Marvel Studios has openly been struggling for some time, with 2023 now being described as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” And, per a major new article from Variety, we are about to see some massive retooling begin within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The article points out one of the significant issues centering around what the studio considered the future antagonist for the next era. Jonathan Major has appeared as Kang in three projects now, playing different variants along the way, which has been met with a warm reception from fans and critics.
But not so behind the scenes, Majors is headed towards a high-profile trial in New York later this month on domestic violence charges. While Majors has reportedly fought for his innocence and claimed he’s the victim, the damage has been done enough to the point that Marvel Studios is ready to take dramatic steps.
“Marvel is truly fucked with the whole Kang angle,” says an insider who has seen the final Loki episode. “And they haven’t had an opportunity to rewrite until very recently [because of the WGA strike]. But I don’t see a path to how they move forward with him.”
In an attempt to pivot from this, there have been rumblings of bringing in Doctor Doom, but the article describes that the potential move would “carry its own headaches.” With Major already having a significant presence in Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, backtracking could confuse the general public even more.
The rumors are they were seriously looking at Kang as the franchise’s next big thing, with plans for Jonathan Majors to become the titular star of a fourth Avengers film, Kang Dynasty, in 2026.
Speaking of the Avengers, that brings us to one of the other jaw-dropping reads from the Variety piece. As Marvel looks at ways to regain the majority of its fanbase while also securing its future, it seems like the brand will dip into the past.
Per the report, “sources say there have been talks to bring back the original gang for an Avengers movie.” The original gang included Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo and even included reviving two heroes we lost in Avengers: Endgame. Yes, Marvel has even begun looking at ways to bring back Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, both killed off dramatically in what many still look at as Marvel’s crown jewel.
Bringing back RDJ and Johansson, especially as both begin to find themselves again after decades in the Marvel business, would be a costly situation, something Marvel is already struggling with as the Variety story notes the studio was “bleeding money.” Now, with the Marvel retooling begin, the budget seems to be one of the major concerns. Bringing back past stars could overly inflate the budgets but could get back significant bucks.
With Deadpool 3 already bringing back some big names, Marvel will most likely see how fans react to that before moving forward with their nostalgia era.
And they are not looking forward to spending money reworking their plans for Majors; recasting talks have already begun. Once Majors already starred in the flop of Quantumania, that is where Marvel started to look at things differently. “It gave people pause given that Quantumania didn’t exactly land,” the source says. Disney already removed another Majors’ film, Searchlight’s Magazine Dreams, from the release calendar.
It seems like Marvel Studios is not playing any games. “Writing the Marvel obituary would be ill-advised,” says Jason Squire, professor emeritus at USC School of Cinematic Arts and host of The Movie Business Podcast. “Kevin Feige is the Babe Ruth of movie executives, and Marvel has the most profitable track record in movie history. No question.”
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