The Marvel Cinematic Universe has lost most of its charm after Avengers: Endgame. After most of the OG characters’ story concluded following The Infinity Saga, the Kevin Feige vehicle took a different approach for The Multiverse Saga. Sadly, it did more bad than good. The introduction of the excessive amount of Disney+ Marvel shows and movies brought the MCU to its lowest.
Fortunately, it looks like Marvel Studios has listened to its fans and realized their mistake as the latest comments by Kevin Feige hint at a brighter future for the superhero universe. The MCU boss promised his fans that he would surely return with a bang. He assured that the haters would be proven wrong and the fans would once again get back their glorious Marvel days.
Kevin Feige is highly optimistic about the MCU’s future
Nobody imagined the MCU to grow into such a franchise giant when the first Iron Man movie was released in 2008. The brand value was so high, that most of their films became box office blockbusters. Unfortunately, the superhero universe hit its arguably lowest moment when two of its films, Ant-Man 3 and The Marvels bombed at the box office in the same year.
From the exit of the iconic characters to the overload of projects and lack of direction, several factors were involved in the decline of MCU’s quality. As a breath of fresh air, there is only one Marvel release this year, Deadpool & Wolverine. Several fans are happy with Marvel’s approach to focus more on quality than quantity.
In Empire‘s world-exclusive Deadpool & Wolverine issue, Kevin Feige admitted that he does not mind being “the underdog”. He is positive that he will again surprise his fans and exceed their expectations.
“It’s nice to be able to rally behind one feature project this year. I’m much more comfortable being the underdog. I prefer being able to surprise, and exceed expectations. So it does seem like the last year, which has not been ideal, has set us up well for that.”
The co-president of Marvel Studios, Louis D’Esposito also commented on the matter. He is of the notion that such a blow was needed to come back stronger. He acknowledged that “it’s been a rough time” but assured them that they will not repeat their mistakes. He agreed that it is not good to do too much of something and echoed Feige’s statements of focusing more on quality.
Can Marvel’s new annual plan improve their quality?
Several fans cited Superhero fatigue as the reason for the failure of the MCU following Avengers: Endgame. It is to be noted that besides Marvel, we are also getting other superhero projects like Invincible and The Boys which make it hard for the MCU.
Now it can’t be denied that some projects were also widely appreciated. Projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Loki were massive successes. However, unlike The Infinity Saga, The Multiverse Saga has seen more disasters. Now Disney CEO Bob Iger has limited Marvel’s annual release plan to 3 films and 2 series maximum in a year (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.”
With this announcement, it is confirmed that we will witness more delays in the upcoming MCU slate as Marvel’s 2025 and 2026 plans had four releases each. However, the superhero universe should also remember that releasing fewer films a year would not work with poor writing and VFX. Hopefully, the quality of the projects will be looked upon.
The MCU’s next big release, Deadpool & Wolverine will hit the theaters on July 26, 2024.
