The Marvels is a bomb, and the MCU seems in need of a hero, or rather, a villain.
The death of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been predicted before, but this time, something really seems to have shifted, as Marvel’s latest film, The Marvels, earned an estimated $47 million at the domestic box office, the worst opening in the history of the MCU.
Compared to Captain Marvel, which opened to $153 million (domestic) and went on to earn over a billion worldwide, the MCU’s cultural dominance seems to have hit a wall.
Let’s take a look at what went wrong, and how Marvel can potentially be saved by a good supervillain.The Marvels
The Marvels, a direct sequel to Captain Marvel, unites three superheroes; Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani).
The latter pair were introduced via Marvel’s Disney+ shows, which suffer from the same issues that plague Disney’s Star Wars spin-offs, being wildly inconsistent and stuffed with increasingly dense lore; fans have complained that catching up with the story feels like “homework.”
It’s clear that the MCU has lost a lot of goodwill from fans and critics, that the endless expansion of the cinematic universe has become a burden. The slow decline of the MCU has become something of a meme online, with many rooting for the franchise to fail.Too early for MCU nostalgia
Already, Marvel seems to have hit its nostalgia era; the final trailer for The Marvels featured vintage clips of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America, who do not appear in the film.
The film’s post-credits scene even teases a character from Fox’s X-Men franchise, now rendered in uncanny CGI, devoid of texture.
Ironically, the season 2 finale of Loki, streaming on Disney+ just before The Marvels cinematic release, drew praise and excitement from longtime fans of the franchise, who were satisfied that the original Avengers villain had concluded his long, strange character arc.
Marvel’s attempts to create a new team from more obscure comic book characters seems to have fallen flat, as fans still seem far more invested in the original characters.
Online, rumors abound that Downey Jr. and the original Avengers team will soon return to the MCU; head honcho Kevin Feige has since dismissed these rumors, but didn’t rule out the possibility.
The positive reaction to the rumor suggests that the public sees Marvel’s best days as behind it, that the franchise will never again hit the heights of the Infinity Stone saga, that Thanos and Iron Man are still the stars of the franchise.
Anecdotally, when I take my kids to see a Marvel movie they tend to have fun, but they don’t express any interest in seeing these characters again. The movie evaporates from their memory the moment they leave the cinema, like pasta water draining through a colander. Frankly, I feel the same.
The superhero landscape has evolved since the days of Infinity War and Endgame. For adults, there are more complex, cynical and violent superhero stories like The Boys and Invincible out there, pushing the genre in interesting new directions.
For families, superhero blockbusters are being overshadowed at the box office by a different kind of nostalgia; Super Mario, Barbie or Five Nights at Freddy’s (with the notable exception of Spider-Man, who still reigns supreme).The current state of the MCU
The MCU wasn’t always a consistent box office earner, but at its height, it was a behemoth, big enough to strike fear in the heart of the legendary Martin Scorsese, who voiced concerns that cinema was being smothered by shallow superhero blockbusters.
