Perhaps all the talk about superhero fatigue in fims and TV shows may have been premature. At this weekend’s D23 Expo, Marvel Studios surged ahead with impressive announcements for its Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and this comes fresh off the studios’ massive success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
In the past few years, the MCU and other live-action superhero franchises have struggled with general audiences as many films and TV shows failed to capture the stunning success they experienced in the 2010s, as seen with Marvel Studios’ films last year. While that idea may have some merit, what is becoming clear is that at least with Marvel Studios they have course-corrected and laid the foundation for its comeback, which is starting to bear fruit.
It is true that recent MCU projects (putting aside the new Spider-Man film) were not resounding successes, they were well received by critics and fans as seen with Daredevil: Born Again, Wonder Man, Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four: First Steps, which helped to rehabilate the MCU’s reputation. By the time these properties made their debut, the MCU had developed a lukewarm reputation thanks to subpar films and TV shows like The Marvels and Secret Invasion. Marvel Studios in the early 2020s was forced to produce a glut of projects that were not well executed and the MCU suffered as a result. But thankfully, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige pulled back on output and emphasized quality over quantity and that is now starting to pay off. More importantly, people began to realized that MCU films and TV shows were back to being great.
The clearest sign of Marvel Studios’ renewed success of course comes from Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The latest Spider-Man film has astonished everyone by how successful it has become as it has just eatned over $2 billion in the box office. The film clearly proves that superhero film fatigue talk was premature and demonstrated that the only fatigue that existed was for mediocre films. While in the past, the film studios could get away with putting out inferior films, that no longer works. Put out a quality film with a popular character then it will be successful. Spider-Man: Brand New Day established that the character is one of, if not the most popular superheroes around and the film could be heralding a new golden age for the MCU. It has helped reignite interest in the MCU, which bodes well for Avengers: Doomsday and beyond.
There was a lot of doubt that Marvel Studios could inspire much interest in the upcoming Avengers film and questioned how the film’s villain, Doctor Doom, did not have the kind of lead up that Thanos had with the early MCU films. These questions appear to have been dispelled as seen with the reaction to the new trailer released during D23, which was previously shown at Comic-Con, and focused on Doctor Doom. There is a lot of intrigue behind the villain and the reason for his crusade, not to mention with his power scale as seen in the new trailer when he effortlessly brushed aside Thor’s attack and raised an army of robotic sentinels to attack the Avengers. Right now fans are pouring through every frame of the trailer and every nugget of leaks and rumors to find out what happens in the film and with its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars, not to mention which characters will appear in both films. But one set of characters has everyone especially excited.
Ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and the rights to the X-Men, Marvel and MCU fans have salivated over the idea of the mutants joining the MCU…and grown impatient. Despite having the rights to the X-Men, Marvel Studios was slow with introducing mutants into the MCU, but that has changed and started with the introduction of….Spoiler Warning for anyone who has not seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day….
Jean Grey, one of the founding members of the X-Men and portrayed by Sadie Sink.
At D23, Feige introduced the director of the upcoming X-Men film, Jake Schreirer, who was rightfully rewarded for his work on Thunderbolts* with this plum assignment. Sink was introduced on stage as one of the stars of the X-Men film and more actors were presented, such as Kit Connor as Cyclops/Scott Summers, Maya Boyd as Storm/Ororo Munroe, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Anna Marie/Rogue, Christopher Abbott as Professor X/Charles Xavier, and Adam Driver (appearing on video) as Mr. Sinister/Nathan Milberry. The announcements left out other characters like Beast, Iceman, Angel and Magneto, though it’s not known at this time if they will appear in X-Men, which comes out May 5, 2028. What was refreshing about Driver plaing Mr. Sinister is that the film won’t go with the usual route of Magneto being the main villain.
Expect a full cast for X-Men to be revealed later on, perhaps with another day-long YouTube video featuring chairs with names on them. Or that may be reserved for Avengers: Secret Wars which is expected to have an even larger cast than Avengers: Doomsday. Speaking of the Avengers: Doomsday cast, once again we were teased with Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds possibly appearing in the film as Wolverine and Deadpool. This has not been officially announced, and there is no word if Tobey Maguire will appear as the OG Spider-Man, but this is driving everyone insane by now.
Even though everyone is excited by the coming slate of MCU films, many are concerned about the apparent demise of MCU TV shows on Disney+. After VisionQuest and the third season of Daredevil: Born Again there have been no announcements at D23 of anymore live-action MCU TV shows. This was made worse with the recent cancellation of Wonder Man even though a second sesaon was announced a few months following the positive reception it received. It has been reported in the Hollywood trades that Disney is pivoting away from live-action MCU and Star Wars TV shows because they appear to be diluting the brands and affecting the box office numbers for the films and the costs for producing them are too high. This is regrettable because Marvel Studios has produced some genuinely terrific TV shows. The problem they had goes back to the early 2020s with the Disney mandate to produce a glut of product which led to many terrible TV shows being produced. This clearly hurt the MCU brand and could have been remedied by cutting back and concentrating on producing permium TV shows like HBO does. This can work as we saw with Daredevil: Born Again and VisionQuest which looks like it will be great as well. There are rumors that Marvel Studios will produce one-off special presentations like Punisher: One Last Kill or Werewolf By Night, and will supposedly feature the Defenders and Strange Academy, as well as a sequel to Werewolf By Night. At least it’s something, but Disney is foolish if they completely abandon MCU television.
On a more positive note, it’s a relief to feel genuine excitement for the MCU and its upcoming projects. Any doubts about the MCU have been thankfully dispelled for now. Of course, helping to get rid of any concerns for good is if Avengers: Doomsday turns out to be great and makes a ton of money, which it will, as long as the film is well received by fans and critics. Otherwise, it could wind up like Avengers: Age of Ultron, which while it was financially successful, it dampened enthusiasm for Avengers films until Avengers: Infinty War came along. If Avengers: Doomsday ends up being a hit, and who knows if it can match or exceed the runaway success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, expect enthusiasm to go into overdrive for Avengers: Secret Wars and beyond.We can’t wait!
José Soto
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