion throughout the MCU's history in Southern California. 

More than anything else, Malibu is best known as the city where Tony Stark lived for years before his death in Avengers: Endgame. His mansion is located at the fictional 10880 Malibu Point, 90265 address, on the edge of a massive cliff in Point Dume, next to the Pacific Ocean.

London, United Kingdom

Moving outside of the United States, fans can look to Europe for another of the MCU's most notable settings — London, U.K. Over a dozen past MCU shows and movies have taken their stories to London, one of the 40 most populated cities in the world, taking the spotlight more than any locale outside of North America.

While Thor: The Dark World uses London as a setting for more screentime than any other MCU project, movies like Doctor Strange and Eternals have some of their biggest scenes set in the UK. Spider-Man: Far From Home even has its final battle take place at the Tower Bridge, shining a massive light on London to close the Infinity Saga.

Budapest, Hungary

Possibly the city with the most mysterious background in the MCU is Budapest, Hungary, which has been mentioned often but rarely visited in Marvel Studios projects.

First mentioned in The Avengers (along with Captain Marvel), Budapest became one of the biggest mysteries in Natasha Romanoff's story after she and Clint Barton reminisced on their time there. It was later revealed to be the place where Nat fully defected from the Red Room to SHIELD after seemingly killing Dreykov's daughter.

The MCU used Budapest more fully in Scarlett Johansson's solo Black Widow movie, with Nat and Yelena Belova meeting there before being hunted down by Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster (before her untimely death in Thunderbolts*).