• Light/Dark

Starting to really hit me - MCU has set themselves up for the next 50+ years (if they want it)

SaintBowWow

SaintBowWow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,099
Digital Dinosaur said:
So far, Feige seems committed to the idea of successors carrying the mantle of a hero rather than reboots. And avoiding a recast if possible. With the multiverse factored in, the MCU has the potential to combine the best of both worlds.

1. The mainline MCU universe stays a place of weighty history and generational storytelling. Characters pass their name and iconography down to new people over time.
2. "Founding" characters, like Steve Rogers or Tony Stark, can still make occasional appearances thanks to the multiverse. Played by whichever actor is most feasible at the time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They'll probably be able to still use Chris Evans/RDJ etc in the movies via de-aging CGI which they've already used in Marvel movies. By the time these actors are dead the technology will likely be so advanced that they can still use their likeness in perpetuity.
 
Imperial Bishop

Imperial Bishop

Member
Oct 26, 2017
35,784
Chikor said:
So consider musicals, another genre that was super popular longer than superhero comic movies, and I think no one ever got it beat in terms of escapism.

I am not trying to shit on superhero movies or anything, it is just that it would be really unprecedented for a genre to remain that popular for that long. And I donno, I can't see the future obviously, and the media landscape is way more consolidated right now and Disney has more power than any movie studio in history, by far. But I still find it very hard to believe that superhero movies are like the final stage of taste evolution and their popularity will just stay the same forever.

Those things come and go, taste change, and what older generations thought is cool is often considered as lame and silly by newer generations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You've got a solid point and I don't assume that anything can remain popular forever. There are definitely various degrees of popularity. Musicals are still popular, but not super popular as they were like you said.

Tastes in entertainment will and are evolving and I believe the MCU will try to evolve with those changing tastes to try to stay ahead. But all this is just speculation on my part. Maybe this is the decade that Marvel fatigue find takes hold.
 
Chikor

Chikor

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
14,239
Imperial Bishop said:
You've got a solid point and I don't assume that anything can remain popular forever. There are definitely various degrees of popularity. Musicals are still popular, but not super popular as they were like you said.

Tastes in entertainment will and are evolving and I believe the MCU will try to evolve with those changing tastes to try to stay ahead. But all this is just speculation on my part. Maybe this is the decade that Marvel fatigue find takes hold.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't expect comic book movies to become extinct, but I don't think they will maintain their dominance in the box office as they had the past decade forever.

But to play devil advocate against myself here, I will say that the MCU is a bit of a new way to make and market movies, and Disney really has a hold on popular culture in a way that is unprecedent, so we are a bit in an uncharted territory.

Though I do hope it doesn't stay like this forever, I think it good for taste to change and move forward, if Woody Allen wasn't a sex pest and a creep I would have a good quote here about sharks.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Kegels said:
Even if they decide to reboot, they can do a canon "time-paradox-or-whatever" style reboot rather than just making a whole new movie
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, because that worked out so well for the X-Men movies.

(OK, so I'm being somewhat facetious here; movie quality did improve right after the soft reboot, before falling off a cliff again).
 
MadLaughter

MadLaughter

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,248
The thing that's starting to worry me is that the MCU appears to be adding characters at 500x the rate that they are giving them closure/moving on from them, and most of them are well done enough that I do want to see more of them.

I feel like we are going to get to a point fairly soon where we start getting sad that we just never see characters again. Like, what if Justin Hammer just doesn't show up in Armor Wars? What if for some reason we never see John Walker again because Wyatt Russell decides he wants to do something else with his career?

Like, it's great and all that they mended relationships with Natalie Portman and outlasted Jaimie Alexander's TV show but the risk of expanding the universe with big-bang level speed is that it feels like characters are going to get left behind. Maybe if Betty Ross ever shows up again I'll eat my words, I guess.

But who knows, maybe not!
 
Chikor

Chikor

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
14,239
Weltall Zero said:
but even that aside, let me introduce you to this very interesting concept...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is thought to be why the Mewtwo in Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened is a new character, instead of the one from Pokémon: The First Movie and Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns, both of which originally released/aired more than a decade before... which ended up being something of a misfire, since TV channels ended up airing those films as part of the hype for the movie coming out, meaning that new child audiences would be familiar with the original Mewtwo!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
MnZMlM1.gif
 
Truant

Truant

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,774
Which makes it even stranger why Disney rushed Star Wars to make a quick buck. They know how to do this.
 
Jakisthe

Jakisthe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,758
Disagree

At some point, it'll be too convoluted/open too many unanswerable doors for the general audience to get as invested. Sure, it worked for comics, but comics are a way smaller market which doesn't need the sort of returns movies demand. Already, I've seen people point out that the Blip is just too big of an event to be addressed properly, and while I don't know if I agree, I don't know if I disagree either.
Star Wars is also a poor proxy, as we went decades without [movie] releases to that series too, to say nothing of the fact that a huge part of the EU slate was indeed wiped clean for the latest trilogy.
Disney knows GA has a maximum convolution level. I don't know when that will be approached with the MCU, but 50 years is too long.
 
Watchtower

Watchtower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,895
cognizant said:
Creating an 'Ultimate' line of movies is an easy way to reboot/recast characters without breaking the main timeline.

Ultimate Iron Man, starring someone in their 20s to make use of them for a decade or two, and a new origin story if they want to as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh God I hate how much this makes sense. Especially if it's used as a way to address points due to rights issues or lack of confidence in going whole-hog.

Imperial Bishop said:
What makes superhero movies popular is that they can be any type of genre. The costume and powers is just the dressing.
That kind of variety and introduction of more PoC heroes is going to remain relevant to a general audience.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Marvel Studios clearly adopting Marvel Comics' diversity initiative is gonna pay them fucking stacks down the line, I fucking feel it. They couldn't wait to greenlight an Echo series with Alaqua Cox and I gotta trust they're confident in her making huge-ass waves and that's just one person.

Imperial Bishop said:
Naturally, the MCU will have periods where the movies (and now shows) aren't going to be in the zeitgeist, but I see no indication that they won't remain popular if they stick to the plan Feige has right now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Y'know when I think about it comes off kinda oxymoronic? Like usually things fall out of the zeitgeist when they're done and/or when they fall apart quality-wise. But the MCU clearly has a lot of life in it, and while the D+ shows have been a bit rockier than anticipated I don't get the impression their Midas touch has actually slipped. So then the next hurdle is presumably that it becomes such an ingrained part of the status quo that it loses novelty value....but we're also clearly seeing it can still pull surprises out, especially with said diversity initiative. So....how else does it leave? XD
 
THE RABID MOOSE

THE RABID MOOSE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,320
I mean these characters are mostly older than all the people in this thread and on this forum. They have endured for decades through multiple incarnations, now that they're shared cinematic universe on film instead of comics they will continue on if they still make money and get public interest. Which they do in boat loads.
 
Chikor

Chikor

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
14,239
Arta said:
Westerns covered much narrower fare than superhero movies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That is not true at all.
I don't think it's an apple to oranges exactly since you are comparing literally thousands of westerns to about 50 comic book movies, but in terms of total range it's not even close.
 
HotHamBoy

HotHamBoy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,423
I remember the sense of utter exhaustion from people, especially casual and non-fans, when the MCU Spider-Man film was announced. "Ugh, they're rebooting Spider-Man AGAIN? Already!?"

I think people will be much more receptive of new heroes carrying old mantles.
 
F2BBm3ga

F2BBm3ga

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
4,089
Chikor said:
I seriously doubt that super hero comic book movies are going to remain as popular as they are now forever.
That's never happened in before, and while companies like Disney have a stronger hold on popular culture than probably any company in history, I still don't think that public tastes just stop changing and the genre that is most popular now will remain so for the next 50 years.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think you're wrong. Big budget Action hero movies will always be a thing. Even before comic movies, we got those and those were the summer blockbusters. Marvel/Comic movies basically replaced those for the most part. Sure you still get some like Mission Impossible #whateveer, but Comic movies are like the leader in that shit now...

and the neat thing about comic movies, is due to different characters, you can play with the genres to make the movie more complex and multilayered and varied instead of having to improve on the same action formula of the previous work.
 
Statux

Statux

Banned
Jan 13, 2020
711
No trend lives forever and the real question here is if Marvel is gonna milk the thing with six hours turds like FATWS or were gonna get good stuff like Avengers/GotG/almost everything else.

Because if they go for regular content at all cost it'll probably lose a lot of steam
 
Parch

Parch

Member
Nov 6, 2017
7,980
jon bones said:
They made Rocket Raccoon a household name and they haven't even gotten to Beta Ray Bill!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
When the MCU had success with Guardians of the Galaxy, that's when I thought the MCU could be endless. That was not a big franchise in Marvel.
There really is a limitless amount of source material they can use. As long as people keep showing up, 50+ years of content is entirely possible, and there is no evidence that people are getting tired of MCU content. Now they are having success with TV content too. There's no stopping that snowball.
 
Last edited:
Kcannon

Kcannon

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,694
Reboots will eventually happen, mostly because plot and continuity issues will arise as we go further down the line and things will become too complicated to follow.
 
Akela

Akela

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,858
Imperial Bishop said:
Another difference, in this case, is that I believe superhero movies offer a greater sense of escapism and power fantasy. Most westerns dealt with street-level problems. Other genre-mixes like space westerns, I haven't seen enough of to say whether the scope was similar.

In the last few MCU installments, we just went from half the universe getting erased and returning to a small-scale reality-shifting mystery drama to a political thriller that touched on racial politics.

Naturally, the MCU will have periods where the movies (and now shows) aren't going to be in the zeitgeist, but I see no indication that they won't remain popular if they stick to the plan Feige has right now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

And what if audiences in the future don't want escapism and power fantasy? Westerns dealt with street-level problems because that was what was popular at the time. As films became more ambitious and blockbusters began to be a thing audiences moved away. Not just from the specific sub-genres of Western, but the very concept of the Western itself. You can say that super hero movies can evolve with audiences tastes, but that assumes the actual setting of "super heroes" remains relevant. Or whether Disney and co would be able to steer a increasingly heavy ship by then, or be too weighted by the past.

And "sticking to the plan" is a huge leap when we're talking decades down the line. People come and go, and eventually there will be a new class of managers and directors at Disney who will want to do something completely different. There's no guarantee that any of their own plans will work out. If they one day find themselves falling outside the zeitgeist, it's very easy for plans to go out of the window and for managers to make panicked, short term decisions that ultimately cause long term damage.

In fact there's no guarantee that anything works out. When we're literally talking 50+ years in the future you suddenly start having to ask existential questions like whether the entire medium of film and TV is still popular. It sounds ridiculous, but I doubt the people involved in theatre back in the late 90th century would have expected "chronophotography" to evolve into the world's primary entertainment medium 50 years later, surpassing live stage productions. Or the fact that there were two world wars and incomprehensibly large social change between then.

In fact there's no guarantee that Disney will be as successful as they are 50 years from now. Decades ago one of the largest film studios was MGM, now they're just a shell of their former selves. Back in the 1970's and 80's Disney had fallen so far down post-Walt they almost suffered from a hostile takeover. Nobody is too big to fail.
 
Last edited:
bye

bye

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,442
Phoenix, AZ
Wrexis said:
They've already stuck around for 13 years.

Though I do feel like Star Wars there will be a time when the MCU will not be as popular as it is today.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

But what made it so successful has culminated in End Game. Creating a giant universe which leads to team-up movies with characters all getting to work together. Similar to what made GOT blow up in later seasons (in terms of viewership), you had character spending the entire show apart, only getting to all come together at the end.

I don't want to call it a gimmick, but I don't see it working again... and without it, fatigue will slow momentum of the solo movies.

Hopefully we are entering a post-MCU blockbuster era with more creative uses of funds.
 
Blader

Blader

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,744
The really wild thing is that it within the next 10 years we'll be at a point where anyone looking to get into the MCU will have to watch literally 50 (!) movies. Never mind however many tv shows on top of that.
 
RiOrius

RiOrius

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,093
I'm not so confident. Like, there have been comic book adaptations since forever. TV shows, movies, cartoons, you name it. But not even Batman TAS was as big as the MCU, right? This is seriously abnormal, and I'm not sure what it is that's suddenly sparked the fire.

Part of it might be SFX getting good enough to capture the magic, part of it might just be a studio fully committing to doing crossovers and interconnectedness right, part of it might be Feige (who, I hear, really knows his stuff about Marvel and is providing solid oversight over everything, really giving studio interference a good name).

But if we don't know what the secret ingredient is, we can't know whether it'll run out one day.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 17, 2018
44,651
I don't have a crystal ball into the future, but if I had to guess Marvel will end up like Bond - shifts in actors, stories and creative teams meaning some eras are more popular than others, but still chugging along indefinitely. I don't think it will reach the peaks of Infinity War and Endgame anytime soon, if ever (it really must be said how ridiculously popular RDJ was as Iron Man, perhaps more than any other superhero of the last decade), but you never know.

The first Bond movie came out 60 years ago, so let's see where Marvel is in 50.
 
IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

ThreadMarksman
Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,055
New York
I agree but honestly, I'm at the point where I'm already debating when I'll probably jump off the MCU Ride. A big part of caring about the MCU was the fact that there's characters I've literally grown up with and at some point, those characters will be long gone as the younger MCU cast takes the torch. Depending on how interesting the upcoming roster of new MCU Superheroes are, could make or break how long I stick around for the MCU.
 
Wrexis

Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
21,674
bye said:
I don't want to call it a gimmick, but I don't see it working again... and without it, fatigue will slow momentum of the solo movies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Agreed that I honestly don't think they'll get near Endgame again. However...

I still remember the hype after seeing Thanos at the end of Avengers 1.
You put Doom/Galactus/X-Men at the end of New Avengers and that will kick off a new event.
 
McScroggz

McScroggz

The Fallen
Jan 11, 2018
5,981
They have, but it remains to be seen what the pull of the franchise will be in theaters - especially after a honeymoon phase. I'm still interested in them, but after Iron Man and Captain America are done (or just changed), I'm curious to see to what extent it has staying power. Like, is it a 9/10 and still incredible 5 years from now or a 5/10 sort of thing.
 
Lari

Lari

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,708
Brazil
Can't wait until CG is good enough for them to never have to recast any character and just go through soundalikes for a couple bucks.
 
Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,752
They don't need to reboot ever, just follow the story in another Earth. Place a displaced original MCU universe in a new world to act like a link/viewer point of view and start the stories again on that Earth.
 
ZeoVGM

ZeoVGM

Member
Oct 25, 2017
76,769
Providence, RI
Statux said:
No trend lives forever and the real question here is if Marvel is gonna milk the thing with six hours turds like FATWS or were gonna get good stuff like Avengers/GotG/almost everything else.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Considering you're in the minority with that opinion and most people liked or loved the series as a whole, you might want to give up on Disney+ MCU now.
 
Last edited:
ZeoVGM

ZeoVGM

Member
Oct 25, 2017
76,769
Providence, RI
LegendofLex said:
Star Wars has absolutely had a reboot. All the pre-Disney expanded universe stuff was rebooted.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That isn't the same thing and I think you know that.

If Marvel Studios comes out and flatly announces that Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Punisher, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Cloak & Dagger, Runaways, Inhumans and the tie-in comic books are no longer canon, giving it a label similar to the "Legends" title that old Star Wars expanded universe material was given, that isn't going to be considered a reboot for the MCU.

Throwing out "expanded universe" side-stories is not a reboot. When people talk about a "Star Wars reboot," you understand they're talking about the main canon of the film series. Recasting Luke, Han and Leia. Telling the story again.
 
q4core

q4core

Member
Feb 26, 2021
408
DMV
50 years might be too short. With multiple dimensions and the comic books themselves rebooting back to issue #1, the MCU will last as long as the money keeps coming in.
 
Parthenios

Parthenios

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
13,671
I'd like for their stuff to feel like they're building towards something again. After Endgame, the MCU stuff we've got (Far from Home, WandaVision, and Falcon and the Winter Solider) all seems to be really self-contained in ways that even most of Phase 1 wasn't.

I mention that because there's a finite number of Infinite Sagas the MCU can pull off, but it's most interesting when it's doing that.sort of stuff.
 
Quinnzel

Quinnzel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
227
Scotland
I'm liking what they're setting up for the next set of films. It feels exciting. They've got a big empty canvas to play with. Everything seems pretty self contained for the moment, giving us time to see some characters in depth before smashing them together for a big ol' crossover.

They're smart for keeping some of the old guard around and building up new, legacy characters to take their place. It gives me hope that we don't see a DC style reboot of the MCU for a long time. Give me more Bucky and Sam stuff, give me the Young Avengers, Kamala, Ironheart etc. Make it feel like a living evolving world.
 
Last edited:
The Ethereal One

The Ethereal One

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,023
I enjoy superhero films but I'm ready for the next big blockbuster craze. I already miss the sword and sandle epics and the sweeping action adventure films (minus characters that dress in spandex and rubber suits).

Not that those films cant be made alongside, but as long as superhero films dominate the cultural zeitgeist then Hollywood will continue be way more interested in doing those instead of other blockbusters with varied subjects and characters.
 
The Ethereal One

The Ethereal One

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,023
SageShinigami said:
Are you seriously saying Westerns have the same level of versatility as superheroes?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I mean you have various types of westerns just like superhero films. At the end of day just like a western will always have gun toting guy in a hat, a superhero film will always have a person in costume fighting crime and saving the world no matter what subgenre that superhero film falls under.
 
thediamondage

thediamondage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,720
lol this is some weird stanning, every franchise hits a wall and hires only people who aren't that good who push out the really good visionaries and the quality declines rapidly. I look forward to the next few movies but I am also 100% confident MCU will churn out some trash tier movies and then just get into a downward spiral of worse and worse and worse. Probably after Feige moves on, then after a string of dumpster fires someone will come in and reinvigorate the franchise again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.