While the pandemic resulted in some big delays following the releases of Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019, Phase 4 started strong and, with the addition of TV shows on Disney+, there was no slowing down from there.
While we can't complain too much about near-monthly MCU content, some movies and episodes (if not entire seasons) have struggled to live up to the quality of what we saw in the Infinity Saga. Now, with Bob Iger returning as Disney CEO, it sounds like the plan is for Marvel Studios to focus less on producing an endless series of content and more on strong storytelling.
According to Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic podcast, "Marvel's target output has been reduced...I'm told that the target output has been reduced from four shows and four movies a year to two shows and three movies a year. And of course, that's malleable. You could get one on either side of that, or whatever."
You need only look at this year for proof of that as the likes of Ironheart, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, and What If...? are all expected to be pushed into 2024...if not beyond.
We won't even get our first MCU TV show of the year until Secret Invasion in June! As for movies, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania was recently released to negative reviews, while cosmic stories Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels (which was recently delayed) are up next.
If Marvel Studios plans to stick with this, then we're going to see some major delays, as the latest slate update has the next three years with four movies in each of them.
Needless to say, we now expect Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars to be pushed even further down the release calendar.
Keep checking back here for updates.
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