The author of the MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios unauthorized tell-all reveals that Marvel Studios is clueless when it comes to what fans want.
In the book, Joanna Robinson writes that Marvel Studios expected Ant-Man and the Wasp Quatumania to be a big hit.
“[Marvel Studios] is aware of what’s happening to their brand,” she wrote. “My understanding, having talked to some people, is that Quantumania really shook them, and I’m sure Secret Invasion shook them further, but Quantumania really shook them because they felt like they had something good. Because they all internally thought, ‘Everyone’s gonna love this.'”
So once Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania bombed, she says it was when Marvel realized they were not putting out content the fans wanted and realized they were not connecting to the fanbase anymore.
“And then they put it out and people didn’t. And then they were like, ‘Oh no, our internal barometer is not attuned to what people want anymore.’ With Quantumania, they were like, ‘We put out a banger.’ And then that’s not how a lot of people felt,” she said.
I would actually argue that Marvel should have known they weren’t putting out content fans wanted much earlier than the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Update: The book also reveals Avengers: Secret Wars reboots the MCU.
It all started with Captain Marvel
As I went over four years ago, it all started with Captain Marvel, but perhaps Captain Marvel making a billion dollars at the box office put the blinders on.
If that is the case, I would then question why the sequel doesn’t have “Captain Marvel” in the title and why Kevin Feige brought in two actors and characters to star alongside the controversial Brie Larson as Carol Danvers.
Heck, Monica Rambeau is even called “Captain Rambeau” in The Marvels.
Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals all tank
From there, Black Widow would bomb, but they probably chalked it up to Covid.
I’m also guessing they may have used Covid as an excuse for both Shang-Chi and Eternals bombing,
Sony’s Spider-Man is a big hit
A month later Spider-Man: No Way Home would be released and would go on to make nearly 2 billion dollars.
The Covid excuses disappeared.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness disappoints
Following No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness gets released.
However, both Elizabeth Olsen and the director of the first flick, Scott Derrickson, said the sequel was a big mess.
It’s also known Benedict Cumberbatch and Doctor Strange were cut from WandaVision with the only reason being because they are white dudes. Multiverse of Madness was also rewritten for the same reason.
So we see they threw going with a quality story out the door in favor of going the diverse route. Multiverse of Madness didn’t hit a billion.
The next blunder
Thor: Love and Thunder would become Marvel’s next blunder. The movie is simply atrocious and way too goofy. It’s thought the movie doing so bad is why Taika Waititi might lose Star Wars and never return to Marvel again.
Guess, they didn’t learn from Wonder Woman 1984.
Another disappointment
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would follow and would be another huge disappointment.
Feige’s bright idea instead of recasting was to pass the mantle to Shuri, change Namor into a Mexican, and force Ironheart into the flick.
What about the MCU on Disney+?
Meanwhile, the Marvel shows were getting released on Disney+.
No white dudes allowed
Again with WandaVision, fans were left wondering where the Avengers were when their fellow Assembler was having a meltdown? Sorry, no dudes allowed.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced Anthony Mackie as the replacement for Chris Evans as Captain America that no one asked for and no one wanted and wants. Don’t give it to the white dude with powers. Makes sense.
Loki features fan-favorites
Loki Season 1 would go on to be the most-watched MCU show on Disney+.
Tom Hiddleston is a fan-favorite. The series introduced a cool new villain, the next big bad of the MCU. Owen Wilson debuted as Mobius, quickly becoming another fan-favorite. Season 1 was about the Multiverse featuring Variants of Loki. For the most part, fans loved it.
Hawkeye is a complete joke
Next up would be Hawkeye which left Jeremy Renner stuck in a Christmas tree while his replacement shot an arrow to shoot him him down. That actually happened. Good luck.
Moon Knight is good
Moon Knight! Oscar Isaac made his way into the MCU in a pretty cool show. The series was original and a unique take on the MCU. Good stuff. Where’s Season 2?
So if we are keeping track, since the release of Captain Marvel, there have been only two cool projects released in two years’ time: Loki and Moon Knight. I’m not counting Spidey, he’s with Sony.
An epic disaster follows
What would follow would be an epic disaster with Ms. Marvel, the least-watched Marvel series on Disney+, and the goofy as She-Hulk which brought in the goofy ass Smart Hulk, the goofy ass Daredevil, and the goofy as Skaar.
Regarding the latter, which was part of an epic story in the comics, it’s known Feige decided against going with the awesome comic book look of Skaar in favor of the man bun. Wow.
A quantum bomb
So there is three years of garbage put out by Marvel — and then Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania gets released, which is a complete disaster.
The flick is another goofy ass MCU project, MODOK is an embarrassing joke, the special effects are a joke, the dialogue is a joke, the end is a complete joke.
And Marvel thought this was going to be a big success?
Enter James Gunn and Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Due to all the aforementioned sucking so bad, fans didn’t turn out for the flick right away.
It followed Quantumania and opened a lot less than Vol. 2.
Fans were waiting for word of mouth to see if Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was any good. James Gunn provided a fun movie, arguably better than Vol. 2, and while there is goofiness, fans came to expect that from the Guardians.
I said this before, I think the MCU going goofy took away from the Guardians being so special — because the entire MCU had gone goofy!
The not-so-secret that sucked
As noted above, Secret Invasion was released and fans despised it. It has since been revealed that not only did Secret Invasion have major, major problems, but so did Eternals.
Daredevil: Born Again getting retooled
Problems with VFX workers
We can also add that Marvel also had major problems with the VFX workers, so much so, that the VFX workers have unionized as a result, and don’t forget, Marvel executive Victoria Alonso who ran the MCU VFX was shit-canned by Disney.
Blame Kevin Feige?
Maybe somebody should question Kevin Feige?
Seems to me, that James Gunn left, the Russos left, and Jon Favreau and Joss Whedon left, and now Kevin Feige is completely clueless about how to run Marvel Studios, and the only thing he has a clue about is how to run the MCU into the ground. Where’s Jepeh Loeb?
Up next is The Marvels which is reported to have one-third the presales of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and less ticket sales than DC’s The Flash which mega-bombed.
