Ever since the Disney and Marvel Studios’ merger, the new studio has seen some of the best as well as some of the worst days. There was a time when everything with the Marvel stamp on it was selling like hotcakes, and Disney was busy milking the cash cow with multiple releases every year.
However, the excess pressure on the MCU and its branches led to a decline in quality, and slowly but surely the viewers caught on it. After facing several box office disasters, Disney+MCU is taking a new approach, trying to bring back quality to the once beloved franchise.
However, a recent statement from Disney CEO Bob Iger is going to upset a lot of die-hard fans, who’ve been following the franchise from its earliest days.
Disney is going to decrease MCU’s output
The continuous bombardment of Marvel flops was going to elicit some reaction from the Disney execs, and the obvious path was cost-cutting. While Disney CEO Bob Iger did promise that the quality of Marvel projects will increase, it will also lead to a decrease in the number of shows and films released in a year.
During the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Iger announced (via Variety):
“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three. And we’re working hard on what that path is.”
While this does sound all well and good, Iger’s next statement might pierce your heart like an arrow if you’ve been an MCU fan since the beginning.
‘Agatha‘- like shows are “vestiges” of MCU’s failed past
It seems like Disney has a new strategy for Marvel in mind, and for the next couple of years, we might get fewer but better shows and films. However, what the Disney CEO next said might’ve hurt the legacy of the MCU quite a bit.
While praising their movie slate for the upcoming years, Iger said that a number of shows like Kathryn Hahn‘s Agatha, a highly awaited spinoff to WandaVision, are “a vestige of basically a desire in the past to increase volume.”
Calling projects like Agatha a “vestige” of a “past desire” not only drains away their value, it also diminishes the dedication of the fans who have grown up with these shows from the beginning. Die-hard Marvel fans have watched every series and every film, paying for expensive subscriptions to watch these shows and support a franchise they love so much. If they really were only a means to get more money, that would suck the soul out of these passion projects.
Every film, every show, is a form of art. And fans love it when they are made with heart, keeping the source in mind. Another good example of this is the Game of Thrones disaster. What started as peak television that dominated the Emmys for years, fell out of grace when the showrunners went off-trail without keeping George R. R. Martin and the fans in mind.
It is high time for Disney and Marvel execs to realize TV shows and films are more than just cash-grab opportunities, and respect both old and new fans. TV series like WandaVision, Loki, Moon Knight and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier laid the groundwork for future MCU shows, and are not simply meaningless baits to get views. Respect your viewers, and watch your “earnings” shoot up.
