What Disney's new content plan means for the future of Marvel
The franchise is still scheduled to have a bustling 2025, with four films and several television shows lined up.
No more “on your left.” The Marvel Cinematic Universe is taking a breather after a hefty run of films and television shows.
More than halfway into Phase 5 of the franchise, and amid greater conversations of general “superhero fatigue” among audiences, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors during Tuesday’s quarterly earnings call that the company plans to focus on quality, not quantity moving forward and, as a result, will be cutting back on the number of Marvel’s film and television series.
“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two [Marvel] TV series a year instead of what had become four, and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two [or] at the maximum three,” he said. “We’re working hard on what that path is.”
He continued, “We’ve got a couple of good films in ’25 and then we’re heading to more Avengers, which we’re extremely excited about.”
Everett Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool
In the five years since Avengers: Endgame, Marvel has released 10 films and 11 Disney+ series — two of which received second seasons — as part of the franchise’s Phase 4 and ongoing Phase 5. Iger’s comments come over a year after Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Entertainment Weekly that that company planned to both create fewer projects and space them farther apart in Phase 5 and Phase 6.
“I do think one of the powerful aspects of being at Marvel Studios is having these films and shows hit the zeitgeist. It is harder to hit the zeitgeist when there’s so much product out there — and so much ‘content,’ as they say, which is a word that I hate,” Feige said at the time. “But we want Marvel Studios and the MCU projects to really stand out and stand above. So, people will see that as we get further into Phase 5 and 6. The pace at which we’re putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine.”
In the last year alone, several of Marvel’s projects have faced delays and had to shift their release dates due to the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes, which may also be a reason why the company is eager to put more space in between them all moving forward. The decision will likely take effect in the upcoming years and shouldn’t impact any of this year’s projects, which include Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s Deadpool & Wolverine as well as the WandaVision spinoff, Agatha.
However, despite their plans to slow down, Marvel looks to be plenty busy in 2025 already, with Captain America: Brave New World hitting theaters on Feb. 14, 2025; the Thunderbolts teaming up less than three months later on May 2, 2025; The Fantastic Four reboot starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach touching down two months later on July 25, 2025; and the Mahershala Ali-led Blade scheduled to arrive on Nov. 7, 2025 after an almost two-year delay and its original director departing the project.
It also appears that both Avengers films — 2026’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2027’s Secret Wars — are still set for their previously-announced release dates, although it’s not immediately clear who will star as the villainous Kang the Conqueror in the former after Marvel parted ways with actor Jonathan Majors after he was convicted on assault and harassment charges last year.
On the television side, Marvel previously announced an animated Black Panther spinoff titled Eyes of Wakanda, an animated Spider-Man series, a Marvel Zombies miniseries, and live-action shows Ironheart and Daredevil: Born Again are also on the way, but has not confirmed any of their respective release dates yet.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.