With movies like “Endgame” finishing out the storylines of many of the original Avengers, it’s hard to imagine the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
No more Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow… where will they go next?
Well, with the release of the “Loki” miniseries in June, 2021, we got a glimpse at the endless possibilities of reboots that can come in the form of the multiverse.
By introducing the idea of multiple timelines and alternate realities, it became clear that some of the storylines that we as fans have come to love may not be long gone after all.
Shortly after this, our suspicions were verified when we got the “What If…?” series in August, 2021.
This series essentially took nine of the most popular Marvel movies, changed the plot slightly and condensed them into 35 minute episodes.
While there seemed to be some pushback from fans for this recycled content, we still ate it up.
According to IndieWire, the first two episodes alone were viewed for over 225 million minutes, making “What If…?” the ninth most viewed series from August 16-22.
Regardless of what critics may write, numbers speak for themselves.
The truth is, Marvel is a well-loved and trusted brand and these stories have lasted the test of time.
This begs the question: if these stories and this brand truly are not broken, why should we fix them?
For starters, when Marvel does try something new, it’s received with mixed reactions.
One prominent example of this isthe movie “Eternals,” which was released earlier this year.
Many fans felt that this movie attempted to introduce too many new characters and pack too much of a story into the time allotted.
And, when it came to new fans, this movie lacked the appeal of characters that have already been played up by the media.
The lack of the support of familiar characters was a big hit to the accessibility of this movie.
If someone is a first time watcher and wants to get into Marvel, they want to start off by watching a movie with characters that they’ve heard of before.
At this point, it’s the characters like Captain America and Iron Man that will keep bringing new people in, not a secret society of ancient aliens.
Above all else, the main driving factor of the direction that Marvel takes with its projects is money.
Regardless of whether or not original stories and characters are what the fans ask for, if they don’t perform well at the box office, Marvel won’t care about trying anything new again.
As I said before, numbers talk.
According to Forbes, “Eternals” grossed around $300 million at the box office.
While this is no pocket change, it’s nothing near what films like “Avengers: Endgame” or “Avengers: Age of Ultron” made, with them raking in $2.798 billion and $1.403 billion respectively.
While this may not be a fair comparison, seeing as the large-scale team-up movies tend to do better, even a movie like the first “Iron Man” almost doubled the profits of “Eternals” with $585.8 million.
This is all for good reason, too.
Iron Man had the name recognition from his iconic comics.
Moreover, any movie that has all of the Avengers has that same benefit 10 times over.
At the end of the day, viewers have their comfort zones.
No matter how many times Marvel retells the same story, fans will eat it up, plain and simple.