There’s a lot to raise an eyebrow about in Variety’s new report the internal turmoil of Marvel Studios in 2023. There are the concerns about Kang, the battle over special effects work and, oh yeah, reports from anonymous sources that studio execs have considered simply making a new Avengers movie – but with all the old Avengers.
Variety paints a picture of a Marvel Studios struggling to maintain quality work and audience energy after a blitz of Disney Plus programming and lackluster box office returns (not to mention critical response) . Solutions on the table reportedly include cutting production, trimming budgets and expectations, and, at least for a moment or two, resurrecting Iron Man and Black Widow.
“There have been talks about bringing back the original gang for an ‘Avengers’ movie,” Variety’s sources said. “This includes reviving Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, both of whom were killed off in “Endgame.” (…) But the studio has not yet committed to the idea.”
There are good logistical reasons for this. Downey Jr. and Johansson are some of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood today, and they’re just two of six actors whose stars have risen significantly since they were originally brought under a Marvel contract – and they might be quite skeptical about such a move.
There are good story reasons for this too. Death and resurrection may go hand in hand in the land of comic book superheroes, but anyone who actually reads the books will let you know that this is perhaps the genre’s greatest double-edged sword. For every The death of Superman or Dark Phoenix saga – considered one of the medium’s great classics – there are a dozen forgotten (at best) or maligned (at worst) stories that failed the fan sniff test.
Even live-action cinematic universes face the same challenges as their print counterparts (perhaps even more so, when contracts are finite and actors age in real time). With the first Iron Man After releasing in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has now reached the awkward teenage age of 15. That’s exactly how long the MCU’s biggest inspiration, Marvel Comics’ freshly rebooted Ultimate Marvel setting, lasted before it succumbed to its own alternate continuity and got the axe. . At DC Comics, which is far more accustomed to reboots than Marvel, a single connected continuity has still rarely lasted more than a quarter of a century.
Does Marvel Studios need a reboot, relaunch, or redo? That remains to be seen. But it’s a safe bet that it won’t do it exactly the way the comics would, did, or ever did.