Are Marvel’s newest movies and shows really flopping? This is the question fans have been asking since the huge blockbuster Avengers: Endgame came out in theaters in April of 2019. Are the newest productions really good, or are we gaslighting ourselves to believe they’re good? In my opinion, Marvel is having a downturn in production quality, disengaging and discouraging fans from watching their new movies.
A reason why some people think that Marvel is on a downturn is because there’s simply too many things to catch up on. Firstly, Marvel relies on Disney+ for any shows or movies that introduce new characters, making fans pay for a subscription just to understand who is in the next phase of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) that costs $190 per year. Also, after the core heroes who everyone fell in love with, like Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow, have moved on from being those heroes, some fans lost interest. Those particular heroes were the reason they loved the Marvel movies so much, because they added character and heart into the movies, creating and then eventually breaking an emotional connection between the audience and the characters. An example of one of these movies, is the first Avengers movie that holds a special place in all Marvel fans’ hearts, with it being the first movie that brought all our favorite individual heroes together as a team. Another reason why viewers are so lost is because of the introduction of the multiverse. Eliana Dockterman from Time Magazine expresses her concern saying, “…watching Loki Season 2, I felt I could not even look down at my phone for a second without getting completely lost. Heck, even if you’re watching with rapt attention, you’ll probably have a difficult time keeping up with the convoluted time travel shenanigans.” With the multiverse, there should’ve been an infinite amount of possibilities like crossovers between heroes that never would have happened in the regular version of the MCU. However, with so many possibilities and doors that were opened, the rules and plot went down the toilet. Different timelines, characters, and intertwined lives get harder to keep up with when the characters are jumping from place to place, era to era. It gets difficult to keep track of the who, where, and when, which is why most people tap out and lose interest. Why watch something that you can’t make sense of?
While some may say that a true Marvel fan would be able to keep up with all the new shows and movies on Disney+, this video by a channel named “Writing Wrongs” refutes that idea, saying, “You used to need to buy 2 tickets a year to keep up. Now you needed 60 hours of streaming time…People have lives, jobs, kids, bills. They don’t want to study lore or track variant timelines…” Young people, such as teens and children, might have the time to keep up with the rapid fire releases of Marvel Studios, but the adults who grew up on the original movies and have to pay for the Disney+ subscription may not have time to. The target audience then seems to shift, no longer fitting people of all ages but targeted toward younger people, with younger characters and heroes unknown to the older audience.
Daniel Salgado, a 15 year-old die hard Marvel fan, was interviewed on his perspective of the new Disney+ shows and movies from Marvel Studios. When asked about whether or not he thinks the new shows/movies on Disney+ were interesting, he said, “With the movies, definitely because whenever they put out a movie it’s always about someone important and every single one of their movies gets the top spot at the box offices. The shows sometimes are a hit or miss, it has the potential to be something great but sometimes they end up being trash.” This demonstrates a common view between all Marvel fans that many of the new shows/characters have potential to be something great, but the franchise makes the shows boring. An example of this would be “Ironheart,” starring the new character, Riri Williams, who fans feel was a forced and unearned replacement of Tony Stark. Furthering my claim that the Multiverse makes everything too complicated and difficult to track, Daniel says, “…you can’t just introduce all these characters and then just leave their stories. You need to finish your character arcs, and the only way to do that is to bring everyone from their different universes so they can collide and finish their stories on one sacred timeline. The way they use the multiverse to bring people together is so cool because you get to see the Fantastic Four, X Men, Deadpool, Spider man, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc in the original timeline, like the Avengers timeline.” So, while many fans feel like the Multiverse is a waste of time, others feel that it’s essential to the timeline of the MCU and character arcs.
According to the IMDB website, Avengers: Endgame rated 8.4 stars out of ten, while The Marvels, involving the characters Captain Marvel and two new characters, Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, only scored a 5.4 rating. The drop is noticeable; Marvel fans can feel how the quality has dropped based on the connection that viewers feel with the characters. There has been no connection or development of the characters in the specific, unique Marvel way that makes the characters feel so real to us. Many heroes introduced in the past few years have felt rushed, like Kamala Khan, who got a quick show on Disney+ and a movie that was ranked as one of the lowest rated Marvel movies.
So, is Marvel having a downgrade? All evidence points to yes. However, many fans are excited about the promising upcoming Marvel movies set to come out in late 2026 and 2027. Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are the two highly anticipated Marvel movies that bring the old beloved characters and the newest characters together. Fans, including me, are looking forward to seeing how Marvel brings the plot and heroes together and the epic cinematography that Marvel is unique for. Long-time fans, however, are begging Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of the new Marvel movies, to tie things together and bring back the nostalgic epic feeling of seeing our favorite people on the screen, fighting evil to save the universe.
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