Should Marvel Slow Down Or Double Down On Content

Marvel

Nov 10

At least until 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been the ultimate blueprint, not just for creating big blockbuster superhero movies but also for building a franchise of connected films. There have been movies based on comic books long before 2008's Iron Man (the first entry of the MCU), and there have also been direct sequels to these movies, but never something as massive as the MCU. So far, the beauty of Kevin Feige's creations lay in the accessibility of these films as stand-alone projects, even for casual moviegoers, while offering an added bonus for hard-core fans at the same time, who would connect and reference every movie.

Phases 1 to 3 of the MCU heavily relied on household names, like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk, but also introduced new and lesser-known characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Ant-Man. The MCU also brought another “first” to current cinema: the variety of characters and events allowed for several big releases each year instead of just one movie every several years.

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With the end of the Infinity Saga, the MCU had to reinvent itself, resulting in the ongoing Multiverse Saga, which covers Phases 4 to 6. So far, Feige and his creative crew have structurally kept the proven concept of releasing 3 to 4 movies each year. However, the start of Disney+ in November of 2019 provided them with another outlet: television series based on Marvel characters. With several new shows premiering each year, there now is hardly a time with no new MCU content available, either on the big or the small screen. This begs the question if the onslaught of projects might finally lead to a Marvel oversaturation or even fatigue and if it would be better to focus less on quantity and more on quality.

While the first stories told in Phase 4 were still centered around established characters and the immediate aftermath of the Infinity War (like Black Widow, Wandavision, or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), the franchise has quickly begun to introduce new concepts like the Multiverse, the Sacred Timeline, and the Time Variance Authority, and new characters, like the uber-superhero-group Eternals, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk, with each of these films and shows in turn bringing in new heroes and villains.

While each story so far has been more or less self-contained, they someday will have to culminate in a climatic "endgame" (no pun intended) in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars (in 2025 resp. 2026). While the Infinity Saga was limited to a handful of main characters and a single universe, the Multiverse and the Quantum Realm, where anything is possible, together with dozens of new players inhabiting them, make it harder and harder for casual fans to keep up with what's happening in the MCU. Adding to this is that the variety of storylines of Phase 4 has felt rather disjointed and lacking a common vision, which has been a tentpole of the Infinity Saga.

Right now, the MCU is facing some headwinds (also a "first" for the franchise), with a small but very vocal minority starting to nearly immediately bash everything that Marvel puts out. To counter this, Kevin Feige has stated several times that the upcoming Phase 5 (which will premiere with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023) will start to consolidate all the various events.

It is evident that Feige and Co. have no intention of slowing down with releasing new content both in cinemas and on Disney+, as several new movies and television shows have already been announced for the coming years, and even more are still to come. Furthermore, the "point of no return" has already been passed, with no chance of any of the new stories of Phase 4 being declared "non-canon." On the contrary, the Multiverse now allows them to literally bring anyone and anything back into the mold, which could lead to even more confusion for viewers who do not follow every new movie and television show.

What it boils down to, as always, is the quality of the stories. The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars are practically guaranteed to surpass the success of Infinity War and Endgame, which will be no easy task with the added complexity of the Multiverse and the amount of new and old characters fighting for screentime. But Marvel seems confident that its audience has now reached a "critical mass" and will tag along with the constant introduction of new characters and storylines that sometimes are more off-beat and risky. There is also the whole backlog of MCU projects readily available on Disney+, with new movies hitting the streaming platform only a few weeks after their release in the cinemas. The hurdle to keep up with current events is considerably lowered, as long as you are a paying customer of Disney+.

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