Hollywood’s comic book franchises are in the middle of the biggest transition since Marvel upended the genre 10 years ago.
In 2008, Marvel Studios turned the page on the comic book movie with “Iron Man,” which became a smash hit. A decade later, superhero flicks are at another turning point.
Walt Disney-owned Marvel will drop the curtain on the third act of an unprecedented 11 years of interconnected storytelling, which spanned 22 films. The studio has been virtually bullet-proof at the box office, but with some of the stars who built the Marvel cinematic universe expected to exit the film series, Disney faces a fresh set of challenges.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. is finally starting to close the gap with Marvel. After its own cinematic universe based on DC Comics sputtered under the direction of director-producer Zack Snyder, Warner is now gravitating towards standalone films, and away from Snyder’s grim-and-gritty tone.
But it’s the X-Men franchise at 21st Century Fox that faces the biggest potential change. The series has been going strong since 2000, but with Disney about to close its deal to buy Fox, fans may soon be bidding farewell to the onscreen X-Men they’ve come to know.
The upshot: 2019 could be the most exciting year for comic book fans since at least 2014, when both Marvel and Warner announced a full slate of superhero releases across several years.
As the final phase of Marvel’s magnum opus wraps up with “Avengers: Endgame” (May 3), fans are eagerly anticipating another big announcement.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige says the company will shed light on its plans after “Avengers: Endgame.”
“This is really interesting because they have enjoyed unprecedented, ongoing, uninterrupted success with the formula,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
“Everyone loves what they’re doing, but if it’s the same thing over and over, that’s where the superhero fatigue will set in,” he added.
The Avengers franchise is still one of the highest-earning in Hollywood. Last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” was the first superhero movie to earn $2 billion worldwide. If the studio opts to freshen up the roster — a common occurrence in comic books — it has some strong candidates.
In 2018, “Black Panther” became Marvel’s highest-grossing movie featuring a standalone hero. Marvel’s partnership with Sony, which holds the film rights to Spider-Man, yielded another major hit in 2017 with “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
On July 5, Marvel will test Spidey’s staying power — he’s been rebooted twice — with the sequel “Spider-Man: Far From Home.
