It used to be easy to be a casual Marvel fan. All you had to do was say “my favorite superhero is Iron Man!” or “Black Widow deserved better!” and move on with your day. Now, you have to know exactly which timelines your favorite superhero/alien is in without sounding like you have no idea why there is a giant-headed robot in the middle of this multi-dimensional space movie or who all of these Tom Hiddleston clones are and why they are using CGI goats as weaponry. It’s no wonder everyone is confused all the time.
It seems like Disney is starting to take note, especially after those lackluster Ant-Man reviews (hopefully Paul Rudd doesn’t feel too bad). During a conference this week, Mickey Mouse’s boss Bob Iger said that the company will be shifting gears in the coming years in order to focus on specific characters in a meaningful way. “I think a lot of all of them — they’re all my babies, in a way,” Iger began. “There are 7,000 characters, there are a lot more stories to tell.”
Now that he is a father of 7,000, Iger says that the company will reassess the types of Marvel stories they are telling. “What we have to look at with Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel stories we’re telling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters. Sequels typically work well for us. Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance, or is it time to turn to other characters?” Do we? No! Did we get them anyway? Yes. A lot, actually. That’s when things start to fall a little flat.
Iger isn’t the only one who is on board with more streamlined storytelling. Just last month, Marvel boss Kevin Feige admitted that the company would be adjusting the pace of the next batch of MCU shows after fan feedback. Did we really need a Baby Groot series? Probably not, but it happened anyway. Hopefully, they don’t give Baby Yoda his own show, or else the power will go to his head.