What has happened to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
We know and love the MCU, but keeping up with all these new releases have been quite difficult and time consuming. Marvel has been coming out with a series for character after character with no break.
With the overload of content, fans aren’t able to keep up, preventing shows from gaining popularity before the next release.
With the broadening of this beloved universe, increasingly diversified characters are being introduced.
For instance, in the new series “Echo’’, released last month, Marvel expanded the role of Maya Lopez to make up for her brief appearances in previous shows.
The show respectfully portrays Maya, a deaf Native American, and authentically represents Choctaw culture.
Inclusion such as this attracts a broad range of viewers to see themselves in characters.
MCU expects fans to be loyal and watch every series released, but when viewers miss one show, everything else gets confusing and makes them want to give up altogether.
“Echo” is a good example of this. The viewer’s experience would be enhanced if they previously watched the series “Daredevil” and “Hawkeye”. While “Echo” is part of Marvel Spotlight, dedicated to giving attention to specific characters and does not require prior viewing of other series, being up to date with Marvel adds depth to Echo’s story.
“Ms. Marvel”, “She-Hulk Attorney at Law”, and “Moon Knight” are series that grabbed the MCU spotlight in 2022, along with three movies, two television specials, and one animated series.
With all these new characters like She-Hulk, it’s hard to imagine them coexisting in the same universe with all the original characters. Creating all these new characters diminishes their uniqueness, making them stand out less.
Another reason that these new characters are less known is because there are no more popular comic characters, so it’s hard to get excited about a character that fans have never heard of before.
In 2023 alone, “Secret Invasion”, “Loki” season 2, three animated series, and four movies came out. Even more were supposed to be released but got pushed to this year because of the writers strike.
Although the delay may seem like a bad thing, these releases being pushed back actually gives fans a break instead of too many movies and series being crammed into one year.
The worse movies in the MCU came out in 2023. “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantaumania” both scored below 65 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and are ranked among the worst of all 33 Marvel movies.
“The Marvels” lost more than $100 million and is the first movie in MCU history to fail to reach $100 million in the box office. This will lead to lower budgets and expectations for future Marvel films.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantimania” also failed to break even.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has much to do with the new Marvel characters. In the article by Sarah Whitten with CNBC, Iger said he wants Marvel to focus on new characters.
This is reflected in 2024 when the series “Agatha: Darkhold Diaries”, “Madam Web” and two other movies, and three animated movies are all planned to come out.
¨You look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness¨ Iger said in the CNBC article.
Iger wants something new instead of a third or fourth sequel. He said he wants to turn back to the Avenger franchise but with a whole new team of Avengers. This means frantic releases on Disney+ will continue for the foreseeable future.
In another article by Richard Newby in The Hollywood Report, wrote Disney’s Bob Chapek and Iger are oversaturating the market with Marvel projects to gain Disney+ subscriptions.
Is it worth losing fans and reputation to prioritize quantity of shows rather than the quality?
New characters and superheroes are made less valuable when characters are always being released.
Even with the ups and downs that fans have experienced with Marvel, they still greatly appreciate the originals and the hope that Marvel will be able to provide the same joy that it once did before.
