[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus “The Marvels” and its post-credits scene.]
It was a bad weekend at the box office – certainly not a “wonderful” one – as the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe, Nia DaCosta’s “The Marvels,” hit theaters and promptly walked away with a dismal $47 million domestic, for a total of $110 million $220 million worldwide opening (and a budget of $220 million before marketing costs), the worst opening for an MCU film ever. Also not helpful: a B CinemaScore, which also places the film in the bottom tier of MCU films according to this metric (only two other MCU films received the same grade: “Eternals” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania “).
It’s unfortunate that DaCosta’s film – which was directed by a woman of color, features a woman-centered story with a “diverse” cast of superheroes, and finds humor and heart at the highest level – will be inextricably linked to the “fall” of the MCU, because Such a box office hit seemed inevitable for the ailing franchise for a long time. Thanks to a series of reveals as part of The Marvels set to launch the next chapter of the Marvel world, as well as a calendar already in the works, some retooling is clearly on the horizon, but we have some ideas for big ones, quick ones and necessary ones Corrections now.
Ahead, six IndieWire contributors – all reasonably well-informed when it comes to the MCU (as the current landscape of entertainment journalism requires) and of varying levels of “fan” – present their ideas for the most immediate, probably obvious, solutions to the behemoth franchise to get back on track.
KATE ERBLAND: As I fearlessly (insanely?) stated at the beginning of my review of The Marvels, despite devoting entire days of my life to watching various Marvel Cinematic Universe films and television shows (and shorts and post-credit scenes, etc.). etc.), I spent most of this final screening still feeling detached from both the major plotlines and the smaller details. That doesn’t seem right, does it? Listen, the MCU’s overall plan to flesh out this huge, overarching, and intricate (in the words of The Marvels!) franchise is impressive. It’s ambitious! And it doesn’t work.
Watching movies and series is literally my job, and even I can’t keep up with all the different Marvel content on screens big and small. It seems completely bizarre to me that I could go into a movie theater with hours of Marvel content in my brain and still feel like I don’t understand what a story is about, what characters populate it, and what it all means for this larger, ailing universe. Tying the movies and shows together to tell the story of the storyline that ended with Avengers: Endgame was smart, successful, and proof that it can all work.
But these days, with the nagging feeling that Marvel folks aren’t moving toward anything with the same clarity as they did in Phase Three (though, cough cough, the post-credits scene of “The Marvels” suggests they have one), Since I have a long-standing, long-awaited concept to tie these disparate threads together, my most immediate demand is as follows: Marvel needs to decouple the shows from the films. You shouldn’t have to watch every piece of Marvel content to have even the slightest hope of understanding what’s happening in a single show or movie. And it seems that Marvel, or at least some people at Marvel, have come up with this idea: The upcoming Disney+ and Hulu series “Echo” not only gets a TV-MA rating (a first for the franchise), but is also the first series to achieve this debut under the Marvel Spotlight banner, aimed at an audience who “doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what happens in them.” [the] Story.” Is it strange that I’m more excited about this series than if it were inextricably linked to the rest of the series?
PROMA KHOSLA: I agree with you, Kate – also because, historically, Marvel projects really shine when they lean into authentic minority stories (“Ms. Marvel,” “Shang-Chi,” “Black Panther,” etc.). The “Echo” rating also gives me Netflix’s “Daredevil” vibe, which was an absolute blast (pun intended!) when it first aired.
But The Marvels offered something that I and so many superhero movie fans have been waiting for for years: The X-Men. Now, this is far from new territory for film or television, but the mutant saga specifically hasn’t been touched by the MCU (with the exception of Quicksilver in Age of Ultron – and look how he ended). Mutants have been sneaking up on us for years (I’ll never recover from Evan Peters’ WandaVision cameo), but they made their true debut in this film’s stinger.
“The Marvels” Laura Radford/Marvel Studios
The existing live-action X-Men films have had a tough time, from the stronger films now marred by allegations against director Bryan Singer to consistently disappointing later films like X-Men: Apocalypse and “Dark Phoenix”. The franchise needs strong leadership and the framework that Kevin Feige created for the MCU – and now they have it. And the fact that the cast may be reprising their roles (Kelsey Grammar playing what only JK Simmons has ever done) is an added thrill for longtime fans of this series. Switch to X-Men is a win-win for Marvel: it establishes new characters and stories (with the ability to reset or ignore previous films) and caters to existing fans of Marvel comics and superhero films.
MARCUS JONES: While I agree with Proma that introducing the X-Men is an exciting prospect, I believe Marvel Studios needs to do this quickly cut ties with the Fox films. Seeing this version of Beast was terrifying on more than one level (having both read the recent comics where the character committed war crimes and watched Season 1 of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills). But seriously, it was the only highlight of any recent phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was its cast.
Credit be theirs, the Marvel machine was a major factor in establishing Tom Holland and Zendaya as probably the only two Gen Z movie stars who have proven bankable – contradicting the narrative that an MCU role doesn’t cut it helps to improve your own profile. It also helps that these fresh faces played Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, the most famous couple in Marvel Comics. Even greener is Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, a major comic book character created just 10 years ago but who starred in “Ms. Marvel” showed that she was an instant star.
“MS. Marvel” Courtesy of Marvel Studios
While MCU fatigue is a very real thing, it’s worth noting that most of the characters that have been the most popular Marvel comics in the past have not yet been introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Superheroes like Mr. Fantastic or Storm are Marvel Studios’ trump cards, and casual MCU fans know that too. Given the success the company has had in finding the right actors for the right role, regardless of their initial public profile, it would be their job to start this new era with a clean slate. Even though I’ve lost faith in their ability to tell a coherent story, I still have faith in the discoveries they’re making when it comes to finding new talent to portray their top characters.
SARAH SHACHAT: Although Marvel should decouple its TV series from the films, the films and series have a similar problem. There’s always that “just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in” moment — except in this vicious circle of American capitalism, the MCU keeps following the same third-act “Avengers” structure The scrappy team of heroes must stop a world-destroying magical Macguffin, all the while walking breathlessly between snappy action-comedy moments, melting CGI magic laser damage, (increasingly unconvincing) moments of danger and a simple “Dragon Ball Z” duel with a change of basic “Dragon Ball Z” villain and a conclusion that leaves the heroes more or less where they started. I love a little bathos, y’all. But the MCU’s quest to maintain not only narrative continuity but also tonal, visual and structural connections between its films has become tiresome.
The first trailer for The Marvels made me cautiously optimistic, because deep down what I want is an MCU buddy comedy where we spend most of our time with two characters bickering on a cross-country road trip, and the Doctor Bong (a (real real Marvel comic villain) on the way to the Grand Canyon or whatever. The three main actors of “The Marvels” are charming and have good chemistry both with each other and individually. But like a friend of mine noted over the weekend, perhaps that’s all the film has to offer, considering how much Lore™ it takes to put the tape together into the same “Assemble!” Conclusion This is not in service of the stories of Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau It serves as a post-credits teaser.
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” Sony Pictures Animation
But that means Marvel doesn’t need to make radical changes to get back to telling meaningful superhero stories; they just have to Follow these individual stories and accept the fact that different characters must draw from different genres, visuals, and tones. Not to get started on how much better the Spider-Verse movies are than superhero movies, but you don’t have to rely so heavily on crossovers and fan references when you adopt a visual and tonal ethos that fits (and then challenges). ). ) your hero. Even if you’re doing something more serious drama – hello, “Andor” – just commit to doing it and making it look and feel different. Iron Man 3 felt like a Shane Black movie and it was fun to see RDJ and Don Cheadle hiding behind shipping crates (with handguns!) and being investigators. “Winter Soldier” is both a spy thriller and a vehicle for Bucky fan fiction. But it seems like Nia DeCosta (and God knows Chloé Zhao) hasn’t been given the same freedom to tell different types of stories. Let Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop do their own fun, charming and visually playful thing in Young Avengers. I promise it can’t be worse than Quantumania.
ALISON FOREMAN: The “superhero film” has developed into a real action genre thanks to the box office. But I implore Kevin Feige to remember that these characters are characters – and more time with them outside of intergalactic treasure hunts and poorly rendered CGI battles would go a long way in making audiences care about their future.
As Sarah pointed out, the formulaic mission structure that Marvel has stuck with for more than 15 years is a choice, not a requirement. After assembling the Infinity Gauntlet, I’ve watched enough explanations of mystical artifacts to last a lifetime, and I deeply long for the days of six friends tasting shawarma in the end credits. From Ms. Marvel’s Quantum Bands to Shang-Chi’s ten mystical rings, the never-ending quest to keep super-powerful objects away from villains who want to do evil things with them simply can’t compete with the human moments that made the old MCU unforgettable . Hulk in sweater and glasses. Ant-Man works at Baskin Robbins. Our nation applauds the patriotism of American assholes. Those were the days!
“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” Courtesy of Marvel Studios
The never-ending cyclical mission structure that drives the MCU is more than dead. The episodic format has helped TV shows shake things up, but “WandaVision,” “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” and “Ms. Marvel was successful because they gave us a deeper look into the personal lives of Marvel heroes. This genre exploration is taken to the extreme in shows like Amazon’s “The Boys,” which use their adult audience as an excuse to delve into the details of toxic workplaces, superhero sex and more.
The Marvel films can and should remain family-friendly when it comes to ticket sales. But there’s a lot to explore in the MCU when millions of lives aren’t at stake. Make entire films out of the rushed character introductions in flops like The Eternals; More time for Kumail to kill Bollywood please! Throw away “The Marvels” genocide plot and just give me “Hotel for Dogs” with Baby Flerkens, thanks! Three standalone Spider-Man films and I’m still wondering: When is the intimate relationship drama between Peter Parker and Mary Jane?
If you’re trying to see the entire Marvel Forest, it’s easy to miss the Avengers trees. Still, it’s the quiet time that makes fictional people feel real – and I don’t think a single one of these characters exists in phase five when their stories end. In a classic example of doing more with less, the MCU would do well to lower the stakes and focus on a world that doesn’t always need saving.
DAVID EHRLICH: Hear. You don’t have to give it to Thanos under any circumstances. We lost a lot of good, very attractive people (temporarily) when that wrinkly, purple space builder snapped his fingers and made all of the MCU’s second-tier characters disappear for a few hours, and it’s not like the character’s motivations for doing so so were particularly nuanced or interesting; Everything that made my comic book-savvy friends’ faces light up with excitement when I first asked them about Thanos’ whole deal was lost in translation during his foray onto the big screen. But that simplicity also fostered a mega-franchise that needed someone to hold together three entire “phases” of films from the shadows – someone whose purpose didn’t need to be complicated because it was undeniably huge.
The gravity and inevitability of Thanos made Marvel films seem organically connected to one another in a way that felt epic, rather than, you know, like homework that people have to do because someone at Disney decided their most popular Dilute the brand (permanently?) in order to achieve this by driving up the company’s share price for a year or two. It made superfans feel like Kevin Feige was playing four-dimensional chess, it allowed Marvel to tell somewhat self-contained stories while seeing the bigger picture, and it allowed casual viewers to skip a movie or two without fear of the eventual payoff to miss.
“Avengers: Infinity War” from Marvel Studios
In other words, Thanos is exactly what Nia DaCosta could have used to support all the fun and inspired elements she plays with in The Marvels (the all-singing planet was the best thing either of those films ever did). has). years) and, more importantly, what she could have used to weave the incredible number of threads that would tie her film together. If Marvel hadn’t been so strangely lax about introducing a new big bad in the post-Thanos universe, perhaps Dar-Been would have been allowed to be a real character and not just a cookie-cutter antagonist. Maybe not. Carol Danvers probably still would have been the least compelling superhero in the entire multiverse. But the sense of interstitialism that plagues this film would definitely have been alleviated if there had been a character – even an off-screen character – to contextualize the crazy jumble of events.
Kang isn’t in a good position for several reasons, but that could also work in Marvel’s favor: Cancel all announced movies (even Deadpool 3, just for me) and go back to the drawing board. Thanos was bad, but someone is always worse. The MCU needs to find her while she still has a chance to fight.