The Marvel Cinematic Multiverse

[Asura]

Agatha seems locked in for late 2024. Ironheart

...

also suggests the greenlight on new shows is being held.

Thank ****, also.

Who wants an entire show out of the gimmick gag villain from Wandavision, or Ironheart? (I kinda feel Ironheart was a bit botched in Wakanda Forever and there's a lot of heavy lifting to do there).

[Neon Ignition]

It's difficult because WandaVision and Loki were good but... I really just want them to get back to being solely movie based. Even with this slowed down pace I don't hold any interest in anything coming over the coming two years. It's all meaningless fluff expansion.

[Brad]

I want the gimmick gag villain from wandavision. Kathryn Hahn is great.

First episode of Loki S2 was awful. First season was pretty lame so I'm not sure what I expected!

Delaying daredevil for any reason, I object to.

[Asura]

I want the gimmick gag villain from wandavision. Kathryn Hahn is great.

I liked her too, and the character. I just don't understand the basis for a whole show about her.

[Dogg Thang]

She’s a great actor. Her character just seemed chucked in to give a final fight to the show for no reason though. Although I seem to be one of the only people who felt the show was pretty awful and just treading water, but that’s in part because I hated the sitcom pastiche.

[Neon Ignition]

"Daredevil: Born Again" Gets A Major Reset - Dark Horizons
Still a long way off releasing, half of the 18 episode run had been shot before the strikes kicked in and halted production.

Reportedly Marvel have reviewed the 9 recorded episodes and decided that the show isn't good enough. It's said that the show was heavily leant into being a legal procedural show, low on action to the point that Matt doesn't appear as Daredevil until the fourth episode. Some scenes and possibly episodes will be kept but the writers and directors have been dropped and Marvel will now set about restaffing to rewrite and remake the entire show.


Marvel Studios Overhauls Its TV Production - Dark Horizons
This comes as it emerges that the TV arm of Marvel is to be overhauled. It's said that MCU series have not had showrunners, instead handled like the film division with the Executives overriding Writers. The blame is placed on past Execs having moved through the ranks since Marvel found success in film production, this leading to external hire Execs coming in who don't work the way past staff did - leading to conflicts that affect productions. New series moving forward will use the traditional production model for TV series with assigned showrunners who plot out the arcs, show bibles and pilots. The Film Execs will be replaced with full time TV Execs also. Event series will also come to an end with a shift back toward traditional running series content, essentially no more WandaVisions etc and instead more adjacent series akin to Agents of Shield that are character led and less focused on tying in to the films.

[Asura]

It's said that the show was heavily leant into being a legal procedural show, low on action to the point that Matt doesn't appear as Daredevil until the fourth episode.

So... It's not a perfect comparison, but it's worth saying.

For those unaware, the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie actually comes in two versions - a theatrical cut and a director's cut. The latter is hard to get hold of in the UK, but it was released a few years after the movie's original release. The movie is not great, in either form. But I always felt the director's cut was much, much better, even if it was longer and the pacing was a bit mixed.

The reason I bring this up at all is that the primary difference between the two movies is that in the director's cut (which I believe was the "original", which the studio carved up later for theatrical release), the entire spine of the movie involves Matt Murdock dealing with a specific legal case. This case sets up the entire plot of the movie, and most of the other events which occur spiral off from this plot device. There are also many more scenes where Murdock is in court and doing lawyer stuff. This gave the movie a dichotomy that made it far more interesting.

By comparison, the final movie is strange; the plot kinda just happens and doesn't drive in the way of the original's idea, and that idea was clearly the creative intent for the movie. From what I recall, the movie was edited in this way for a few reasons; that test audiences were "confused" that the hero was both a lawyer and the costumed hero, and that the legal bits were boring. Presumably cutting it down increased the % of the movie that Jennifer Garner was onscreen wearing tight leather.

Point of all this is, I think a Daredevil show really has to have some aspects of a legal procedural to work, and I'm concerned they're going to do the same thing again.

[Neon Ignition]

I don't really get the thinking behind the new Daredevil series at all.

To me, it woudl work best much as it was introduced in No Way Home, with Matt being a character that dips in and out of the films helping others out both against villains but also legally. The Netflix series was one of the better ones but I've always felt that its fans overplay the quality of the show by quite a bit. The first series was solid and largely held impact because it was the first to land, the second run wasn't all that well recieved and whilst impressions improved past that point it was already moving past the point people were paying attention to it until the axe fell. The casting was good and I agree with that being carried over but with existing content now having made its way to Disney+ the idea that Daredevil, of all shows, gets 18 episodes feels like way - way too much especially given the broad quality bar of the other MCU series at 6-8 eps.

If a series must be made I'd prefer something like 6 eps, told as Matt dealing with one case and all the ins and outs of that. It feels like they went in deep because the small Netflix era fan bubble is so vocal. That ebing said, this is the studio that is next putting out Echo - I have no idea what the thinking behind that choice is either.

[Neon Ignition]

"The Marvels" Targets A Quiet Opening - Dark Horizons
The Marvels is on course to open to 1/3 of the opening takings of the Captain Marvel movie, that figure would mean it would open to half of what Ant-Man: Quantumania opened to just a few months ago.

[Asura]

"The Marvels" Targets A Quiet Opening - Dark Horizons
The Marvels is on course to open to 1/3 of the opening takings of the Captain Marvel movie, that figure would mean it would open to half of what Ant-Man: Quantumania opened to just a few months ago.

Wait that's out?

[Neon Ignition]

Still a month off, advanced bookings are open now which seems to be what is leading to the projections as sales are way down. There will be a multitude of reasons behind it beyond the go to 'superhero fatigue' headlines but none of them are good reasons in of themselves and it's a massive shame potentially for Brie who it feels has been very poorly served to date by the MCU, especially as they sold her casting at the time as her being the next Captain America figurehead and launched with a $1bn+ earning film but nearly half a decade later it feels like she's barely a presence.

[Asura]

Still a month off, advanced bookings are open now which seems to be what is leading to the projections as sales are way down. There will be a multitude of reasons behind it beyond the go to 'superhero fatigue' headlines but none of them are good reasons in of themselves and it's a massive shame potentially for Brie who it feels has been very poorly served to date by the MCU, especially as they sold her casting at the time as her being the next Captain America figurehead and launched with a $1bn+ earning film but nearly half a decade later it feels like she's barely a presence.

Yeah; wonder why that is. I know early on she was unpopular. But that was with a segment of the fanbase that I'm pretty sure hates all the Marvel movies (and modern Disney output in general).

[Neon Ignition]

Definitely the pandemic played a part in it but everything feels like a swirl of factors and Brie has become caught up in it somehow which is a shame because Spider-Man aside it feels like the MCU lacks the figurehead characters it once had so C.Marvel was needed, though that moment might have passed now.

I think that if the Disney+ series are currently evidencing the issues for Marvel in putting out too much content then this film might end up showing the other end of the issue where the feedback into the films was never necessary and more harmful than helpful. There's a good chance the final film is a fine enough watch, I know Ant-Man and Love and Thunder have faced their own issues but I've still not felt like the MCU has come close to burning out yet, but there are so many factors that this film has to navigate and so far the trailers have felt very... meh, even before getting into any of the other factors. The biggest hook for audiences here will be Captain Marvel herself and she comes across as very 'along for the ride' rather than the focus being on her. Time will tell I guess but if the film struggles to the extent the projections suggest then I wouldn't be surprised to see practically an unofficial annexing of the Disney+ stuff from the films, them taking place in the same universe but no longer having any meaningful direct links

[Neon Ignition]

"Deadpool 3" To Exit May 2024 Release - Dark Horizons
Currently only two MCU movies may make it out next year

[Neon Ignition]

Vaughn: Make Better & Fewer Marvel Films - Dark Horizons
Having been away from the genre himself for some time now, Matthew Vaughn says that he hopes that Marvel will slow down their output with a greater focus on quality and less reliance on VFX. He has hopes for the DCU now that Gunn is in charge and says that his biggest shocker has been The Flash which he really enjoyed and is somewhat staggered in how it failed at the box office.