Marvel Studios just can’t seem to get out of their own way, can they? According to Variety, there seems to be a crisis or three happening over at Marvel/Disney. I found out about some of this stuff via X/Twitter, but it just seems to me that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Before I really get into what I think about the state of Marvel right now, I want to say that I’ve been a huge fan of the MCU since Iron Man came out back in 2008. If it wasn’t for that movie’s success, we wouldn’t have the MCU. We simply wouldn’t. But thanks to director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey, Jr., Iron Man launched what is considered to be the most successful film franchise in cinematic history. Why was it so successful? Solid writing, direction, and casting under the watchful eye of one Kevin Feige, who produced the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Also, when The Avengers hit theaters in 2012, we knew exactly where the MCU was headed with Thanos. While not every film in the MCU leading up to Infinity War and Endgame were great, they were still financially successful, which meant that audiences were connected. After Endgame? Everything started falling apart. Phase IV of the MCU had a very rocky start with the Black Widow film which was released on Disney Plus at the same time it was released in theaters. The pandemic was in full swing at this point, so it wasn’t necessarily unexpected that Black Widow wouldn’t garner the kind of money that the previous films would. But the problem was that Black Widow, in terms of narrative structure, should’ve been made and released before Infinity War. Why? Because the title character dies in Avengers: Endgame. Since I’m in the mood for spoiling things if you haven’t seen it, too bad, Tony Stark also dies in Endgame, but his and Black Widow’s ends were narratively appropriate for the story they were telling.
So, why did I bring that up? Well, it seems that there’s been talk over at Marvel about bringing back the main roster of the Avengers: Hulk, Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Iron Man, even though two of them were dead. But in the MCU, there seems to be no such thing as permadeath. My first thought to this was…why? You had an excellent conclusion to ten years worth of story-telling. I’ll tell you why they’re thinking about this: They’re desperate. Phase IV didn’t pan out like they thought it would. You had a number of movies that were so disconnected from each other, you had no idea where the MCU was heading. It wasn’t clear until Marvel announced The Multiverse Saga. I don’t think the announcement had the effect that they were going for. As some astute YouTubers like John Campea had pointed out, something like this ran the risk of being too bloated and convoluted for its own good. Given the mixed reactions to Marvel’s Phase IV projects which includes the Disney Plus shows, people just weren’t as connected to the MCU as they had been during the Infinity Saga. The shows garnered a number of mixed and negative reviews. Also the reactions to the last couple of films like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sent a shockwave through Marvel. It’s not just the hubris of Disney’s higher-ups that are at fault here, but it’s a huge part of it. On top of all that, one of the newcomers to the MCU, Jonathan Majors, is embroiled in a legal battle dealing with accusations of domestic abuse. The character that he plays in the MCU, Kang the Conqueror was built around him, but now sources are saying that Marvel’s kind of screwed because of this situation. All they need to do is recast the character. Problem solved.
Because of the situation with Majors, talk has emerged of Marvel swing the MCU away from Kang as the main villain and putting Dr. Doom in his place. Such a shift carries a lot of headaches on its own, but it’s really hard to see Marvel having much of a choice, especially if Majors is convicted. There’s also the strikes and the issues surrounding Marvel’s VFX teams being worked to the bone. There’s a lot of stuff that Disney and Marvel has been dealing with. Recently, it’s been reported that Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, who is currently attached to Marvel’s upcoming Blade film, was considering leaving the project due to lousy scripts, going through 5 writers and two directors. Because of that, Feige himself got involved and hired an Oscar-winning writer, Michael Green, to pen the film. Green is known for writing the outstanding Logan. I haven’t seen anything from the MCU since Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. If there’s a movie that could possible get me interested in giving the MCU another shot, it’s Blade. I’m a huge fan of the Wesley Snipes movies and the character is simply awesome in every aspect. So, with the actor’s strike HOPEFULLY coming to an end this week, I want to see Blade being made, because if we’re being honest: Ali’s not getting any younger, but I think he would make an excellent Blade. I really do. He’s an amazing talent, and it would be STUPID of Marvel to waste the opportunity for him to be in a movie like Blade. From what I understand, the movie is also reported to have a budget of less than a 100 million dollars, which is great. You don’t need a quarter of a billion dollars to deliver a solid action movie.
Marvel has a chance of coming back from these issues with an upcoming slate of superheroes that Disney’s acquired from Fox when they bought the studio. X-Men and the Fantastic Four are the biggest and most anticipated superhero groups that people want to see in the MCU. Deadpool 3 is set to resume production next year, assuming that the actors’ strike ends this week, so I’m looking forward to that. Since Bob Iger returned to Disney, he’s been forcing a change of direction with Marvel’s stuff. And say what you will about how Iger has been responding to the strikes, he’s been really good at letting the creatives do their thing, something that Bob Chapek had no intention of doing. Marvel got themselves into this situation, but I think they can get themselves out of it, and come out stronger than ever, even if it means making serious changes to the direction that the MCU is heading. If they can, I will be in line to see Blade and Deadpool 3. Time will tell. Until then, Marvel needs to lay off the sauce and get some counseling.