Opinion: Fixing the Marvel Cinematic Universe

To say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been struggling for the past couple of years would be an understatement. The MCU is not in the position it was several years ago during its "Infinity War"/"Endgame" peak, where it seemed like it could do no wrong.

Although, the same could be said for the whole superhero film genre. Audiences don’t seem to care for the overlapping cinematic universe format anymore. James Gunn’s upcoming DCU falls into the same trap, developing a brand-new cinematic universe that is barely receiving praise nor giving audiences what they truly desire to see.

It also does not help that Marvel Studios bit off more than they could chew following "Avengers: Endgame." The Marvel movies were genuine money makers, but it would have helped if the Infinity Saga were allowed to soak in if the studio took a break for several years before developing a more cohesive plan going forward.

Unfortunately, the forces at Marvel Studios could not wait as they developed a new “saga” going forward, where there could be three to four movies and up to six streaming shows per year. Sounds like a bit much.

On the Sony side of things, they developed their own “cinematic universe” based on "Spider-Man" characters. They called it the “Sony Spider-Man Universe,” only... where is Spider-Man? What is the point if it does not even include the title character?

As audiences proved with "Morbius" (twice!), nobody cares that much about the villains on their own, which makes one wonder how the "Kraven the Hunter" movie will fare next year. Sony already decided to make that character more sympathetic by turning him from a big-game hunter to an “animal rights sympathizer,” a pathetic decision.

Complaints aside, Sony’s "Spider-Verse" movies have at least resonated with audiences, probably because they include the title character (multiple times technically) and are well-made movies from a writing and visual perspective.

Anyway, the bloated approach of making as many superhero movies as possible has resulted in diminishing box-office returns and declining Disney Plus subscriber numbers. Just this year, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" bombed, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" barely broke even, and "The Marvels" is set to bomb this year as well.

Part of the problem with this multiverse sage is that little of it has anything to do with the multiverse at all. Only "Loki," "What If...?," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and the upcoming "Deadpool 3" have touched upon this concept. Most of these did not do the concept properly either.

Sony also touched up this concept with the Spider-Verse films and a little bit with "Morbius" and "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," but only the Spider-Verse projects managed to do the multiverse justice. This does not fare well for "Avengers: Secret Wars" in 2027, if audiences are still invested in these event movies by then.

Do audiences no longer care about this overlapping format anymore? For one, this could have been slightly prevented if Marvel had patiently waited a couple of years to jumpstart something new (even if that meant delaying "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"). Not to mention, audiences don’t care about half of what Marvel has put out anyway, which was victim to the “content overload.”

Suppose there was still a way to make a smaller “multiverse saga” by barely relying on the MCU’s interconnectivity, eradicating the Sony universe, and still having "Avengers: Secret Wars" by 2027.

There was a time before 2008 in which every Marvel movie released was independent of one another and lacked connectivity with each other. These projects like "Daredevil," "Hulk," "Fantastic Four," "Blade" and "Ghost Rider" were pretty much hit-or-miss, designed to capitalize on the success of the early "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" movies, but this will be key going forward.

Suppose that we can take projects like "Ms. Marvel," "She-Hulk," "Eternals" or "Moon Knight" and put them in their own separate universes, stripping any connection to the mainline MCU. "Moon Knight," for example, can exist on its own as a one-time movie (something "Venom" should have been).

This helps alleviate the amount of MCU content by keeping it fresher and resonating better with audiences by only having one or two projects a year. The first of the “new projects” should also start with "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3" (as that was a holdover anyway).

Another project is "Spider-Man: No Way Home" but makes it less attached to the MCU as we see the perspectives of the other two Spider-Men in their own respective universes before colliding in the big climatic event.

"Deadpool 3" was always going to have Deadpool travel to the MCU anyway, but as this upcoming movie serves as a goodbye to the FOX movies, he can travel to the MCU at the very end of the movie, setting up "Secret Wars."

As for Sony, keep the "Spider-Verse" movies, but slash the unnecessary Spider-Man Universe. They are not going anywhere anyway, so combining the two "Venom" movies into one entity and then making that movie a one-off helps a good deal.

Then there’s "Avengers: Secret Wars" itself. First off, strip the "Avengers" off of the title because of the number of non-Avengers participating anyway. This new "Secret Wars" can benefit from a much smaller MCU and an abundance of solo projects. It should also be at this point that "Secret Wars" says goodbye to MARVEL projects, no reboot is required.

This is the potential solution to the current Marvel predicament. Of course, nobody at Marvel Studios or Sony will be reading this, but it is a “what could have been” solution. There is just too much dependence on the cinematic universe trope at a time when audiences are not begging for it anymore. Independent ventures would have remedied that as it would have required “less homework” going forward. Remember, do not put all your eggs in one basket.

Logan M. Sharp is a fourth-year student studying film production. To contact him, please email lxs5590@psu.edu