Marvel Realizes They’ve Oversaturated The Superhero Market
The quality of the latest phase of the MCU has gotten a lot of criticism, with many fans feeling that after Avengers: Endgame the franchise has struggled to regain its momentum. Evidently Marvel is taking that feedback seriously, as they have announced they will be making some adjustments to their brand going forward. Namely, Disney CEO Bob Iger says that soon there will be less movie and TV releases each year in the MCU to better focus on the quality of their output.
Slowing The Release Schedule
During a quarterly earnings call this week, Iger acknowledged that Marvel currently puts out about four movies a year and that they want to bring that number down. He said the plan is to do as few as two movies each year and a maximum of three. He said it will be similar with the TV shows Marvel has been doing, with the company wanting to cap that at two per year as well. While not outright stated, this does seem to be acknowledgement of Marvel oversaturating the market with superhero movies and shows.
Confidence In 2025
However, Iger did clarify that he does not feel a lack of confidence in any of the forthcoming films before this change will take effect. Talking about the Marvel schedule for 2025, he said, “Overall, I feel great about the slate. It’s something that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on. The team is one that I have tremendous confidence in and the IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing, is second to none.”
Schedule Doesn’t Reflect Iger’s Words
Though it should be noted that if the plan truly is for Marvel to scale back on their output, it is unclear when that will occur, as the foreseeable schedule for the MCU does not reflect that. Both 2025 and 2026 are currently scheduled to have four Marvel films release, which actually is an increased pace for the studio. The only other time they have done more than three movies in a year was in 2021, so if the current schedule holds, their pace for releasing movies will actually speed up.
Iger’s Most Direct Statement Yet
This is also not the first time that Bob Iger has mentioned wanting to cut back on the amount of Marvel properties per year. This is the first occasion where he has been so direct about it, but the previous times did not seem to mark any significant change. However, it should be noted that the only Marvel movie for this year is going to be Deadpool & Wolverine, so for 2024 at least, there will be a slower pace.
Fewer Sequels
In terms of other changes planned for the future, Iger also said he is aware of fans wanting to see more original stories rather than an overabundance of sequels. To this, he did excitedly point out some of the fresh properties under the Marvel umbrella that are on the horizon, including the Thunderbolts movie focusing on a supervillain group, as well as the Blade movie which will mark Marvel’s first R-rate non-sequel movie.
Source: Variety
