Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been growing increasingly concerned that the franchise has bitten off more than it can chew with the ambitious Multiverse Saga, and it’s not a good look for the man in charge of Disney to hint that he’s fully in agreement.
After all, it was only a couple of weeks ago that reports emerged claiming recently-returned CEO Bob Iger had urged Kevin Feige to slow things down and focus more on quality at the expense of quantity, with subsequent stories hinting that not only was the upcoming Disney Plus slate set to be delayed even further, but in-development projects including Nova had hit the skids.
At the same time, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania gathered a reputation as one of the worst-reviewed entries in the MCU’s 31-film history, while it quickly careened off a very steep cliff at the box office to set countless unwanted benchmarks. With that in mind, Iger’s comments at the recent Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference have raised more than a few eyebrows.
“Sequels typically worked well for us. Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters? There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining, and you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole different set of Avengers.”
He might have said there’s nothing “inherently off,” but let’s not overlook the fact that Quantumania and Thor: Love and Thunder are two sequels that fared notably worse among critics, fans, and paying customers upon their arrival, while focusing on the bulletproof Avengers crossovers indicates that returning to the well is about the safest option available.
The end is hardly nigh for the MCU, but when the people in charge of the people in charge of the franchise question the content, alarm bells should start ringing.