It’s no secret that Marvel needs a hit, and badly. The blockbuster franchise that took over the box office for the better part of a decade has finally started to look mortal.
The Marvels lost money at the box office, something previously unheard of for a Marvel Studios film, while off-screen troubles have led to numerous projects being delayed, revamped or potentially even scrapped altogether.
The Hollywood Reporter released a new report detailing some of the big changes being made behind the scenes at Marvel Studios as parent company Disney attempts to get its superhero cinematic universe back on track. Here are some of the biggest revelations from THR’s report and how they could impact the MCU going forward.
WandaVision spinoff on the way in 2024
WandaVision broke ground as the first MCU project to debut on the small screen, becoming a runaway hit for Disney+ and one of those rare shows of the streaming era that everyone seemed to be talking about with each new episode.
Marvel was pretty quick to try and capitalize on the show’s success, making Wanda into the co-lead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as well as green-lighting a spinoff series for the show’s breakout star, the villainous witch Agatha Harkness (played by Kathryn Hahn). That spinoff series, titled Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, will finally debut in 2024 according to THR, with the studio reportedly feeling very optimistic about the show internally.
Writers to the rescue
One issue many fans and critics have leveled toward Marvel in its post-Endgame era is a dropoff in the quality of its writing. Many fans feel the stories have not had the same consistency and sense of momentum that made the MCU feel so exciting back in the 2010s.
Marvel has reportedly tried to address this by bringing in some fresh talent to work on the scripts for its upcoming projects. According to THR, the studio quietly brought in writer Eric Pearson to polish up its script for the upcoming Fantastic Four film. Pearson is a Marvel veteran who worked on both Thor: Ragnarok and Black Widow.
The studio also reportedly brought in a respected outside hire to work on one of its riskiest upcoming projects, the anti-hero team-up film Thunderbolts, which is set to release in 2025. Writer Joanna Calo, the showrunner behind heralded FX series The Bear, was brought in to work on the Thunderbolts script, hopefully bringing some much-needed gravity and credibility to a film that won’t star any name-brand Marvel heroes but will feature A-list actress Florence Pugh as well as Stranger Things star David Harbour.
The fall of Kang
Perhaps the biggest headache Marvel faces at the moment involves the fallout from Jonathan Majors’ dismissal from the franchise. Majors, with whom Marvel cut ties last year following domestic abuse allegations, was originally set up to be the centerpiece of Marvel’s ongoing interconnected story as the villain Kang. The character was so crucial to Marvel’s plans that his name was in the announced title of the next Avengers film, The Kang Dynasty. According to THR, not only has the character’s name now been dropped from the title of Avengers 5, the character itself is likely also being heavily minimized in upcoming films. It’s important to note that according to the report, Marvel was planning this change even before cutting ties with Majors, as it became clear that audiences weren’t excited by the character following his appearance in the lukewarmly-received Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
Less is more
Perhaps the biggest overall change in Marvel’s approach noted in the report concerns the volume of movies and streaming shows the studio will be producing going forward. Disney CEO Bob Iger mentioned last year that while the company’s initial strategy following the launch of Disney+ was to create as much content as possible for the fledgling platform, Iger now believes that the focus should be on producing the highest-quality work possible, even if that means reducing the volume.
As things stand now, Marvel is slated to release just one theatrical film in 2024 (Deadpool & Wolverine) and two streaming series (Echo, which released in January, followed by Agatha: Darkhold Diaries later this year).
Marvel is currently slated to release four films in 2025 but the report speculates that that number may drop to just three, with Mahershala Ali’s Blade potentially being pushed to 2026.
