Since 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has given us some of the best projects in the superhero genre. Whether it was Iron Man or the Avengers films, fans would look forward to upcoming titles with such excitement in their eyes. However, things seem to have reached a dull lately. After Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has been suffering with a few exceptions here and there.
Fans complained that Marvel, especially in Phase 4, gave more importance to quantity than quality, causing the many projects that were released in the Phase to be a bit disappointing. Things were supposed to get better with Ant-Man 3 but even that failed to impress. So, what could be the solution to MCU’s recent slump? Well, the Arrowverse co-creator has a suggestion.
Is It Time for Marvel to “Prune the Tree?”
The co-creator of the now-ended Arrowverse, Marc Guggenheim, had a lot to say about why things have been going wrong for Marvel and how they could probably pull themselves out of the hole they dug after Avenger: Endgame. During his appearance on The Aarthi and Sriram Show, Guggenheim stated that if he were in Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige’s place, he would listen to Bob Iger and simply “prune the tree.”
“If I was suddenly in Kevin Feige’s role, basically I would do what Iger was saying, which is prune the tree. You know, there’s just too much content. I’m like the biggest Marvel nerd ever, and I haven’t seen Moon Knight. I just can’t keep up. There’s just too much content.”
Guggenheim then discussed the difference between Phase 4 and the previous Phases stating that Phases 1-3 focused more on individual projects rather than creating a connected universe. He also compared the MCU to DC and Marvel’s print universes and gave an extremely intelligent example of a ship that has been sailing for way too long.
“That’s the problem. Each of these movies in Phases 1 through 3, they all stood on their own. Look I get it. I think honestly what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going through right now is the same discovery that Marvel print universe and the DC print universe also went through. Which is – I think of these universes like ships, and the longer a ship sails, the more barnacles get attached to its hull, and the more that weighs down the ship and the more it effects how fast the ship can move through the water. And every now and again, you need to do some sort of reboot that scrapes off the barnacles, like Crisis on Infinite Earths.”
According to Guggenheim, even a soft reboot could save the Studios from a potential downfall, and if his guess is right, the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars might be the point where the superhero universe presses the reset button.
Marc Guggenheim on Captain America & Doctor Strange Sequels
In his quest to expose where the MCU is failing at the moment, Guggenheim gave a comparison between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He stated that while the former was a film on its own, the latter couldn’t be watched or understood without watching WandaVision first. He even compared Doctor Strange 2 to Black Panther.
“Like you mentioned Winter Soldier. Winter Soldier was its own movie with a beginning, middle, and end. And yet, that movie set the foundation for things that, you know it didn’t deal with Infinity Stones, but it did deal with Hydra and SHEILD and Steve Rogers’ relationship with the government and the Winter Soldier. There were a lot of pieces. And same thing with Black Panther.”
However, his views were the complete opposite when it came to the Doctor Strange sequel as he criticized the fact that fans would have to watch an entire TV series to understand the premise of the film.
“Compare that with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness where in order to understand the villain of the movie, you had to watch – not a movie – another TV show. A TV show that you had to spend money to subscribe to the service that aired it. That’s the problem.”
Guggenheim does have a point. While the shared universe opens the door for superhero collaborations, it is also getting a little confusing for the fans. After all, it isn’t easy to keep up with everything, is it? How many of you have actually seen the entirety of Phase 4?
Source: The Aarthi and Sriram Show
