Marvel Slated For Drastic Cutbacks After Disappointing Phase 4
If you happen to be one of the people suffering from superhero “fatigue” then you might in luck, as Marvel is set to engage in a ton of cutbacks that will diminish the number of MCU projects that we see in 2023. Apparently, the media giant is not happy with how their Phase 4 movies and shows panned out, so the idea is to focus on “quality over quantity” for the Phase 5 and 6 slate in the coming years. This means that 2023 might be the first year in a long time that many Marvel properties are not jam-packed into a strict schedule.
Disney is also suffering from cutbacks of its own with layoffs happening company-wide, though we are not sure if that is in relation to the plans that Marvel has now set for itself. A good thing about these cutbacks is that there has been plenty of reports from the MCU side of things about VFX employees being completely overworked, which is likely going to be a relief for them not having to continually work long hours throughout an entire year. We would imagine that some of the issues that pertain to the lackluster quality of the Phase 4 movies might also be because the VFX workers have been horribly overworked.
Allow us to put on our tin foil hats for a moment, but could it be that Marvel is also resetting itself to line up with the big reset happening at DC? Granted, Marvel is far more ahead in terms of an actual plan for their movies, but they could be preparing for a deeper war with DC now that James Gunn is running the DC Films division. Should Gunn’s plan to reset DC work well, the MCU might be losing out on an audience that has been less than impressed with its output.
We do understand that whatever Marvel puts out, people will go see it, but at least with these new cutbacks, we could be seeing some higher-quality releases in terms of storylines. Nothing against Thor: Love and Thunder, but that story definitely needed some work done to it. Marvel has already been shuffling around its schedule as well, so we could be seeing more of that in terms of the 2023 and 2024 release schedules.
As it stands, Marvel is putting out three movies and five shows next year. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, and The Marvels are the big movies slated for a 2023 release. Also, Secret Invasion, Echo, Loki, Ironheart, and X-Men ’97 are the shows planned. We would imagine that X-Men ’97 would be one of the first to be moved around considering it doesn’t have anything to do with the MCU’s grander story.
Despite the cutbacks and proposed plans to shuffle things around, we are all still quite excited about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From the previously mentioned releases, we hope that both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 stay on schedule because the trailers for both have been fantastic.
