BW Media Spotlight

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a mess. We already know that, but it seems Marvel Studios is still struggling to find out why. Of course the Hollywood system keeps insisting it’s “superhero fatigue”, the idea that people are just tired of superheroes. That’s a nice, easy answer…but it’s wrong. You could take all the superhero content that has ever been made, form a 24/7 live stream channel with it, and there’s be a number of people watching it. Some would pick and choose their favorite heroes, keep track of when their show/movie was on, and if they have DVR as an option, record it to watch later. Or just have it on in the background. That would be nice for comic stores to stream. DC tried something like that with DC Universe but it failed because there weren’t enough people to pay for it. Make it free and ad-supported and it might have done better.

That’s not to say that quantity hasn’t been an issue. It takes time to make live-action superhero stories that require superpowers or high-tech gadgets. Even animation takes a while, so since animation is technically required to make a hero fly believably these days trying to also match the lighting of the scene is going to be a time-consuming challenge, and Disney throughout their acquired sub-studios have not been given the necessary time and resources to keep shoving out stuff for Disney+ and putting out a movie every few months. It may not be fatigue as they see it but the creators are certainly ready to take a break even when they care about what they’re doing…which they’ve done less and less and that’s what’s really chasing fans off.

Kevin Feige has apparently bought into the “superhero fatigue” argument, cutting down Marvel Studios output since Disney+ has a enough of a backlog of live-action superheroes (heaven forbid DISNEY do more than lip service when it comes to animation, giving us mediocrity there as well) that he feels he can scale down the content. Bleeding Fool is reporting his schedule is down to three movies and might cut down on the live-action shows as well. However, what does he say is the real problem?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, believes that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become too overwhelming for audiences. All of the interconnected movies and TV shows have made it difficult for casual viewers to keep up.

He reportedly told colleagues that watching all the new content was starting to feel more like “homework” than entertainment. Part of this is from a previous push for more content to boost streaming subscriptions back when Bob Chapek was in charge of Disney. Feige is now leading an overhaul to simplify the MCU, focusing on fewer TV shows and more stand-alone stories that don’t require extensive knowledge of past films.

The Journal‘s story is behind a paywall, so I’m going with their reporting on the story. So here’s where I disagree with Feige, not that the “homework” hasn’t been too much, but that the mistake wasn’t the quantity of stories but not understanding how the shared universe worked in the comics. Is he accidentally getting it? The part about “stand-alone stories that don’t require extensive knowledge of past films” isn’t a quote from the WSJ interview but the unnamed Bleeding Fool reporter. How far he goes with that will show ups if he understands or not.

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