With 2020 coming to an end, let’s talk about the pop culture void that has been left by a certain comic-book/ Superhero movie producing company.
Since 2009, we have had at least one Marvel film every year till the year 2019. But now, thanks to the worldwide pandemic, Marvel decided to stall the films’ production and release and wait for the virus to stop the spread rather than force a theatrical drop worldwide and incur possible losses. In hindsight, this was one of the smarter decisions by Marvel (and Disney), but due to this decision Marvel left a huge void in their Cinematic Universe (MCU), finally giving both audiences and fans, the time to process what they have been bombarded with for the past decade.
Marvel released the biggest movie of all time last year – Avengers: Endgame. The original cast members from the first Avengers got a proper sendoff and it seemed like the end of an era on television. Then Spiderman: Far From Home dropped, which rounded off the third phase of the MCU on a funny, yet dramatic note. This year, we were supposed to see two very important films which were supposed to kick start Phase 4 – Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The first film was supposed to be an ode to Scarlet Johansson’s legendary character and the passing of the title “Black Widow” from one character to another. The second was supposed to be the introduction of a very important character and superhero who had the same cultural significance as Black Panther.
This break in the Marvel Cultural Phenomenon in films is not necessarily a bad thing. They had the time to work on their upcoming television series which will work on setting up their feature films in the upcoming “Phases”. This will help establish the MCU as one of the biggest cinematic universes in film history and possibly, with time, it could even be the biggest one yet – beating Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter easily.
But whether this “road-block” affected Marvel in any significance, can only be established after at least both these films have been released.
Till then check out some of the MCU work, which is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.