It’s been a rough few years for Marvel — the cinematic titan that once had people flocking to the theater has had a rather tepid response to most of its releases since Endgame, and now all hope is riding on Avengers 5 (and Deadpool 3 of course).
With all the Jonathan Majors drama from last year, the studio’s plan to feature Kang the Conqueror as its next big bad of the MCU seems to have been completely scuppered. However, there are rumors that Marvel has a plan for the fifth Avengers film, and if it manages to pull it off it could very well outdo Endgame.
The rumored plan for Avengers 5
So what is this supposed super plan that could save the MCU? Well, according to a rumor shared by @comicodigy on X (formerly Twitter) the next film will feature the masters of evil as the villainous group the heroes will have to face off against. Apparently, this squad of evil-doers will include quite a few well known villains from the comics including Baron Zemo, Agatha, and even Doctor Doom to name just a few.
At first glance this sounds like great news, and plenty of fans are already excited to see this come to fruition on the big screen. But let’s pause for just one second. Is this really the best plan Marvel could come up with? If you ask me there is a pretty glaring problem with this approach.
The Problem with Marvel’s plan
It’s been done before! We’ve seen multiple villain storylines done in the MCU a ton of times and with varying degrees of success. Sure, films like Spider-Man: No Way Home were great, but for every one of those there’s an Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, M.O.D.O.K. and the Kang variants really didn’t help that movie out and it could have been better with just one villain. It’s not just a Marvel problem – DC did it with Suicide Squad and, well, we don’t talk about Suicide Squad anymore.
All this is to say, it’s a formula that Marvel has already done and will likely do again before Avengers 5 comes out. Let’s not forget, we already have a super villain team up akin to Suicide Squad coming from Marvel next year. I just think Marvel hasn’t thought this through, are they not worried that audiences will grow tired of the formula before the next Avengers?
Crossovers are cool, but bigger is not always better, the more characters added, the more the film runs the risk of becoming a bloated mess. Some fans are already criticizing the line-up, some of the villains might be cool, but many of them are D-listers at best. If you ask me, Marvel should dial it back with the villains. Endgame is a great movie, but the studio can still make a movie that’s better without overcrowding on the villain front.