There is more bad news surrounding the MCU, this time which pertains to The Marvels starring Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, and Teyonah Parris, with the film directed by Nia DaCosta.
Recently saw Disney and Marvel announce a new release date for The Marvels as they pushed the flick back a second time, with a delay of four months from a Summer July release date to November 10.
The Wrap reported on the new release date and offered that the delay was to give the film more time for post-production, which is something that fits with all the reports surrounding Marvel’s VFX problems such as with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
So it was figured that since The Marvels was given more time for post-production that it was about the VFX, as the film is going to be another heavy CGI-intensive movie, so Disney and Marvel delayed the release to make the flick look all the better, again, instead of what happened with Quantumania.
However, the real problem might not just be the VFX with The Marvels, as two sources offer a different reason, which is even more worrisome.
Why is The Marvels delayed?
According to YouTuber Grace Randolph, the reason for The Marvels delay is that the movie tested poorly with audiences in screen tests (certainly the VFX weren’t done for the screen tests said to be held months ago so they can’t be all to blame).
“The Marvels was pushed from Summer to Winter due to poor audience test scores so Marvel wants to do yet another round of reshoots to avoid, well, another round of this kind of mess,” said Randolph.
“I mean everyone loves Paul Rudd, Jonathan Majors, and Michelle Pfeiffer but with Brie Larson and Iman Vellani that could be a Star Wars-level bloodbath of toxicity, and hopefully not only does Disney Marvel not want that for themselves but they don’t want to do that to their actors,” she said.
Randolph continued, “So while Disney Marvel refuses to admit defeat publicly – totally understandable never let them see you sweat – I think behind closed doors, it’s a downright sauna considering the huge scheduling changes that have been made so abruptly.”
Randolph also recommended Disney to fire Marvel’s Rick & Morty writers including Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness off Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
The claims about The Marvels testing poor with audiences are backed up by Giant Freakin Robot who actually first reported on the poor test screening reactions seven months ago.
The site said that Marvel Studios is “getting nervous after poor test screenings of The Marvels.”
Update: A third unverified source on Twitter says the problems involve the third act and reshooting scenes to remove goofier footage.
“Reshoots. I heard the 3rd act is being reworked. There were also tonal issues with the film, they may trim some of the goofier stuff down,” tweeted thewatcher_2099. “I am also not sure the 3rd act incursion is happening anymore.”
Is Marvel another “Star Wars?”
What’s particularly worrisome is that similar to how Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania introduces the MCU masses to the next big MCU villain and bombed at the box office, recently, Kevin Feige and Brie Larson went so far as to say Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel steals the show in The Marvels and is the future of the MCU (interestingly enough, not Brie Larson who Feige said was going lead the MCU), so The Marvels is supposed to be a big movie as the first Captain Marvel made a billion dollars at the box office.
Recall how Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel show bombed on Disney Plus and now The Marvels isn’t looking good, so what does that say for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Prior to the release of Quantumania, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced they were slowing things down with Marvel and that there would be accountability, as Iger said they want quality over quantity, so there is no doubt there are problems at Marvel, just as there are with Disney’s Star Wars which went through its own slow down following the reception to The Last Jedi.
Kevin Feige has made some very bad decisions following the release of Avengers: Endgame, where Disney and Iger certainly don’t want another “Star Wars” on their hands, but it just might be too late as it’s already here.
