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Rafa Alvarez for Variety
 1. Home
 2. Film
 3. Features


CRISIS AT MARVEL: JONATHAN MAJORS BACK-UP PLANS, ‘THE MARVELS’ RESHOOTS,
REVIVING ORIGINAL AVENGERS AND MORE ISSUES REVEALED

By
Tatiana Siegel
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This past September, a group of Marvel creatives, including studio chief Kevin
Feige, assembled in Palm Springs for the studio’s annual retreat. Most years,
the vibe would have been confident — even cocky — given how the premier
superhero brand, owned by Disney since 2009, has remade the entertainment
business in its image.  

But this occasion was angst-ridden — everyone at Marvel was reeling from a
series of disappointments on-screen, a legal scandal involving one of its
biggest stars and questions about the viability of the studio’s ambitious
strategy to extend the brand beyond movies into streaming. The most pressing
issue to be discussed at the retreat was what to do about Jonathan Majors, the
actor who had been poised to carry the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe but instead is headed to a high-profile trial in New York later this
month on domestic violence charges. The actor insists he is the victim, but the
damage to his reputation and the chance he could lose the case has forced Marvel
to reconsider its plans to center the next phase of its interlocking slate of
sequels, spinoffs and series around Majors’ villainous character, Kang the
Conqueror. 




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JONATHAN MAJORS’ TRIAL SETS NEXT HEARING FOR OCTOBER



At the gathering in Palm Springs, executives discussed backup plans, including
pivoting to another comic book adversary, like Dr. Doom. But making any shift
would carry its own headaches: Majors was already a big presence in the MCU,
including as the scene-stealing antagonist in February’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp:
Quantumania.” And he has been positioned as the franchise’s next big thing in
this season of “Loki” — particularly in the finale, which airs on Nov. 9 and
sets up Kang as the titular star of a fifth “Avengers” film in 2026.  

Rafa Alvarez for Variety

“Marvel is truly fucked with the whole Kang angle,” says one top dealmaker who
has seen the final “Loki” episode. “And they haven’t had an opportunity to
rewrite until very recently [because of the WGA strike]. But I don’t see a path
to how they move forward with him.” 

Beyond the bad press for Majors, the brain trust at Marvel is also grappling
with the November release of “The Marvels,” a sequel to 2019’s blockbuster
“Captain Marvel” that has been plagued with lengthy reshoots and now appears
likely to underwhelm at the box office.  

This is all an unprecedented turn of fortune for a company that has enjoyed a
nearly uninterrupted string of hits ever since it started independently
producing its movies with 2008’s “Iron Man.” That wildly profitable run
culminated in the $2.8 billion success of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” a
high-water mark for the studio that has earned nearly $30 billion over 32
films. 





Replicating that kind of phenomenon is never easy. However, the source of
Marvel’s current troubles can be traced back to 2020. That’s when the COVID
pandemic ushered in a mandate to help boost Disney’s stock price with an endless
torrent of interconnected Marvel content for the studio’s fledgling streaming
platform, Disney+. According to the plan, there would never be a lapse in
superhero fare, with either a film in theaters or a new television series
streaming at any given moment.  

But the ensuing tsunami of spandex proved to be too much of a good thing, and
the demands of churning out so much programming taxed the Marvel apparatus.
Moreover, the need to tease out an interwoven storyline over so many disparate
shows, movies and platforms created a muddled narrative that baffled viewers.  

“The Marvel machine was pumping out a lot of content. Did it get to the point
where there was just too much, and they were burning people out on superheroes?
It’s possible,” says Wall Street analyst Eric Handler, who covers Disney. “The
more you do, the tougher it is to maintain quality. They tried experimenting
with breaking in some new characters, like Shang-Chi and Eternals, with mixed
results. With budgets as big as these, you need home runs.”  

“The Marvels,” which opens in theaters on Nov. 10, will struggle to get the ball
past the infield, at least by Marvel’s outsized standards. The movie, which cost
$250 million and sees Brie Larson reprising her role as Captain Marvel, is
tracking to open to $75 million-$80 million — far below the $185 million “Doctor
Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” took in domestically in its debut weekend
last year.   

Directed by Nia DaCosta, “The Marvels” unites Larson’s heroine with two
superpowered allies, Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau (introduced in the 2021
Disney+ series “WandaVision”) and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan (first seen in the
2022 series “Ms. Marvel”). But instead of seamlessly building on the success of
“Captain Marvel,” this move resulted in four weeks of reshoots to bring
coherence to a tangled storyline.   

Then eyebrows were raised again when DaCosta began working on another film while
“The Marvels” was still in postproduction — the filmmaker moved to London
earlier this year to begin prepping for her Tessa Thompson drama “Hedda.”  (A
representative for DaCosta declined to comment.) 

“If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director
to leave with a few months to go,” says a source familiar with the production. 

“The Marvels” has seen its release date moved back twice, too, once to swap
places with “Quantumania,” which was deemed further along, and again when its
debut shifted from July to November to give the filmmakers more time to tinker.
But that extra time didn’t necessarily help. In June, Marvel, which
traditionally only solicits feedback from Disney employees and their friends and
families, took the uncharacteristic step of holding a public test screening in
Texas. The audience gave the film middling reviews.   





Francesco Francavilla for Variety

But Marvel has never been in the business of being average. “Kevin’s real
superpower, his genius, has always been in postproduction and getting his hands
on movies and making sure that they finished strongly,” the source adds. “These
days, he’s spread thin.” (Feige declined to comment for this story.) 

Feige isn’t the only person showing signs of strain. Marvel’s entire VFX
battalion, including staffers and vendors, is struggling to keep pace with a
never-ending stream of productions. This past February, when the credits rolled
at the world premiere of “Quantumania,” shock rippled through the Regency
Village Theatre in Westwood over some shoddy CGI. “There were at least 10 scenes
where the visual effects had been added at the last minute and were out of
focus,” says one veteran power broker who was there. “It was insane. I’ve never
seen something like that in my entire career. Everyone was talking about it.
Even the kids of executives were talking about it.” 

The schedule swap with “The Marvels” had left the “Ant-Man” sequel in a squeeze,
pushing up its postproduction schedule by four-and-a-half months. Marvel films
are known for coming down to the wire, given Feige’s ability “to foam the runway
and land a plane that way,” says one executive familiar with how the company
operates. But this level of unfinished was unprecedented and would be noted in
scathing reviews when the tentpole with the $200 million budget opened 11 days
after the premiere. Critics weren’t the only ones dismayed. Fed up with 14-hour
days and no overtime, Marvel VFX workers voted unanimously to unionize in
September, sparking an industrywide trend. 

“The year 2023 was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” says former Marvel
Studios VFX assistant coordinator Anna George, who appeared before the
Congressional Labor Caucus on Oct. 19 to testify about the studio’s untenable
deadlines and working conditions. “The pay and long hours at Marvel were the
reason we had to start our unionization process there. The conditions were
completely unsustainable.”  

Disney’s top brass, including newly returned CEO Bob Iger, was said to be
apoplectic about Marvel’s VFX troubles. One month after the “Quantumania”
premiere debacle, the guillotine fell on Victoria Alonso, who oversaw the
studio’s physical production, postproduction, VFX and animation. While the
reason cited for her abrupt firing was her unauthorized role as an executive
producer on the Oscar-
nominated film “Argentina, 1985,” insiders say Disney was incensed that quality
control on its Marvel productions was plummeting, particularly on the
ever-expanding TV front. The VFX logjam had been evident for some time, with
some final effects for such Disney+ series as “WandaVision” and “She-Hulk:
Attorney at Law” inserted after their streaming debuts. That Alonso was busy
promoting her art-house project while Rome burned certainly didn’t sit well with
Disney’s leadership. (Alonso’s attorney says her client is unable to comment.)





But some internal sources suggest Alonso was a scapegoat and point to the
“She-Hulk” VFX issues as a symptom of a deeper rot — namely a lack of oversight
on script development. In the original arc of “She-Hulk,” a flashback of star
Tatiana Maslany’s transformation into her Hulk character didn’t take place until
Episode 8, the penultimate episode. But after Marvel’s brain trust watched
footage, it realized the scene needed to happen in the pilot episode so that
audiences could see more of the character’s backstory early. That meant that the
VFX team was tasked with fixing the mess in postproduction.

“The so-called bad VFX we see was because of half-baked scripts,” says one
person involved with “She-Hulk.” “That is not Victoria. That is Kevin. And even
above Kevin. Those issues should be addressed in preproduction. The timeline is
not allowing the Marvel executives to sit with the material.”

All the while, Marvel was bleeding money, with a single episode of “She-Hulk”
costing some $25 million, dwarfing the budget of a final-season episode of HBO’s
“Game of Thrones, ” but without a similar Zeitgeist bang. The August 2022 series
premiere at the El Capitan Theatre foreshadowed what was to come six months
later at the “Quantumania” bow: the “She-Hulk” special effects were out of focus
in multiple scenes.

There are signs that the flood of product is leading people to tune out. “I’m
not prepared to call it a permanent fall. But based on the numbers that go with
Marvel podcasts, Marvel-based articles, friends who do Marvel-based video
coverage, all of these numbers are significantly down,” says Joanna Robinson,
co-author of the New York Times bestseller “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios,”
who is a writer and podcaster at The Ringer. “The quality is suffering. In 2019,
at the peak, if you put ‘Marvel Studios’ in front of something, people were
like, ‘Oh, that brand means quality.’ That association is no longer the case
because there have been so many projects that felt half-baked and undercooked.” 

Clockwise from left: Jonathan Majors in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”;
Iman Vellani, Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris in “The Marvels”; Tatiana Maslany
in “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” Courtesy of Marvel

As public criticism mounts, Feige is pulling the plug on scripts and projects
that aren’t working. Case in point: the “Blade” reboot. With Mahershala Ali
signed on for the eponymous role of a vampire, things looked promising for a
2023 release date. But the project has gone through at least five writers, two
directors and one shutdown six weeks before production. One person familiar with
the script permutations says the story at one point morphed into a narrative led
by women and filled with life lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead, a
bizarre idea considering that the studio had two-time Oscar winner Ali on
board.  

Amid reports that Ali was ready to exit over script issues, Feige went back to
the drawing board and hired Michael Green, the Oscar-nominated writer of
“Logan,” to start anew. Speculation around town is that the studio is looking to
make the film, now slated for 2025, on a budget of less than $100 million — a
deviation from Marvel’s big-spending strategy. 





With Iger publicly acknowledging the downside of a Marvel TV glut that “diluted
focus and attention,” the keepers of the comic book empire are considering some
dramatic moves. Sources say there have been talks to bring back the original
gang for an “Avengers” movie. This would include reviving Robert Downey Jr.’s
Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, both of whom were killed off in
“Endgame.” (That shouldn’t be a stumbling block — in comic books, beloved
characters are often killed off, only to be resurrected thanks to the power of
things like the multiverse.) But the studio hasn’t yet committed to the idea —
if it were able to bring those actors back, it wouldn’t come cheap. Sources say
Downey Jr.’s upfront salary for “Iron Man 3” was around $25 million.  

Will that solve Marvel’s Majors problem? When the “Quantumania” actor was
arrested in March, Disney executives insisted that they could afford to play a
wait-and-see game, given that “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” wasn’t expected to
begin shooting until early 2024. But then Majors was dropped in quick succession
by his publicists and managers. (He remains a client at WME — the agency where
he landed after CAA parted ways with him, pre-arrest, for his “brutal conduct”
toward staff, says one source. CAA declined to comment.) In April, other alleged
domestic violence victims of Majors began cooperating with the Manhattan
District Attorney’s Office. Then, ahead of a key hearing in October, media
outlets including Variety obtained a court filing that referenced a police
incident in London involving Majors that led his ex-girlfriend to seek medical
attention. Making matters even stickier, the ex-girlfriend also worked on
“Quantumania” as a movement coach, and the London incident took place while
Majors was shooting Season 2 of “Loki.” On Oct. 25, a New York judge denied
Majors’ motion to dismiss the case, which ensures that the actor will stand
trial in late November. His legal team is attempting to keep some material in
the case sealed. 

A studio source notes that regardless of the actor’s legal issues, Marvel
already had considered moving away from a Majors-led phase because of the box
office performance of “Quantumania,” which will struggle to make a profit. “It
gave people pause given that ‘Quantumania’ didn’t exactly land,” the source
says.  (On Oct. 27, Disney removed another Majors film, Searchlight’s “Magazine
Dreams,” from the release calendar.)

Recasting Majors is also an option, as Feige did when he replaced Terrence
Howard in “Iron Man 2” with Don Cheadle.  In fact, Marvel isn’t afraid to change
direction, even after making splashy announcements. “Armor Wars” was first
unveiled as a series and is now being developed as a feature, while the studio’s
push to adapt the comic book “Inhumans” into a feature film generated headlines
but is now dormant. (The now-defunct Marvel Television mounted an “Inhumans” TV
series in 2017 that ran for one season on ABC.)





Still, there was one bright spot in 2023: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,”
which became Marvel’s biggest draw of the year with $845 million worldwide. The
fact that it was directed by James Gunn, the guy now running rival DC Studios,
was lost on no one.

“With Marvel, it used to be as close to a guarantee as you could get,” says Paul
Dergarabedian, a box office analyst at Comscore. “So, going all in on the
budgets made sense. ‘Guardians 3’ was a bit overlooked in how successful it was.
But that had James Gunn and Chris Pratt, and I think star power is becoming more
important. Then there was ‘Quantummania’ with $476 million. Anything under a
half billion dollars is viewed as a disappointment. And these overreaching
expectations are a result of so much success over the years.”

The key to reinvigorating Marvel may lie with the superhero arsenal that Disney
acquired during its 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox. That deal brought several
blue-chip heroes, such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, back under the
studio’s control. Already fans are geeking out about next year’s “Deadpool 3,”
which unites Ryan Reynolds’ merc with a mouth with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and
a reboot of “Fantastic Four” slated for 2025. As a bonus, the Fox additions give
Feige an opportunity to reimagine the “X-Men” franchise, the very property he
cut his teeth on as a young executive at Lauren Shuler Donner’s production
company. Now that the WGA strike is in the rearview mirror, Marvel has started
talking to writers about bringing the X-Men into the MCU fold.

While Feige recalibrates, the rest of the industry is anxiously hoping that
Marvel’s best days are not behind it.  

“Writing the Marvel obituary would be ill-advised,” says Jason Squire, professor
emeritus at USC School of Cinematic Arts and host of “The Movie Business
Podcast.” “Kevin Feige is the Babe Ruth of movie executives, and Marvel has the
most profitable track record in movie history. No question.”


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 1.  mikey says:
     November 1, 2023 at 9:49 am
     
     This write up is a waste of time. Nothing new or any proof.
     
     Reply
     * Stephen Taylor says:
       November 1, 2023 at 11:33 am
       
       Really the article suggests a reboot here. That hasn’t always been the
       case. I also think Kevin Feige himself has probably leaked this info
       deliberately.
       
       Reply
       * Mutale Mwananshiku says:
         November 1, 2023 at 2:13 pm
         
         Where did this suggest a reboot?
         
         Reply
         
       
     * Tina says:
       November 1, 2023 at 1:04 pm
       
       Yet you took the time to read it in the first place
       
       Reply
       * Yaphet says:
         November 1, 2023 at 5:43 pm
         
         yes… he would have to read it in the first place to know it was a waste
         of time…
         
         Reply
         
       
     
 2.  Rachel Studer says:
     November 1, 2023 at 11:40 am
     
     “One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one
     point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons.”
     
     GET WOKE, GO BROKE
     
     Reply
     * j Herbs says:
       November 1, 2023 at 12:01 pm
       
       hey look, you made a rhyme!! So clever. Also boring and false. That
       “woke” Barbie movie sure struggled….
       
       Reply
       * JorgeM says:
         November 1, 2023 at 2:06 pm
         
         That’s the thing. Barbie is suppossed to Barbie. Imagine if they made
         Barbie a steroid filled action packed movie where Ken is the main
         character. That is what is happening to superhero movies. They are
         trying to sell it to another audience and failing. Barbie didn’t fail.
         They knew their audience.
         
         Reply
         * Mutale Mwananshiku says:
           November 1, 2023 at 2:15 pm
           
           What other audience are superhero movies being made for ?
           
           Reply
           
         * nerdrage says:
           November 1, 2023 at 3:48 pm
           
           Captain Marvel is also supposed to be Captain Marvel. Carol Danvers
           first appeared in 1968. She’s true to the character like Barbie is
           true to the character.
           
           Reply
           * Retro says:
             November 1, 2023 at 5:08 pm
             
             Carol Danvers was never Captain Marvel until the last decade. She
             was Ms. Marvel.
             And Mar-Vel, the original Captain Marvel (At least in Marvel
             comics) was a man, unlike the movie that gender swapped him.
             
             Reply
             
           
         * ashley says:
           November 2, 2023 at 5:54 am
           
           ken was the main character in barbie…
           
           Reply
           * James Corrgian says:
             November 2, 2023 at 5:30 pm
             
             Ken was a lead character. Barbie was the main…
             
             Reply
             
           
         
       * Charles says:
         November 1, 2023 at 5:27 pm
         
         She’s not dense, you’re dense. The fundamental problem with ALL Disney
         properties IS “get woke, go broke”. Snow White and “The Marvels” are
         both DOA.
         
         Reply
         * Illumination-Round says:
           November 2, 2023 at 2:46 pm
           
           Disney is not “woke” by any means. It’s center-right, corporatist,
           middle of the road, and gives half its political money to
           anti-abortion Republicans. Doing the bare minimum counts as “woke?”
           You don’t even know what it means.
           
           Snow White and The Marvels are both going to be huge hits.
           Quantamania was a hit. The Little Mermaid was a hit. Stop pretending
           they flopped.
           
           Jonathan Majors will also be exonerated at trial.
           
           Reply
           * Dion Green says:
             November 2, 2023 at 5:42 pm
             
             such a hit that it erases the other failures???? at some point you
             have to admit it isnt all peaches & cream
             
             Reply
             
           
         
       
     * Loki says:
       November 1, 2023 at 12:01 pm
       
       What does ‘woke’ mean in this scenario?
       
       Reply
       * Robert says:
         November 1, 2023 at 12:22 pm
         
         Woke means any intellectual pursuit by the Left, that the
         Right does not like or understand.
         
         Reply
         
       * Brian says:
         November 1, 2023 at 6:04 pm
         
         Having a movie with women in it is woke now, I guess.
         
         Reply
         
       * gmk2311 says:
         November 2, 2023 at 2:34 am
         
         “One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one
         point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life
         lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead”.
         That’s what woke means. That’s a very good example of woke.
         Of you want to power women, That’s great. Why call it Blade instead of
         “Tour of the Lady Vamps”.
         This is what you’ll get and you’ll like it. That’s woke bro.
         I wouldn’t go see that movie.
         I’d re rent the originals and be done.
         
         Reply
         * CourtneyB says:
           November 2, 2023 at 8:21 am
           
           And that movie doesn’t exist. It was a script that quickly got tossed
           by the wayside.
           
           Reply
           
         * Cordyceps says:
           November 2, 2023 at 5:51 pm
           
           You still haven’t explained what “woke” is. You’ve said a movie about
           lady vampires is woke, but not why.
           
           Reply
           
         * Wolf says:
           November 3, 2023 at 2:04 am
           
           You have no clue at all what the word ‘woke’ even means. I suggest to
           get yourself an education because you are only making yourself look
           like a combination of a clown and a fool.
           
           Reply
           
         
       
     * Darius Rx says:
       November 1, 2023 at 12:08 pm
       
       Interestingly, on top of everything else, this is what alarmed you.
       
       You anti-woke people are hilarious.
       
       Reply
       
     * lampimampi says:
       November 2, 2023 at 3:41 am
       
       Yep, that’s exactly why Captain Marvel grossed over a billion dollars at
       the box office, thus definitely “going broke”
       
       Reply
       * Sammo says:
         November 2, 2023 at 6:17 am
         
         Captain Marvel grossed so highly because of Infinity War and End Game.
         Marvel could have released a Power Pack movie between Infinity War and
         End Game and if they made it seem like it was necessary to watch to get
         End Game it would have made just as much money.
         
         Reply
         * SJ Edwards says:
           November 2, 2023 at 8:46 am
           
           So? It still made a billion dollars
           
           Reply
           * Andy J says:
             November 2, 2023 at 9:11 am
             
             The sequel is tracking to make less than half that.
             
             Reply
             
           
         
       
     
 3.  stevie says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:22 pm
     
     Maybe try to make a film with a bit of suspense?
     
     Reply
     
 4.  Kifa Xavier says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:24 pm
     
     Jon Favreau’s through-line for Iron Man 1 was PLAUSIBILITY. Marvel Studios’
     output since then has been increasingly implausible. Suspension of
     disbelief is now nearly impossible. That makes engaging entertainment
     nearly impossible. They need to merge the multiverse into one universe ASAP
     and return to character-based thrills rather than
     REALITY-IS-GOING-TO-BE-DESTROYED Pablum.
     
     Reply
     * Richard Willis Jr says:
       November 1, 2023 at 12:51 pm
       
       Well said Kifa. Here here!!!
       
       Reply
       
     
 5.  Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:48 pm
     
     “One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one
     point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons.
     Blade was relegated to the fourth lead”.
     
     This would not be a surprise at Disney/Marvel dominated by feminists even
     in stories with male protagonists, women are more important than them.
     
     Reply
     * LW says:
       November 1, 2023 at 7:38 pm
       
       Put a chick in it and make her gay!
       
       AND I WANT IT SUPER LAME!!!
       
       Reply
       
     
 6.  Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:51 pm
     
     The best MCU movies are:
     Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk.
     Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Everyone is garbage.
     
     Reply
     * Omar Khayyam Ravenheart says:
       November 3, 2023 at 1:01 am
       
       Wrong. The best MCU movies are:
       
       Reply
       
     
 7.  Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:52 pm
     
     MCU ruled the entertainment industry in all possible ways.
     
     Reply
     * Kevin F says:
       November 2, 2023 at 5:17 am
       
       *ruined
       
       Reply
       
     
 8.  Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:53 pm
     
     MCU has the use of inexperienced, apathetic directors, excessive dependence
     on comedy and CGI.
     Lack of continuity, tonal imbalance.
     
     Reply
     
 9.  Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:56 pm
     
     MCU movies and series can be summarized in: mountains of jokes, lazy
     writing, bad CGI.
     Feminism and forced diversity.
     
     Reply
     
 10. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 12:58 pm
     
     MCU can completely ignore the source material.
     Distort a character until unrecognizable, but putting humor is enough.
     
     Reply
     
 11. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:00 pm
     
     MCU transformed the audience into zombies.
     
     Reply
     
 12. StanDude says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:01 pm
     
     Give Some More Time.
     
     Reply
     
 13. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:01 pm
     
     Excess CGI + bad script = MCU.
     This is the only formula you need to do for a MCU movie or series.
     
     Reply
     
 14. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:03 pm
     
     MCU ruined the cinema.
     
     Reply
     
 15. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:04 pm
     
     Marvelation and MCU domain had nothing but negative effects.
     
     Reply
     
 16. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:07 pm
     
     MCU is the worst thing that happened in the film industry, entertainment,
     culture, pop, geek, nerd.
     
     Reply
     
 17. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:09 pm
     
     It is becoming clear that MCU is really one of the worst things that
     happened to Marvel.
     Creatively, obviously not financially.
     Where many are not even more characters, just generators of playful memes.
     Portrayed as actors/actresses with generic CGI effects.
     And boring color palettes.
     
     Reply
     
 18. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:18 pm
     
     MCU and its mediocre movies/series spread the entertainment industry in its
     entirety.
     Now every movie/series about heroes and comics are full of jokes.
     No one takes anything seriously, the plot is weak and generic.
     They are copying Disney/MCU.
     While other much better and different movies/series are hated for not
     following this model.
     
     Reply
     
 19. Ser das Trevas says:
     November 1, 2023 at 1:20 pm
     
     Disney/MCU is the McDonald’s from movie and entertainment studios.
     
     Reply
     * Ryan M says:
       November 1, 2023 at 3:24 pm
       
       james gunn is that you?
       
       Reply
       * Notorious BIG says:
         November 2, 2023 at 8:51 am
         
         It’s Scorsese’s troll account
         
         Reply
         
       
     
 20. j p says:
     November 1, 2023 at 2:22 pm
     
     Taika Watiki is the perfect poster boy for all this.
     
     Reply
     * Zanshen says:
       November 1, 2023 at 7:49 pm
       
       Watiki???????
       
       Reply
       * j p says:
         November 2, 2023 at 8:42 am
         
         Takka Wakiki
         
         Reply
         
       
     
 21. SamUrai says:
     November 1, 2023 at 2:24 pm
     
     If Disney Marvel listened to Nerdrotic, they would’ve have known this 5
     years ago, and couldve both saved and made billions.
     
     Reply
     
 22. Tom says:
     November 1, 2023 at 2:25 pm
     
     Any news on Brie Larson? I’ve read that she is difficult to work with. I
     loved Captain Marvel, and would hate to see the sequel jeopardized.
     
     Reply
     * Barney says:
       November 1, 2023 at 2:44 pm
       
       i love M-She-U Captain Marvel … said no one ever
       
       Reply
       * Illumination-Round says:
         November 1, 2023 at 3:42 pm
         
         I’m saying it. I LOVE CAPTAIN MARVEL. I absolutely do.
         
         Penske Media rags pretending there is a crisis. There is none. Marvel
         is doing fine. The releases are doing great.
         
         Majors will be exonerated. This is a license to print money. There is
         no “Disney in disarray.”
         
         Reply
         * Mr. Underhill says:
           November 2, 2023 at 2:15 am
           
           You know denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.
           
           Reply
           * Illumination-Round says:
             November 2, 2023 at 9:38 am
             
             You’re the one in denial. Especially if all you say in response is
             not that different from “I’m rubber, you’re glue.”
             
             Reply
             
           
         * Mike says:
           November 2, 2023 at 8:52 am
           
           Love Brie Larson! She’s great as Captain Marvel!
           
           Reply
           
         * Mr. Downhill says:
           November 2, 2023 at 8:53 am
           
           Yeah! They are doing great!
           
           Reply
           
         
       
     
 23. nerdrage says:
     November 1, 2023 at 3:43 pm
     
     Regroup around Fantastic 4 and X-Men. The former has never been done well
     and I’ve never been that thrilled about X-Men.
     
     Leonard DiCaprio is now old enough that if you shave his head, he’s a dead
     ringer for Prof X from the comics.
     
     Reply
     
 24. Ann says:
     November 1, 2023 at 3:48 pm
     
     The problems are so obviously Kevin Feige, his enormous ego, and his poor
     judgement. The difference between earlier success and the garbage he’s
     spewing out now is that early on in his reign there was oversight. Said
     oversight would insist on edits even if Kevin didn’t want to approach a
     director to ask for them because he was more concerned about being buddies
     than having a quality movie. Or the oversight would insist on rewrites and
     half the time write the changes themselves to make things tighter or
     funnier when Kevin couldn’t be bothered because he didn’t think it was
     important. But alas, he got tired of the oversight and used publicists to
     paint his former mentors as villains and voila… here we are! If you agree
     that in anyway the checks and balances were the problem, then
     congratulations to his publicists. You can thank fellow narcissist, Bob
     Iger, for Feige still having his job.
     
     Reply
     * NotVito says:
       November 2, 2023 at 12:27 pm
       
       If you’re talking about Ike as the “oversight” and “former mentors”
       you’re dead wrong. Ike is directly responsible for the Inhumans disaster,
       and if the Creative Council had gotten its way there would have been no
       Endgame.
       
       Reply
       
     
 25. dao says:
     November 2, 2023 at 2:07 am
     
     oh no
     
     Reply
     
 26. Sammo says:
     November 2, 2023 at 6:13 am
     
     One thing the executives, Feige, Iger, the writer of this article, or even
     the dozens of zombies in the comments fail to acknowledge is Disney/Marvel
     went all in on ersatz, replacement, characters and the audiences don’t like
     them or care. They tried it out, they gave it a chance, and now they are
     moving away. The toys go unsold, the merch fills up dollar store and
     landfills, and all the while Disney sticks their fingers in their ear.
     
     Reply
     
 27. Robert says:
     November 2, 2023 at 3:34 pm
     
     That’s a journalist? Try doing some better research, all your info’s been
     debunked. Cause for firing. You’re pathetic
     
     Reply
     
 28. Dee LDO says:
     November 2, 2023 at 4:57 pm
     
     And here we go…incelfest whenever there is a piece of news about marvel
     stuff.
     
     Reply
     




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