From the moment Tony Stark made his first Iron Man suit out of scraps in a cave and the moment the Avengers all suited up together for the first time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was born.
The MCU has grown immensely over the years, accumulating fans from all over the world by bringing everyone’s favorite comic book characters and stories to the big screen. Its’ movies have grossed over $29 billion, making the MCU one of the highest-grossing film series in history. It also has a lovable selection of actors that truly bring out the personality of their characters from the comics while also keeping the seriousness of the real world environment.
However, while the MCU is still praised and enjoyed by fans today, some fans have abandoned the franchise, given the recent uptick of poor writing and execution in the latest MCU films. Examples of this would be the slandering of old characters, CGI issues, and the rushed changes to an already convoluted storyline. All starting after “Avengers: Endgame”, the MCU’s “Multiverse Saga” was the first failure in a line of several. But after the large success of “Deadpool and Wolverine” and the announcement of Robert Downey Jr. returning to play a new character in the MCU, it gives way to wonder if the MCU is making a comeback, and what direction are they planning to take?
Back in July of 2022, Marvel’s Phase 5 and Phase 6 movie lineups were announced at the San Diego Comic Con. Amongst these movies was supposed to be the next Avengers movie and the second-to-last movie to end the Multiverse Saga, “Avengers: Kang Dynasty”. Kang was supposed to be the main overarching villain that the MCU has been building up to ever since the first season of the MCU’s “Loki”, which was released back in 2021. However, after the debacle with Jonathan Majors, Marvel has decided to completely scrap the character, simultaneously removing the entire plot building up to him.
Kang should have been recast. It’s understandable, for example, if Marvel wanted to replace the character because Majors had died, similarly to what was done with the late Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa. But that wasn’t the case for Kang. This excessive action removes any meaning and weight the character had when previously mentioned, making the films where he’s the main focus near pointless to watch, considering it has no effect on Marvel’s storyline.
Although this action feels rushed and seems like a poor decision, fortunately for Marvel, with the new direction they seem to be taking, removing Kang might have been a good choice. The MCU’s Multiverse Saga has been a large failure since its beginning, and Kang was supposed to be the main focus for it.
But, in Marvel’s latest movie, “Deadpool and Wolverine”, there was a line from Deadpool addressing the audience, saying “Can we just be done with the whole multiverse thing? It’s not great. It’s just been miss after miss after miss. The Wizard of Oz did the multiverse first and they did it best!…Let’s just take the ‘L’ and move on.” If Marvel is willing to acknowledge their failure from within their own movie, it looks like they actually could be done with movies regarding the multiverse and could be moving on to different subjects.
For this new direction, Marvel has decided to replace the villain, Kang, with another infamous villain, Dr. Doom, being played by Robert Downey Jr. Instead of “Avengers: Kang Dynasty”, the next Avengers movie will now be called, “Avengers: Doomsday”. Downey originally played the fan-favorite character, Iron Man, a character that died after “Avengers: Endgame”. Bringing Downey back to the MCU has brought hope into some fans that Marvel may be returning to its former glory. While it may seem good that Downey has returned, this choice by Marvel was a desperate one.
It’s true that Robert Downey Jr. is an actor much praised for his portrayal of Iron Man/Tony Stark, and he excelled in every scene he was in. He’s highly loved by MCU fans, and he has even been funnily described as acting exactly like his Marvel counterpart. With all of this considered, it’s no wonder Marvel thought to bring him back into a new role. The MCU has been failing and likely losing audiences, so to revive their fanbase, they brought back an actor people love. However, this decision feels like an insult to the impactful death of Iron Man, and if Marvel decides to make this version of Downey’s character a “multiverse variant”, they would be continuing the issue they are trying to stray away from: the multiverse being dull and confusing.
Although, if Marvel really is trying to move away from the multiverse, they should take the time to focus on more street-level, lower territory storylines.
For example, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” can be described as a street-level, low territory MCU movie. The threat isn’t some “larger-than-life”, multiverse mess. It’s just about Peter Parker learning how to be a better hero and fighting off a team of advanced weapon dealers. It’s simple, and it works. The same could be said for movies, such as “Captain America: Civil War” and “Black Panther”. Additionally, this would decrease the usage of CGI compared to a movie like “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness”, where that movie heavily relies on CGI, leading to other issues.
Marvel tends to overuse their CGI, and their movies usually have close deadlines to each other, making special effects difficult to polish and perfect before release. However, Marvel has implemented a solution to this. Last May, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that the company plans to release two to three Marvel movies a year as opposed to their previous four-movies-a-year plan. Along with this, they’re cutting down on the amount of Marvel TV shows produced. This means that Marvel is now focusing on quality over quantity, which, hopefully, means no more poor CGI similar to the floating head from “Thor: Love and Thunder”.
Overall, the MCU is having some ups and downs in terms of making good improvements. Even DC seems to be doing a bit better by taking the necessary route of restarting their entire superhero universe, redoing character storylines and writing. Fortunately, Phase 5 of the MCU isn’t finished yet, so there’s still time for changes and improvements with the rest of the movies in the lineup. All that can be done now, as members of the audience, is to hold onto hope for the upcoming movies, “Thunderbolts*”, “Captain America: Brave New World”, and “Fantastic Four”.
