The Internet has been abuzz for quite some time about what was going on with Marvel Studios. In chat rooms and on film sites, people have been discussing a perceived drop in quality in the studio’s output and the rumors of behind-the-scenes chaos that caused it (Confession: I am one of those people).
But up until now, those rumors were just that–rumors. But the latest issue of Variety has just run a cover story titled “Crisis at Marvel: Jonathan Majors Back-Up Plans, ‘The Marvels’ Reshoots, Reviving Original Avengers and More Issues Revealed.” In it those rumors become…well…better sourced rumors. But getting this kind of major coverage seems to add more legitimacy to the stories of Marvel’s decline and is giving critics of Marvel, both good and bad, cannon fodder to fire in their arguments. I imagine Martin Scorsese has already the issue framed and hanging on his wall.
The article paints a picture of a studio in disarray. A studio where they are facing problems both external and of their own making and are confused as to how to address them. And of a studio who is making as stupid decisions as dumb as Warner Brothers ever made with their DC films.
One of the problems addressed is the one of shoddy CGI. The article lays the blame on Marvel’s tendency to treat their effects laden films as if they were conventional films, moving them up and down their release schedule without a care in the world. This throws Marvel Studios’ effects house into chaos, as they often have to rush in creating their CGI effects to meet its new, closer release date. Ant-man and Wasp: Quantumania is used as an example of this policy backfiring, as the CGI in that film was heavily criticized.
Either Marvel Studios are composed of a bunch of idiots who don’t know what goes into creating CGI special effects or they are arrogant enough to not care and just expect their effects gurus to work that much harder to get the job done. Regardless, this has come back to bite them, as their VFX workers voted to unionize after being made to work 14-hour days with no overtime.
Another issue addressed is one with the forthcoming The Marvels film. The film did not do well in test screenings and the article states its release had to be bumped back to undergo massive reshoots to try and save it. A review embargo has been placed on the film, keeping reviews from being published until the day before the film opens, which seldom is a good sign. The Variety article says that the reshoots might not have helped, and the film is shaping up to be a potential flop.
Savvy film buffs could have seen the blood in the water already. The first trailers for The Marvels made it out to be a wacky fun film with a lot of comedy where the three women try to deal with their linked powers while fight off the film’s big threat. The latest TV ads make it seem like a more conventional comic book film beat-’em-up, with the humor dialed back to about a 2. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather see a film like the one portrayed in the first trailer than the one after they supposedly “fixed” it.
But if you were to tell me that the first version was a raging dumpster fire, I would believe it. One of the things that doesn’t get mentioned enough is that the quality of the Marvel films has declined over the last several years. Maybe because Hollywood knows that you don’t necessarily need a good movie to make millions of dollars that they don’t speak of this, but the Marvel films were always a cut above the rest of the comic book films. They would average a Tomatometer score of 85% or more and would have CinemaScore grades between A+ and A-.
Then they got rid of the Marvel Creative Committee in 2015. It was dissolved as a result of Kevin Feige finally freeing himself from the miserly oversight of Ike Perlmutter. Feige and Marvel Studios always rankled under the penny-pinching ways of Perlmutter, but, creatively, it also was annoyed by the notes and suggestions from the Creative Committee. The idea was that Marvel Studios would be much better if it was out from under the thumb of both these irritants.
At first, the break was presented as a good thing. Free from Perlmutter and the Committee. Marvel films could be more diverse and experimental, and the initial post-committee films seemed to bear this out. Then, Marvel Studios had to enter a post-Avengers: Endgame world. By the time it was dissolved, the Marvel Creative Committee was a weapon Perlmutter could use in his war against Feige. But, on the onset, it helped guide the Marvel Films, helped them stay true to the source material, and help the universe get off to a running start. That kind of guidance would have been handy to have as the MCU started its new era. They had apparently replaced the Committee with a “Parliament” of sorts. But the new boss doesn’t seem to be the same as the old boss when it comes to quality control.
Now we come to the Jonathan Majors problem.
Marvel Studios decided that Kang would be the next big villain in the MCU. They cast Lovecraft Country actor Jonathan Majors in the role. He made an impressive debut in the role on the Loki streaming service. Then the shit hit the fan.
In March of 2023, Majors was arrested on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment after a confrontation with his girlfriend. He almost immediately portrayed himself as the victim, only to have other victims come forward and accuse Majors of similar behavior.
It’s a similar situation to the one Warners had with Ezra Miller, only it appears that Marvel Studios is trying to replace Majors. However, the way they are going about it raises a bunch of questions.
The obvious solution to many might be simply replace the actor. It’s not like Marvel hasn’t done it before. But that was back during the early days of Marvel when the pool of potential actors was fresh and deep. It might not be easy to find an actor or Major’s caliber (and despite the reprehensible behavior he is accused of, he is a great actor) who isn’t already working for Marvel.
The article says that there have been discussions about changing the big bad from Kang to Doctor Doom. That seems weird to say the least. Story wise, if done right, Doctor Doom would be a villain worthy of facing off against the whole MCU. However, Doom has yet to be done right on the big screen. And to introduce him now, before his typical nemeses the Fantastic Four are, will require a lot of work and might not sit well with fans. Not to mention the mechanics are already in place for Kang to be the main villain of this phase, and while there are similarities between the characters, they are not the same. Trying to explain the shift will be a headache and could lead to another poor translation of Doctor Doom to the big screen.
But one of the most concerning things in the article about this story is that they say Marvel was thinking of moving away from Majors and Kang due to the poor performance of Quantumania, with the implication that fans haven’t warmed to the character or have concerns about Majors. If anyone at Marvel Studios actually believes that, then Marvel Studios is in more trouble than anyone realizes. I could think of ten other reasons why Quantumania failed before I got to Majors, the main reason being that it is a horrible, horrible movie. If anything, Majors was the best part about that film. He portrayed Kang with menace and intelligence and had me thinking that he would be a better villain for the MCU than Thanos. It pains me to say this due to some of the things he has been accused of, but the fact remains he was the high point of that film.
The Variety article does show the problems that Marvel Studios are facing and shows the steps that they are taking to try and fix it. One fix that was mentioned, and one that I think is a good one, is that Feige is rumored to be considering capping the budget for their Blade reboot at $100 million dollars. However, this comes in the same paragraph where they say one version of the script had Blade moved down to fourth lead, and the film was focusing on three other female characters. This, thankfully, was scrapped. Not thankfully in the sense of “NO VAGINAS IN SPANDEX FOR ME! GO WOKE GO BROKE.” But if you have a Blade movie where Blade is the fourth most important character in the film, especially a Blade played by Mahershala Ali, then you don’t have a Blade movie. It doesn’t matter if the three other characters are women, children, puppies or potted plants. Has no one learned the lesson of Blade: Trinity?
There is an undercurrent of ego and hubris in the actions of Marvel Studios as described in the article. As the saying goes, pride goes before the fall. A lot of the problems listed in the piece were caused by Marvel Studios thinking they were too big to fail, too good to lose. They need to fix that attitude first if they are going to make lasting corrections to these problems.
