Disney and Marvel Studios released “Captain America: Brave New World,” the 35th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), last month to middling word of mouth and subpar reviews. The newest Marvel Studios film is the latest release in the ongoing creativity crisis inside Marvel Studios. As of March 11, according to Box Office Mojo, the movie has grossed a worldwide total of $371 million and has a 48% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Marvel Studios was the king of the box office and pop culture for the 2010s, starting with “The Avengers” in 2012. Marvel was teflon, they could put out something that was not well liked such as the 2013 film “Thor: The Dark World,” and yet they still made money and were able to easily move on from that bump in the road.
After “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel Studios is clearly experiencing something that isn’t just a simple bump in the road — they are experiencing an identity crisis. There are many problems that afflict the MCU, but there are three main issues that stand out the most.
The first problem plaguing them creatively and in the court of public opinion is that there is no main figurehead of the franchise. For the first three phases, Tony Stark/Iron Man and Steve Rogers/Captain America were the de facto faces of the MCU. They were 1A and 1B for the franchise. Of course, the question on many minds was who would take their place if and when Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans decide to leave the franchise.
In comes Chadwick Boseman and his undeniable star power as King T’Challa/Black Panther. If anyone was worthy to take the mantle as the face of the MCU, it was undeniably going to be him. Unfortunately, the world lost Chadwick Boseman, following a four-year private battle with colon cancer — a sad turn of events that surely made the executives at Marvel Studios and Disney lose their minds. All love and respect to Boseman, he was undoubtedly being set up as the next figurehead for the franchise.
Boseman’s untimely death was a turning point for Marvel Studios, because as of right now, can anyone definitively say who is the current figurehead or figureheads of the franchise? It’s not Captain Marvel, especially when her last film, 2023’s “The Marvels,” became the MCU’s biggest flop to date. It can’t be Tom Holland’s Spider-Man due to Sony owning the film rights to Spider-Man. So who is it?
Disney+ was the worst thing to happen for the franchise’s quality. Prior to Disney+, the MCU would only release three films per year. After the streaming service was created, Marvel had to up their productivity. In 2021, Marvel released a total of four movies and five TV shows, which is a complete overabundance of what audiences were accustomed to watching. In 2023, Marvel released three movies and three TV shows.
I’m sure the new demands of having to feed the beast that is Disney+ has stretched Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige thin.
It is due to their overabundance of content that Disney+ is the reason why the MCU has turned into homework. There’s a debate to be had about whether the MCU was homework or not during the first three phases — Would somebody understand “Avengers: Infinity War” without having seen any of the previous MCU movies? However, it’s undeniable now, the franchise has turned into unnecessary homework.
The idea of having to watch an ever-growing number of TV shows in order to understand why a certain character suddenly appears in a movie, and that your general audience will be invested enough to watch all the shows as they were with the movies, is ridiculous. One prime example of the MCU’s homework is the 2023 film “The Marvels.” One would have to watch the TV shows “Wandavision” and “Ms. Marvel” in order to understand who Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau are and why they appear as main characters in the movie.
Disney and Marvel have also been struggling to recapture the magic of the “Infinity Saga.” In 2022, Marvel officially introduced audiences to the “Multiverse Saga,” but the newest saga just hasn’t resonated with audiences the same way its predecessor did. Given the fact that multiverse stories have become oversaturated in the market, the MCU hasn’t done enough to convince audiences why they should care about their multiverse story.
“Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” was supposed to be the big introduction to the newest villain, Kang The Conqueror. Their biggest mistake was dwindling the perceived threat of Kang by letting Ant-Man defeat him in the movie. Then, once Marvel fired Kang actor Jonathan Majors after being found guilty of domestic abuse, it snowballed and left them without a villain.
Marvel pivoted and decided to bring in Doctor Doom as the next big bad instead of sticking with and recasting Majors’ role. Marvel made the extremely bizarre choice to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and bring back the creative team from “Avengers: Endgame.” Once again, another clear sign that the executives hit the “Emergency!” button in a desperate bid to win back audiences who have checked out of the MCU.
I’ve been a lifelong fan of Marvel comics, and the first three phases of the MCU were my obsession during my teenage years and early 20s. Now, it’s unfortunate to see this franchise struggle to reclaim its former glory.
