Marvel Studios delivered a masterpiece with 2019's Avengers: Endgame, but recapturing that same magic has been no easy feat since the Infinity Saga ended. There have been a lot of great movies and TV shows, but even Kevin Feige has admitted to quantity over quality issues.
With Bob Chapek no longer calling the shots at Disney, Marvel Studios is looking to get back to its former glory. That means less content for fans, as only three movies will be released in the remainder of the Multiverse Saga: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars.
The Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony, are directing the latter two movies and will reportedly stick around post-Secret Wars to help lay the foundations for what we're expecting to be dubbed the "Mutant Saga."
The Cosmic Circus has today shared some insights into what's next for the duo, as well as details on how the Multiverse Saga hasn't exactly played out in the way Marvel Studios hoped when Spider-Man: Far From Home concluded the previous era of storytelling six years ago.
"So, as I understand it, Marvel’s bringing the Russos along for the ride post-Secret Wars as part of the famous 'Marvel Parliament,' basically just overseeing the general story for the next Saga. Because they want to avoid the mistakes they made with the Multiverse Saga in trying to branch out to many different story points and having multiple open endings without having a clear direction."
"Like, the main idea of the saga was to basically introduce this idea of the multiverse so Marvel could play around in the sandbox and do things they’d never really get a chance to do if it was just their main, established universe. And they wanted to try out new elements and explore new corners of the MCU while still trying to find ways to relate it to the multiverse, ultimately to get to this point where incursions are happening in the main universe and the multiverse is about to end. And of course, introduce cameos of previous heroes here and there."
"But COVID-19 affected their plans; a lot of the internal discussions pushed for Marvel to drop their content months and even years before they were ready, and it was a domino effect that really just had a catastrophic mess of a story plot where practically less than half of the projects dropped in the last 5 years actually matter to the overall plot of the Multiverse Saga."
"And in their minds, the Russos, who have experience juggling multiple characters in their movies and tying storylines together, would be a good addition to the team. They can provide their input into what works where, what can be introduced now vs. what can be introduced some other time, and so on."
There's a lot to unpack here, but it sounds like we can expect the Russos to keep their eye on a far more focused Saga (likely built around the X-Men). As for the Multiverse Saga, the pandemic definitely didn't help, and neither did attempting to tell stories in theaters and on streaming simultaneously.
2023's strikes were similarly problematic, while a shift in how moviegoers consume content—at home and on streaming—has ensured that $1 billion worldwide is no longer the norm for any superhero movie.
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