After the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it appears we'll be seeing a lot of the Multiverse from Marvel Studios moving forward. The Sony PIctures movie just made over $1.8 billion by teaming up the three live-action Spider-Men, while 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won an Oscar for its beautifully animated trip through multiple realities.
This May, the MCU looks set to take "Variants" to a whole new level in the aptly titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, while Warner Bros. is also getting in on the act with The Flash.
Recently, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo appeared at DICE 2022 and spoke with IGN about how this Multiverse concept runs the risk of outstaying its welcome as Hollywood looks to capitalise on a successful new trend. "The corporate agenda is: Do you like chocolate ice cream? Well here chocolate ice cream with sprinkles, here's chocolate ice cream with fudge. It's their job to turn the money printer on. It's the creative's job to say, 'Well shit, I don't know if I want to watch that.'"
"So yeah, too much of one thing is a bad thing, but I think there are enough creators and innovators in the space where you can expect to be surprised. Just don't expect corporations to surprise you."
This isn't necessarily a case of Russo turning on his former corporate overlords to make a point about companies like Marvel Studios and Warner Bros., and is more an observation of the problems faced by filmmakers in the modern studio system (which is a big part of why he and Anthony have launched AGBO, their own independent movie studio).
Asked, for example, how he would go about making a movie in the Star Wars Universe, Russo explained that "there's always a creative engine behind [franchises like Star Wars] that's passionate about the material, that lives for the material, that bleeds for the material," noting that it's important for him and his brother to make sure they partner with similarly creative individuals.
Do you think Hollywood runs the risk of becoming oversaturated with Multiverse movies?