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Everyone watching has known things were not going too well at Marvel recently. After the absolute triumph of the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, things had tailed off spectacularly. The first signs were stutters like Eternals. Hits like some Spider-Man adventures probably masked the slide, but by the time The Marvels limped out of theaters and Ant-Man 3 failed to excite audiences, it could no longer be denied.
The mighty MCU was in deep trouble.
We had been talking about it for a while here. Outposters via Disqus all pointed to the saturation of their Marvel’s own market. Three or four shows a year on Disney+, and four movies a year, meant it felt like a non-stop barrage and something to catch on TV at some point, if at all. A far cry from appointment trips to the movie theater.
Ooopsie!
As is now becoming traditional, the suits are finally catching up.
Deadpool and Wolverine is this season’s sole MCU entry in theaters. Meanwhile, even Disney head honcho Bob Iger now talks openly about issues with the MCU and too much content.
In its first-quarter earnings call this week, Iger specifically mentioned his demands to his entire organization to reduce output and focus more on quality. Marvel is not immune:
“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four, and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two or at the maximum three.”
He also referred the current creative reset underway behind the scenes at Marvel that has seen several shows delayed, re-tooled, and re-worked:
“We’re working hard on what that path is, we’ve got a couple of good films in ’25 and then we’re heading to more Avengers, which we’re extremely excited about.
Overall I feel great about the slate, it’s something that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on, the team is one that I have tremendous confidence in and the IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing is second to none.”
The message is being spread by other executives now, including Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito. In an interview with the mighty Empire he said:
“It’s been a rough time. If we just stayed on top, that would have been the worst thing that could have happened to us. We took a little hit, we’re coming back strong. Maybe when you do too much, you dilute yourself a little bit. We’re not going to do that anymore. We learned our lesson.”
In the same article, Feige also talked about being able to focus on one project this year – Deadpool and Wolverine – and that it gave him a chance for some self-reflection via the content of the latest Deadpool adventure:
“Some of the lines that Ryan and his writers and Shawn worked on have taken on more of a meaning. You’d have to live under a rock not to know that the last few Marvel movies have failed to ignite the world in the way that so many did. We do come along at an interesting time. And we are decidedly something different. Whether it is of Messianic proportions, time will tell.”
One movie, in the shape of the Merc with the mouth. There is also a slot for one Disney+ show this year, some time towards the end of the year.
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