Variety has come out with a sprawling report of just what a mess the MCU has become now in phase 5, looking toward phase 6, and amidst complicated situations like poor reception of TV shows and its lead villain, Kang, possibly needing to be erased from the timeline given the charges against the actor who plays him, Jonathan Majors.
There are a wild amount of behind the scenes reveals here with what’s going on at Marvel, and almost none of it is promising. It remains to be seen which of these things come to pass, or what may be turned around, but here’s the overall list of the dramatics:
- Before Jonathan Majors was even arrested, his agency parted ways with him for “brutal conduct” among staff. There has been talk of replacing Majors and Kang as a whole not just because of his arrest and the charges, but because of how badly Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania did with him as the lead villain (though I don’t think anyone believes he was what was wrong with that movie). Rather, there is talk about bringing in Doctor Doom to the MCU earlier than planned, which ironically would make the Secret Wars movie more comic-accurate. There is also still the option on the table to recast him, which would not be a first in the MCU (though certainly a first for a role this high-profile).
- Marvel is desperate to reclaim its old magic to the point where they have considered some a path to reassemble the original Avengers, with Iron Man and Black Widow being brought back from the dead somehow (multiverse, etc, etc).
- Mahershala Ali has been ready to leave Marvel’s Blade project after a series of poor scripts, including one that had him relegated to fourth lead behind a number of woman in a story filled with “life lessons.” Now, Logan writer Michael Green is writing a new script from scratch.
- The Marvels got “middling reviews” at a test screening, and there’s some attention being paid to director Nia DaCosta moving away from the film during post-production to work on a new film. Though it should be noted that’s not all that uncommon, even if a Variety source said it was “weird” for a $250 million movie.
- Marvel has struggled heavily with CGI work. Quantumania had at least 10 VFX scenes added last minute for the world premiere of the film which were so bad they shocked viewers. She-Hulk’s budget ballooned to $25 million an episode, as much as a Game of Thrones episode, and the VFX in the show were so bad because of the scripts, which were reshuffled around and required animators to go back and retroactively add digital work which ended up being low quality in many instances.
- Marvel’s one major “win” during this recent era, the success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was essentially viewed as a loss given that director James Gunn jumped ship to go lead DC.
- There’s a lot of weight being put on Deadpool 3 between Ryan Reynolds and Jackman’s Wolverine, and 2025’s Fantastic Four. Now that the writers strike has ended, Marvel is starting to talk about the path to adding the X-Men into the MCU.
The article concludes with the idea that it’s too early to declare that Marvel’s best days are over, but it’s a mountain of challenges that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon as we keep barreling through Kang storylines with Loki, The Marvels destined to underperform and a future that may or may not have to be totally reworked depending on who the next Avengers villain actually ends up being. Strange times.
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