Almost all Outposters would share the view that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the MCU, was a fun ride, entertaining as hell, and a cinematic achievement right up to and including Avengers: Endgame. After that, things have cooled. There are signs of course correction, but as audiences we still need to be convinced.
One idea many fans have had is that the MCU should just be rebooted, allowing the old MCU to be effectively reset with multiverse jiggery-pokery and to give it a blank slate.
With both The Fantastic Four and X-Men coming to the MCU, and with the curious case of the returning Robert Downey Jr. as a villain, many online have speculated that this will in fact happen via the upcoming Avengers movies – Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Now, Marvel TV boss Brad Winderbaum has addressed that possibility during an appearance on the Screen Off Script podcast. He was asked directly about a reboot after Secret Wars, and he had this to say:
“…[a full reboot would be] a very difficult thing to do to a living, breathing fictional universe, just starting from scratch, because of all of the fan investment and love for the stories that have come so far.”
When asked if the idea had ever been discussed at Marvel Studios, he said:
“You’re going to have to ask Kevin about the features. I’m on the TV side, but we do navigate the same waters and live in the same universe.”
He also seemed to allude that reboots in complex universes are doomed to fail because you will always end up returning to things from before as callbacks.
We might have our first concrete proof of the effectiveness of any reboot, as Daredevil: Born Again lands in just a few days after being completely retooled, reworked, and re-toned to something much more akin to the early days of the MCU via the Netflix TV shows.