They say pride comes before a fall, and Disney chief creative officer and co-chairman Alan Horn might want to keep that in mind, because he’s just claimed that the MCU will never die. Presumably, this means that Disney and Marvel Studios will continue making movies forever, with generation after generation of actors, directors and writers finding new spins on their superhero stable.
Horn was recently asked the question of whether fans would ever abandon the MCU during a THR roundtable and had this to say:
“The answer is no. If the film has a compelling storyline, if it has heart and humor, two things that I insist on, and it’s terrifically well executed, I think there is an audience. But who knows?”
I don’t know if I’d be so confident. Moviegoers’ tastes change and while superhero films have been popular for the last twenty years, there’s no guarantee that’ll continue indefinitely. Just look at what happened to Westerns.
For two or three decades in the middle of the 20th century, audiences couldn’t get enough of cowboys. Now, the flow of cowboy movies has slowed to a trickle. My bet is that there’ll come a time when younger audiences see the MCU as something their parents are into, and they’ll probably find something new to set themselves apart from older generations.
But, while I don’t know about forever, I’m confident that the MCU will at least continue to be popular for a good few years yet. However, given that the first decade of the franchise was one long build-up to the events of Avengers: Endgame, it’ll be interesting to see what they find to substitute it.
Word is that there won’t be any big event films like Endgame for a while, but the smart money is on the next super-arc being the arrival of Galactus to the MCU. With the Fantastic Four and X-Men rights now under Disney control, they have a wealth of new stories and characters to exploit, so expect things to be ticking on for another decade, at least.