Since the advent of the MCU, detractors of the franchise have been waiting with bated breath to see when Marvel would stumble and fall. Yet for nearly a decade and a half, the MCU has held strong, dominating culture and conversation, changing the way we view entertainment. That is until 2025, the year that is do or die for Marvel Studios – and the MCU.
Does that sound dramatic? Well, it is. A multi-billion dollar franchise that has captivated millions of fans is on the brink of potential collapse in a way that it hasn’t been before. Sure, things took a turn for the mixed after Avengers: Endgame in 2019 with the reaction to the cluttered output of Marvel Studios TV and film in the subsequent years. But there were highlights as well as lowlights, leading to the turning point for the MCU: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a critically lambasted film that failed to capture the fanbase, led to revelations about Marvel’s overwork of VFX artists, and kicked off 2023, aka Marvel's no good, very bad year.
