At this point, it doesn’t even need saying, but 2020 was a weird year. It was a strange and (understandably) empty time for film and TV production, with many projects getting delayed. Marvel in particular had a whole year where they didn’t release any new projects, which was different for a studio that had been consistently releasing at least two huge movies a year. Once 2021 hit and projects began releasing again, Marvel really kicked off their roster with a bang, and have been pumping out content almost nonstop since January.
It was really refreshing at first to be getting so much Marvel content after a year of drought, but with the sheer volume of MCU projects that have been released over the past 12 months, it’s starting to feel more like drowning. Fans can barely go a month without Marvel releasing something new, and while it’sexciting to see the direction that Phase 4 is moving in, with the combination of shows and movies it’s beginning to be a bit overwhelming. Is it possible that the world at large and even the most die-hard MCU fans are starting to feel some Marvel burnout? Even if all of the Phase 4 projects have run the range of decent to excellent with no real stinkers in the mix, it’s possible that the MCU is giving audiences too much of a good thing.
RELATED:Criticisms Of Marvel Actually Apply To All Blockbuster Filmmaking
If Marvel is constantly releasing content onto streaming platforms and into theatres, the releases start to feel like less of a big event. There was always something exciting about a new Marvel premiere and the hype surrounding it, while now the new releases feel almost under-hyped, as if Marvel knows that they barely need to market their content anymore because people will just show up in droves to see it if it’s part of the MCU.Spider-Man: No Way Homemight be an exception to this because ofthe insane expectations surrounding it, but the hype for that movie seems to be more for the nostalgia factor and less about the fact that it’s a new MCU entry.
It just seems like Marvel is definitely encountering a problem with oversaturation. The movies and TV shows feel less special when there’s always something new, with barely any time to breathe in between them.It’s harder to build anticipationwhen you’re constantly feeding your audience with new things, because they don’t have the long waits in between to start missing the MCU. There’s barely a sense of excitement when something new comes out, because it feels like you’ve just seen these characters recently.
The first three Disney Plus show releases did quite well, withWandaVisionhaving a particular fan flurry surrounding it (likely because it was the first, and it was such a unique project to begin with). The two more recent Disney Plus MCU shows -What If?andHawkeye- have had a much more underwhelming fan reception. People still enjoy them and talk about them, but there hasn’t been the same takeover of popular culture that shows likeWandaVisionorLokihad.Hawkeyeactually had the lowest ratingsfor an MCU Disney Plus premiere, garnering only 1.5 million viewers while theLokipremiere had 2.5 million. Of course, 1.5 million viewers is nothing to scoff at, and most shows would absolutely kill to have numbers like that, but it’s interesting to see the drop in viewership as the Disney Plus shows go on.
Is it a matter of Marvel fatigue, or are people just less interested in certain characters? Hawkeye is definitely less of a fan-favorite character than Loki, which likely contributed, but Clint Barton is still one of the MCU characters who’s been in the fold for a long time, and most people know who he is as one of the original Avengers. Phase 4 has been a mix of new characters (like Shang-Chi and the Eternals) and old ones, but even the stories about characters the audience is familiar with feel different, because Phase 4 is taking a much different approach than other eras of the MCU.
The MCU has been making an effort to tell unique stories andexpand on secondary charactersin ways that they didn’t have time to before. This is a great move in terms of storytelling because it keeps things fresh and interesting within this universe, but some of the general public might start to tune out now that the Infinity Saga is done and the main characters they’ve spent over 10 years with aren’t as present anymore. Instead of a slow and steady start to Phase 4, audiences have just had new characters and worlds thrown at them on a monthly basis, and it can be exhausting to try and keep up.
Marvel is still making a killing, of course, and the fanbase is as devoted as ever, but there might come a point soon where people just get tired of having to keep with the new Marvel projects that are getting released constantly. It might seem like a good business model to keep audiences invested by constantly releasing new content, and it very well might turn out that way, but it seems like people are starting to grow wearier and wearier with the MCU andthe sheer amount of projects they’ve been dropping. If they could scale back the releases to what they were like in the past - two movies a year and now with the Disney Plus shows, perhaps two TV shows a year - it would make the releases feel more like a special event and less like just a normal Wednesday.
NEXT:Hawkeye Succeeds Where The Falcon And The Winter Soldier Fell Short
