Recent reports have indicated that Disney intends to scale back on Marvel Studios Disney+ content going forward, and it sounds like similar plans may be in place for the MCU's big-screen output.
While speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference (via THR), Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company will be taking a much closer look at how much it is spending on content, and how many projects it produces over the next few years.
What does that mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically?
“What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel storytelling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters,” Iger said. “Sequels typically work well for us, but do you need a third or a fourth for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters? There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we are mining.”
“And if you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness,” he added. “Now, we’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers, as an example."
Though Iger didn't mention the movie specifically, you have to believe the underperformance of recent threequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had something to do with this development. However, Iger's outlook is certainly debatable.
Several third instalments - Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarök, Iron Man 3, etc, ended up performing very well for the studio, while 2021's Eternals - which introduced a whole crop of new characters - was a borderline flop.
What do you guys make of Iger's comments? Do you think we'll start to see less of a focus placed on established franchises in the future?