Summary
- Marvel Studios is moving away from the MCU's Multiverse due to complexity.
- Kevin Feige suggests Avengers: Secret Wars will "reset" the MCU.
- Feige also avoids calling it a reboot, opting for a single timeline.
A common complaint about Marvel Cinematic Universe projects lately is that the Multiverse makes them too complicated and complex for average moviegoers to keep up with. Well, it seems like Marvel Studios has heard those complaints because the Multiverse is seemingly going the way of the dodo.
From 2008's Iron Man to 2019's Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios told a connected story across 23 films that dominated the box office and the cultural zeitgeist. The MCU turned Robert Downey Jr. Into the biggest star in the world, made household names of actors like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, and brought in billions upon billions of dollars in the process. Marvel Studios had a decade-long streak of hit films that no other movie production house in Hollywood history had ever come close to matching. Then, Disney+ became a thing, Marvel Studios had to produce more and more content (including television series), and everything kind of slowly fell apart. The Fantastic Four: First Steps could come out later this week and turn everything on its head, but the past five or six years have not been kind to Marvel. Projects like The Marvels, Secret Invasion, and Captain America: Brave New World prove that the Marvel magic is merely gone at this point. That doesn't mean it can't be reclaimed, though.
The Mutant Saga: Kevin Feige Has A Lengthy MCU Plan For The X-Men
The Marvel Studios boss has much grander ideas for the X-Men past the Multiverse saga.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige sat down with a host of reporters on Friday to talk about all things Marvel ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps launching worldwide later this week. In doing so, he talked about a host of topics from the Blade reboot to the upcoming MCU X-Men film being helmed by Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier. Perhaps most interestingly, though, was Feige's take on Avengers: Secret Wars providing the chance to fully "reset" the MCU. "We’re utilizing that [story] not just to round out the stories we’ve been telling post-Endgame," Feige began. "[But] just as importantly — and you can look at the Secret Wars comics for where that takes you — it very, very much sets us up for the future. Endgame, literally, was about endings. Secret Wars is about beginnings."
Kevin Feige Claims Avengers: Secret Wars Will Reset The Marvel Cinematic Universe
However, He Was Very Careful To Avoid The Word "Reboot"
Feige made sure to highlight that Avengers: Secret Wars won't be a full-on reboot of the series. "Reboot is a scary word," Feige stated. "Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline — we’re thinking along those lines." Anyone familiar with Marvel Comics' 2015 mega-crossover event Secret Wars knows what Feige is going for here. Spearheaded by the creative team of Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribić, and Ive Svorcina, Secret Wars provided the comics giant with the chance to get weird and wild with pretty much any universe they'd ever highlighted throughout the years in their multiverse before resetting the status quo.
For example, there was a Secret Wars tie-in comic about a group of Thor variants acting as a police force. There was another one about a bunch of Ghost Riders racing in the so-called "Ghost Races" for everyone's entertainment. There was even a series about M.O.D.O.K. Falling in love. Secret Wars let Marvel creatives do pretty much whatever they wanted to before Mister Fantastic and the Molecule Man began to restore the Marvel Comics multiverse bit by bit in Secret Wars #9.
Put simply, Marvel Studios seems to intend on having Avengers: Secret Wars reset the overall status quo away from the Multiverse and back into a single, cohesive timeline that is easier for folks to follow. Maybe this is just what the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs?
- First Film
- Iron Man
- Latest Film
- Marvels
- Cast
- Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Tom Hiddleston, Iman Vellani
- TV Show(s)
- WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk
- Movie(s)
- Iron Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Character(s)
- Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye
Source: Variety