The direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) post-Endgame has been a largely debated topic by critics and fans these previous few years. Marvel is the highest grossing franchise of all time, with Avengers: Endgame alone grossing $2.8 billion worldwide. Why does Marvel seem so lost now? Are fans being too unreasonable?
There are a multitude of reasons for this; within the Infinity Saga, there were 4 phases, 23 movies were launched over a timespan of 11 years. Some viewers, used to getting 2-4 movies a year, were overwhelmed with the abundance of content and new characters being introduced all at once, causing Marvel projects to suffer. Over the last couple years, there have been 25 TV shows, movies, and specials released, with more coming soon. For instance, though I did like Captain America: Brave New World, the drop in the box office after the first week was 68%, The Marvels failed to even break even, and after an impressive $105 million gross in the first week, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in its sophomore week dropped to $32 million.
The things that made Marvel so good was that every single project was intentional and had a purpose in connecting back to the overarching narrative. Each phase had a purpose: Phase 1 was for world building and developing the Avengers, Phase 2 and 3 was defining what the Avengers purpose was for. Every project built off of each other and it connected back to the overall plot. Characters grew, evolved, and the movies only expanded the world. As much as I hate to say it, I agree with a lot of fan complaints that Marvel seems to prioritize quantity over quality. Its consistency just doesn’t feel the same anymore.
In the Multiverse Saga, some of these new storylines and characters were cool concepts but some seem like filler. I really enjoyed Werewolf by Night, for instance, but there was no mention of the Avengers, and I don’t understand its purpose in relating back to the overall story. The lack of interconnectedness is a huge shortcoming in this saga; everything just seems kind of up in the air. In the original phases, everyone had their own problems and storylines, but the heroes always would be brought back together again. Ideas or situations that happened in other movies weren’t erased; they affected other movies, too. Now everyone has their own storylines and problems that would affect the overall world, but they haven’t even been brought up again. We’ve seen this especially with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (MoM) and WandaVision; Sam Raimi, the director of MOM, didn’t finish watching WandaVison before working on his film. If you make a character the main villain of a film, you should know his or her story. This meant that there was no character development between projects. Overall, Marvel just seems to be lacking in direction.
The role of Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, is part of the reason those movies were so good. Chris Evans himself explained it perfectly, “I guess when you start to collect the data and figure out what’s the common denominator of all the films, I really think it must be Kevin Feige. He doesn’t let things be bad.” Feige made sure the overall arch stayed true throughout these films and that the characterizations made consistent sense. There has been so much content developing and being released that there is no way Feige can maintain that much of an active role in every film and TV show.
Lastly, the direction of Marvel is a major problem. It seems that during the original post-Endgame plan, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel were originally slated to take over for the big three, Iron-Man, Captain America, and Thor, in ushering in the new era of the Avengers. But with the late Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death, Brie Larson’s disinterest with playing Captain Marvel, and disputes with Sony over the rights of SpiderMan, that plan was ultimately scratched. The major villain setup in Loki, for the new Avengers movie Kang Dynasty, was going to be Kang the Conqueror, but actor Jonathan Majors had a legal battle facing charges of domestic assault. Marvel decided to scrap the project and replace it with Avengers: Doomsday starring Robert Downey Jr.
To conclude, there are definitely ways Marvel could’ve done the Multiverse Saga differently; it wasn’t a bad concept, just a weak execution. Although I’m still confused about the direction of the MCU, I think fans discredit the new projects too much and are blinded by nostalgia, unwilling to receive new characters and new ideas. Infinity War and Endgame are movies that will never be replicated: they were a cultural phenomenon, had an amazingly written storyline, and closed out character arcs perfectly. Despite all of their mistakes, I refuse to count Marvel out just yet, with the announcements of the cast of Doomsday, Thunderbolts*, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, for the first time in a while, I’m kind of excited. They’ve made some bad projects in this saga but they made some good ones, too. So, here are my top three Marvel TV shows and movies to help you capture that feeling of nostalgia and wonder Marvel first inspired!
Honorable Mention: WandaVision
I will never shut up about how good this series was. The first couple episodes were a little slow at first, and definitely confusing, but the rest of the show is amazing. One of my comfort shows, Wanda is one of my favorite characters and the CGI is some of the best I’ve seen throughout the Multiverse Saga. The entire idea about how the Scarlet Witch came about and then how Wanda became the Scarlet Witch is so becoming of her.
3: Shang Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings
Firstly, this movie is so underrated, and I love the soundtrack. I love the pacing, and Aquafina was so funny. Bringing back the Mandarin from Iron Man 3 was genius. I hope Shang-Chi takes a major role in the future. He is so powerful, and the dynamic between his father, sister, and him was so cool.
2: Deadpool and Wolverine
Such a funny movie, I loved the mention of all of Marvel’s shortcomings, and Ryan Reynolds portrayal of Deadpool never fails. The small details and Easter eggs mentioned throughout the movie and the TVA coming back from Loki was so cool. It felt nice to have something in Marvel connect together. It was such a breath of fresh air.
1: Loki
I absolutely loved this series and recommended it ten times over. At first I was a little skeptical because I was happy when they ended the arc of Loki in Ragnarok. The creation of the TVA and all the Loki variants was such a cool concept. The introduction of Kang the Conqueror absolutely blew my mind. Loki’s growth from the God of Mischief to the God of Timeline from season 1 to 2 was incredible.