the SUPER🦸: Variety’s Cover Story (Hit Piece?) on Marvel Studios And The MCU

the SUPER🦸 — Variety has a major cover story covering Marvel Studios and their apparent decline with audiences worldwide. Between negative reception to some of the Disney+ shows, and wonky run at the box office — THE MARVELS is projected to open below expectations — Marvel is at a point where they need to course correct and plan out a new and eXciting future.

Writers Pitching X-Men!

With the end of the WGA strike, executives and producers have begun talking to writers about developing X-Men for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As we already know, characters from the FoXverse, like Professor X and Wolverine, are already making their way back. After their involvement in projects like DEADPOOL 3 and AVENGERS: SECRET WARS, with some sticking around, a reset is bound to happen.

A Kang Problem?

Sources revealed that executives met to discuss backup plans in case they have to move on from using Jonathan Majors as the villainous Kang the Conqueror in future projects. “It gave people pause given that ‘[Ant-Man and the Wasp] Quantumania’ didn’t exactly land,” a source said. The actor is also currently facing assault allegations in court. Talks involved possibly pivoting to Fantastic Four villain Dr. Doom as the MCU big bad, who is an important part of Secret Wars in the comics.

“Marvel is truly f**ked with the whole Kang angle,” said a source who watched the final episode of LOKI season two. “…they haven’t had an opportunity to rewrite until very recently [due to strike], but I don’t see a path to how they move forward with him.”

Too Much Marvel Content?

“The Marvel machine was pumping out a lot of content,” said Wall Street analyst Eric Handler. “Did it get to the point where there was just too much, and they were burning people out on superheroes? It’s possible. The more you do, the tougher it is to maintain quality. They tried experimenting with breaking in some new characters, like Shang-Chi and Eternals, with mixed results. With budgets as big as these, you need home runs.”

Blade Script Rewrites Aplenty

A Blade reboot has been in development for some time with Oscar winning actor Marshala Ali, Having gone through multiple rewrites with five+ writers, and more than one director. Surprisingly, it’s revealed: One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead, a bizarre idea considering that the studio had two-time Oscar winner Ali on board.

This seems to follow rumors we heard about Blade’s daughter taking center stage in earlier scripts.

A new writer has been signed, Michael Green, the Oscar-nominated writer for LOGAN. After facing multiple delays, the film is now said to be pushed to 2025. Rumor is Marvel is looking to be more profitable by keeping the budget south of $100 million.

An OG Avengers Revival?

Sources at Variety said there were talks amongst executives to bring back the cast of THE AVENGERS for another movie. That includes Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), both who died in AVENGERS: ENDGAME. The studio hasn’t yet committed to the idea.

There’s lots more to read here.

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