It’s May 2019, and the entire world is talking about one movie only — Avengers: Endgame! This was the moment when audiences and Hollywood alike started to believe that Marvel Studios had become invincible. Marvel was untouchable during this time.
Some time after Endgame’s release, Kevin Feige began planning the MCU’s future with the Multiverse Saga. Around the same time, Disney CEO Bob Iger was preparing to launch Disney+ as a major competitor to Netflix in the streaming market.
Iger’s strategy to ensure a successful launch for Disney+ heavily relied on including a solid lineup of projects from Marvel Studios. Now, you guys are smart — you’ve probably already figured out where this is heading. It was only natural for Iger to expand Disney+ to grab a substantial share of the global streaming market. As a result, Feige had no choice but to prioritise streaming projects over theatrical releases.
Yup, the early 2020s era for Marvel Studios turned out to be quite the rollercoaster ride. Marvel ramped up its output of TV shows (which also allowed some truly terrible shows like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion, Echo, and more to surface) and focused less on theatrical releases. Feige decided to hand over more creative control to filmmakers to reduce the burden on himself.
Little did Feige know that this decision would eventually backfire.
Then came Bob Chapek, who replaced Iger as Disney’s CEO, along with the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapek believed the pandemic was a golden opportunity to strengthen and expand Disney+’s market share and pressured Feige and his team to focus more on big-budget TV content. And we all know how that turned out for Marvel Studios.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, Kevin Feige admitted to colleagues that he agreed to the plan because of his desire to tell more stories — and his zeal to be an “excellent corporate citizen.” Oh dear, Papa Feige. That was a mistake.
The shift from releasing a few films annually to a massive output of streaming series and movies ultimately overwhelmed Marvel’s production system. While a pair of executives managed each project, Feige still had the final say on all major creative decisions, resulting in a daily workload that became unmanageable.
In the early 2020s, Marvel employees struggled to get timely feedback from Feige, leading to wasted effort and tight deadlines. This was made worse by an aggressive push into streaming, with show budgets ballooning to over $100 million per season in the race for subscribers.
Marvel’s internal issues soon began to reflect in the quality and quantity of its productions. Audiences started to feel overwhelmed by the nonstop content, and increasingly, that content didn’t feel worth the hype.
The recently released Thunderbolts* is the final film in the MCU’s Phase Five, which will officially conclude with the upcoming Disney+ show Ironheart, scheduled to release this June.
It’s a damn shame to see how mighty Marvel fell from its zenith during 2020–2024. Beyond some truly trashy TV shows, the studio also produced and released several poor, hollow films like Thor: Love and Thunder, Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Marvels. The latest Anthony Mackie starrer, Captain America: Brave New World, was a complete mess as well.
While some of these films made decent money, titles like Eternals, Quantumania, and The Marvels are almost certainly not getting sequels.
Marvel’s 2023 annual planning retreat was marked by concerns over underperforming projects and recent layoffs. Discussions focused on the future of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and a possible shift in TV strategy toward more standalone series.
Acknowledging that excessive output had damaged quality, Marvel decided to scale back TV production to just one or two series per year, with some getting multi-season orders built around self-contained narratives. A dedicated executive was also put in charge of Marvel Television so that Feige could refocus on the film division.
Now, Marvel is turning its attention to upcoming Phase Six projects: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Avengers: Doomsday, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Avengers: Secret Wars. That said, Marvel isn’t completely ignoring its TV offerings in Phase Six.
TV projects like Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Vision Quest, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 are set to release as part of Phase Six. But they won’t be getting much spotlight — all of Marvel’s hopes now rest on the upcoming Avengers films.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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