Five years ago, the executives as Disney and Marvel Studios had one helluva summer. Avengers: Endgame had made almost $2.8 billion worldwide. And the fan’s reaction to it was phenomenal. So, I’m sure they thought all they had to do was to keep doing what they were doing and it would all work out.
Unfortunately, they should’ve quit while they were ahead. Or at least they should have had more than one plan. By no means were they anticipating the Covid-19 pandemic followed by a WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike within a short period of years creating so many problems on their release dates. And they definitely weren’t expecting a young and up and coming actor name Jonathan Majors to be convicted of assaulting and harassing a former girlfriend just as they were introducing him as a new major villain.
For the most part, Phase Four which had been touted as something amazing ended up being so lackluster. Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder weren’t well received. Black Widow was a good three or four years too late. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a nice surprise but Black Panther: Wakanda Forever didn’t seem the same without Chadwick Boseman.
Then there were way too many series. WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier were good. But Loki, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight all seemed to drag out stories that couldn’t even fill a two-hour movie.
And let’s face it, they really didn’t handle the Snap/Blip the right way. They just skimmed the surface. I don’t think in Spider-Man: Far From Home, they’d be taking a trip to Europe so quick. And that whole restarting the semester over thing, I’m sure the teacher’s union in Queens, New York City would have a lot to say about that. There wouldn’t even be enough resources.
Then, Phase Five happened with the awful Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania along with the even worse Secret Invasion. Even the third Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t have the same fun and charm as the first two movies. And The Marvels, well, you can tell how it was rewritten and reshot.
So far, Deadpool and Wolverine is doing well. But at the recent Comic-Con, it was announced Robert Downey Jr., who had played Tony Stark/Iron Man was going to play Dr. Doom in the next two Avengers movies. And people are mixed about it. I don’t think I’ve heard one positive thing, but I really haven’t heard anything negative. And that might create some issues. But people questioned Heath Ledger playing The Joker.
Marvel and Disney did away with the idea of Majors as Kang the Conqueror which makes the ending of Quantumania look like something from the DCEU. Superhero fatigue also hasn’t helped either franchises, mainly because they all seem to have the same structure.
And some of the MCU shows and movies seemed more like filler for the bigger movies. (Side-eye to all Ant-Man movies.) And both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts have been built up for years, they have to be spectacular or else. However, I feel reports of the reshoots might cause some problems.
And there is a Fantastic Four movie that is been long anticipated. Downey is supposed to play Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. There’s also the infamous Blade movie but at this point, Marvel ought to just cut its losses on that one.
I think what they should do since they are bringing back Joe and Anthony Russo to direct the Avengers movies is just end it all once and for all. It will be almost 20 years which was a good ride for what they intended to do. But the problem is trends and tastes change over time. You can’t expect people who were thrilled about Iron Man back in 2008 to still be going excited like they did. It was like when the Police Academy and Sharknado movies kept being released every year. It’s hard to keep getting excited about something when there’s no thrill.
As for casting Downey, I know that Mads Mikkelsen had been lobbying well for the role. But Downey is still riding high after his Oscar win. His role in Oppenheimer does show he is capable of playing more than genre movies. Since we’re dealing with the Multiverse, a concept that seemed more interesting than what they’ve done with it so far, it’s quite possible Downey is playing a variant of Tony Stark who calls himself Dr. Doom.
And let’s be honest. Was Vincent Van Doom ever really a good name to have for a character? I’m not really sure what will happen. The Russo Brothers didn’t do too well with their last movie The Gray Man. But then again, they were coming off two huge movies.
Time will tell. Unless something else happens that pushes back the movie schedule.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 