The general buzz around Marvel hasn’t been all that great lately. The end of Phase 4 has disappointed many fans. To be honest, it must have been hard to follow Avengers: endgame, one of the highest-grossing films of all time. But fans have continued to express their disappointment and the quality has suffered measurably. Thor: Love and Thunder was a big disappointment, and the most recent movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has been ranked as one of the worst Marvel movies of all time. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the worst three marvel films are among the most recent in the MCU.
With Marvel’s disappointing start to Phase 5, something will have to change if they want to turn things around sooner Kang dynasty And Secret Wars. There are a lot of exciting titles coming up, and it would be a shame to see them bomb. It’s not like fans have abandoned the franchise altogether. The MCU continues to produce popular movies and shows. But there will have to be a shift in strategy to counter things like superhero fatigue and general boredom with the marvel brand. So let’s take a look at possible fixes and upcoming issues that Marvel may face in Phase 5.
Marvel tells a big story
One of the reasons the Infinity Saga was so successful is because the movie industry had never seen such a big story told across various superhero franchises. It wasn’t that hard for Marvel to do. They had an easy sketch of the comic book series of the same name, and coming onto the scene with such an incredible story required a soft subtlety that we slowly got over a decade. One of the most important things they did was bury the party. Thanos was not immediately on the scene. Instead, fans got a smaller villain to watch, and Thanos was hidden, shown to us in the shadows for maybe 10 seconds at a time, before we got a full picture of the big bad.
Marvel didn’t do that this time. Or if that’s their intention with Kang, fans haven’t yet gotten the sense that someone else is pulling the strings. But Marvel can’t change this now. In a rush to give fans what they want, we’ve lost some of the mystery that comes with steadily revealing a plot. Phase 5 will have to recreate that feeling and awaken the need of its fans to return, if not to discover new parts of a larger story, then at least to feel some kinship with their favorite heroes. Stage 4 may have emerged from a state of reactive storytelling to respond to what happened to the MCU after Endgame. Phase 5 will have to go back to this world of overarching narrative. It may take a while, but after the great catharsis of the Infinity Saga, it will take some time to create such a similar story for fans with such high expectations.
It almost feels like creators are grasping for straws to find a new big bad guy to put on the other side of their huge cast of superheroes. When Loki came out and broke records on Disney+, they choked Kang out of the story and quit creator Michael Waldron responsible for the key projects in Phase 5. If he can coordinate with the other directors and properly plant the seeds of his story, he may be able to find that sense of mystery again.
Release schedule and Marvel fatigue
Superhero fatigue is one of the biggest things we hear about in the news these days. It seems to be a common theme that people assume that fans have just seen so many movies that they’re getting tired of all their movies. But Marvel movies continue to be extremely profitable and fans continue to see them no matter how much they release or even no matter how critical their success is. But it’s a theory that has some merit as Marvel tries to combat the idea by releasing their movies and series in seasons. In the past you’ve only gotten two Marvel movies a summer or fall at the most, what have you; now it looks like Marvel is counting their Disney+ series in this equation as movie release dates fall apart more. Not to say that there may be more projects that we don’t know about, but Marvel movies are released much less often than in the past.
Instead of seeing Shan Chi And Eternals come out two months apart, we won’t see another Marvel release until May after that Quantumania came out in February. With Phase 5 approaching, this could be an excellent way to give fans a break between movies. There are of course a lot of Disney+ projects, but those who can’t afford a subscription will have to look elsewhere for their superhero entertainment. When the new MCU movie comes out, they’ll think they haven’t seen one in a long time. As basic economics tells us, limited supply increases demand. Some basic strategies to get that old Marvel spirit back is just what Phase 5 needs.