Marvel Studios had a rough time maintaining the quality of outputs due to the onslaught of creative projects released at the height of the pandemic. Because of this strategy, fans suffered from superhero fatigue; many lost interest in the newer releases, and others just simply did not care anymore.
The higher-ups were aware of this trend, and so they devised a plan to change tactics and focus on the more popular titles which they know will guarantee success. As they intend to reduce their content and shift attention to the stronger franchises, a lot of Marvel films and shows will be affected.
Disney Boss Wants Marvel Studios To Focus More On Popular Titles
Speaking with CNBC last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger criticized the ballooning outputs of Marvel Studios that reduced the focus of loyal fans. This was in response to the shocking number of box office bombs such as Eternals and more recently, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels.
“There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better… Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention.”
As a way to resolve this problem and save the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iger proposed that the studio should focus more on the franchises with stronger appeal to the audience and that will surely generate viewership, even if this would mean having to let go of the smaller projects, especially the ones with less appeal to the fans.
Iger also questioned the fondness of Marvel for sequels. While it worked for older titles, it may seem a bit dragging now. The Disney boss clearly wants something new from the studio, which can also mean that franchises like Eternals and Ant-Man should drop their plans for sequels if ever they have one. These two proved to have a very weak pull at the box office.
The same goes for the Black Panther spinoff, Eyes of Wakanda. It’s already enough that they made the film sequel as a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, but with the main character of the franchise gone, there is no use attempting to pull out any possible story.
Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk series also do not have a strong appeal as compared to well-established heroes, so getting a television sequel for both will just give the studio more expenses and less profit.
Marvel Is Slowing Down This Year
Marvel Studios has, indeed, learned from its mistakes seeing it will only release a couple of projects in 2024: Echo, X-Men ’97, Agatha, and Deadpool 3.
Still, it came as a shock that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels both tanked at the box office. This only proves that even well-known characters are not immune from failure.
While superhero fatigue is quite real and still plaguing the community up to this point, a high-quality and well-executed project can definitely cure it.
