Marvel Cinematic Universeboss Kevin Feige recently spoke in a roundtable interview where he discussed the future of the franchise. It’s no secret that theMCUhas seen better days. At one point in time, every new MCU movie was a guaranteed box office smash, but while there are still heavy hitters, the franchise doesn’t carry the same weight that it used to.
Please note that this article contains SPOILERS for the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and TV shows
The Infinity Saga wrapped up withAvengers: Endgame, a movie that also said goodbye to some of the franchise’s biggest stars and most popular characters. The film was a culmination of over a decade’s worth of storytelling and, for many, lived up to the hype. But afterEndgamewas over, the MCU felt a little directionless, and three phases deep intothe Multiverse Saga, it still hasn’t shaken that feeling.
There are exciting things for the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the horizon.TheFantastic Four: First Stepsis opening in theaters this week, andAvengers: Doomsday, the firstAvengersfilm since 2019’sEndgame, is releasing in December 2026. AnotherAvengersmovie,Secret Wars, is scheduled to release December 2027, with other projects, including abrand-new Tom HollandSpider-Manmovie, also on the way. Feige touched on the MCU’s future in the interview, hinting at what’s to come, but he also commented on some of the franchise’s recent failures, including the lack of interest in Kang the Conqueror.
Kang Could Have Been a Thanos-Level Threat, But the MCU Didn’t Really Try
According to Deadline, Feige said, “Even before what had happened to the actor, we had started to realize that Kang wasn’t Thanos.”
When Kang appeared in the first season ofLoki, there was an air of gravitas around the character. As the creator of theSacred Timeline, Kang was established as potentially the most important character in the MCU, and Jonathan Majors did a fantastic job giving the character a charismatic aura. Relegating Kang’s debut to a Disney+ show wasn’t the best idea in the long run, but there was still plenty of time to get Kang over as a Thanos-level threat.
The problem is the MCU seemed to give up on Kang almost immediately. While the character was featured inLokiSeason 2, it was in the form of a goofy variant named Victor Timely. And the version of Kang that appeared inAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawas a complete bust.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniais generally considered one of the worst MCU movies, and part of that is how it completely drops the ball with Kang. Instead of using the movie to cement Kang as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, they had him soundly defeated by Ant-Man, easily one of the lower-tier heroes in the MCU. If Kang instead beat Ant-Man or even killed him, it would have given his character the boost it needed with audiences to become as intimidating as Thanos.
The thing to keep in mind is that while Kang in the comics may not be on the same level as Thanos, the vast majority of the audience had no impression of Kang before seeing him inLokiandQuantumania. When Thanos first showed up at the end of the firstAvengersmovie, the vast majority of the movie-going audience had no idea who he was either. However, theMCU made a concerted effort to present Thanos as a serious threat. While comic book readers already had an idea of what to expect from Thanos, most MCU watchers did not know or care about him until the moviesmade themcare about the character. The same could have been done for Kang, regardless of how he is presented in the comic books. It just wasn’t.
Feige said that there were already talks to pivot from Kang to Doctor Doom before thelegal issues with Kang actor Jonathan Majorsthat saw him dropped by Disney and beforeQuantumaniawas even in theaters. Considering this, it’s possible that the MCU had already made the decision to give up on Kang before even really trying, which could explain how the character was treated inQuantumania. Whatever the case may be, Kang didn’t work in the MCU not because he “wasn’t Thanos,” but because there was no real effort made to make him work beyond his appearance inLokiSeason 1.
As reported by Variety, Feige said, “Thunderbolts, I thought was a very, very good movie. But nobody knew that title and many of those characters were from a show.”
Thunderboltswas a well-reviewed movie, but failed to generate as much interest at the box office as some of the franchise’s other films. Some have chalked upThunderbolts' box office performanceto superhero fatigue, but Feige presented two other reasons. One was that people weren’t familiar with the Thunderbolts group, and the other was that “many” of the movie’s characters were from Disney+ shows. There may be something to a lack of knowledge about the comic book Thunderbolts playing a role in the movie’s box office performance, but the Guardians of the Galaxy weren’t exactly A-listers when their movie came out in 2014 and pulled in $773.4 million versusThunderbolts' $382.1 million.
As far as the Disney+ connections go, not many characters from the movie actually originated in Disney+ shows. Out of the titular team, only John Walker originated in a Disney+ show, 2021’sThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Julia-Louis Dreyfus’Valentina Allegra de Fontainefirst appeared inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldieras well, but was also featured inBlack WidowandBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever. The former’s box office was hurt due to a simultaneous release on Disney+ during the pandemic, while the latter managed to pull in $859.2 million.
Generally speaking, MCU box office returns have been down sinceEndgame. While there have been big hits likeDeadpool & Wolverine, there have also been multiple MCU movies that have failed to draw audiences, with some proving to be outright flops. The sheer amount of MCU content released in the Multiverse Saga is likely a big part of that, but characters having first appeared inDisney+ showsis unlikely to be the actual reason whyThunderboltsdidn’t perform.
The next MCU movie isTheFantastic Four: First Steps. Scheduled to hit theaters on Friday, July 25,The Fantastic Four: First Stepshas earned mostly positive reviewsand has successfully drummed up significant hype. It will be very interesting to see how it performs during the incredibly busy summer blockbuster season that has it competing against movies likeJurassic World: Rebirthand James Gunn’sSuperman.
