Summary
A common complaint aboutMarvel Cinematic Universeprojects lately is that the Multiverse makes them too complicated and complex for average moviegoers to keep up with. Well, it seems like Marvel Studios has heard those complaints because the Multiverse is seemingly going the way of the dodo.
From 2008’sIron Manto 2019’sAvengers: Endgame,Marvel Studiostold a connected story across 23 films that dominated the box office and the cultural zeitgeist. The MCU turnedRobert Downey Jr. into the biggest star in the world, made household names of actors like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, and brought in billions upon billions of dollars in the process. Marvel Studios had a decade-long streak of hit films that no other movie production house in Hollywood history had ever come close to matching. Then, Disney+ became a thing, Marvel Studios had to produce more and more content (including television series), and everything kind of slowly fell apart.The Fantastic Four: First Stepscould come out later this week and turn everything on its head, but the past five or six years have not been kind to Marvel. Projects likeThe Marvels,Secret Invasion, andCaptain America: Brave New Worldprove that the Marvel magic is merely gone at this point. That doesn’t mean it can’t be reclaimed, though.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige sat down with a host of reporters on Friday to talk about all things Marvel ahead ofThe Fantastic Four: First Stepslaunching worldwide later this week. In doing so, he talked about a host of topics from theBladereboot to the upcoming MCUX-Menfilm being helmed byThunderbolts*director Jake Schreier. Perhaps most interestingly, though, was Feige’s take onAvengers: Secret Warsproviding the chance to fully “reset” the MCU.“We’re utilizing that [story] not just to round out the stories we’ve been telling post-Endgame,“Feige began. “[But] just as importantly — and you’re able to look at theSecret Warscomics for where that takes you — it very, very much sets us up for the future.Endgame, literally, was about endings.Secret Warsis about beginnings.”
Kevin Feige ClaimsAvengers: Secret WarsWill Reset The Marvel Cinematic Universe
However, He Was Very Careful To Avoid The Word “Reboot”
Feige made sure to highlight thatAvengers: Secret Warswon’t bea full-on rebootof the series.“Reboot is a scary word,“Feige stated.“Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline — we’re thinking along those lines.“Anyone familiar with Marvel Comics' 2015 mega-crossover eventSecret Warsknows what Feige is going for here. Spearheaded by the creative team of Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribić, and Ive Svorcina,Secret Warsprovided the comics giant with the chance to get weird and wild with pretty much any universe they’d ever highlighted throughout the years in their multiverse before resetting the status quo.
For example, there was aSecret Warstie-in comic about a group of Thor variants acting as a police force. There was another one about a bunch of Ghost Riders racing in the so-called “Ghost Races” for everyone’s entertainment. There was even a series about M.O.D.O.K. falling in love.Secret Warslet Marvel creatives do pretty much whatever they wanted to before Mister Fantastic and the Molecule Man began to restore the Marvel Comics multiverse bit by bit inSecret Wars#9.
Put simply, Marvel Studios seems to intend on havingAvengers: Secret Warsreset the overall status quo away from the Multiverse and back into a single, cohesive timeline that is easier for folks to follow. Maybe this is just what theMarvel Cinematic Universeneeds?
