Are Marvel Studios doing something that is almost completely unheard of in Hollywood? Are they admitting they were wrong? It seems they are. They have openly admitted that things haven’t been going according to plan and are “creatively retooling” current projects while changing their approach to new projects and timelines.
The Hollywood Reporter has published a feature piece on the activity underway at Marvel. Their wake-up call started in Phase 4. Studio Head Kevin Feige proudly trumpeted this as their “Diversity Phase” and it went about as well as you would imagine, with only Spider-Man: No Way Home really meeting expectations.
Phase 5 then kicked off with little in the way of improvements, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Secret Invasion, and The Marvels all not hitting their numbers on various channels.
Then, something so far outside of their comfort zone with looser creative control than they have ever had on a project came into view – Deadpool and Wolverine. The result was 365 million people watching the trailer. Meanwhile, X-Men ’97 had the biggest trailer launch for an animated series on Disney+ ever. The lessons are there. In Hollywood, learning them is usually the issue.
The article says Agatha: Darkhold Diaries has had very tight and focused single-day reshoots. Alongside this, Fantastic Four is having another script polish, and The Bear showrunner Joanna Calo has come in to work on the script for Thunderbolts.
The fate of Kang the Conqueror as a character is still uncertain, but The Kang Dynasty has been scrapped as the subtitle for an upcoming Avengers installment. Part of this was due to actor Jonathan Major’s legal issues, and part of it was due to Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania underperforming. This was the movie that introduced him.
On the TV side, there are some behind-the-scenes changes to attitude and mindset. Executive producer Kyle Bradstreet was apparently sidelined on Secret Invasion, and that project underwent changes, and failed to connect with audiences.
As a result, more control is to be ceded from the studio to the creatives on TV projects. Gee… what a revolutionary idea!
Deadpool and Wolverine remains the only MCU entry hitting the big screen this year. Massive changes from the 3+ movies and 4+ TV shows. No further MCU TV shows will be forthcoming until the back end of the year.
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