This time last year, if you’d told somebody that a reality-bending dramatic comedy that featured Michelle Yeoh utilizing her marital arts prowess to fend off a pair of thugs by weaponizing assorted sex toys would go on to win seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, you’d have been laughed out of the building. And yet, here we are, with Everything Everywhere All at Once emerging as the runaway success story of the night.
In a similar vein, had you told the same people shortly after the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers: Endgame that the impenetrable superhero franchise would experience its seven steepest week-to-week box office drops in a row in the aftermath, while its two worst-reviewed installments on Rotten Tomatoes and three bottom-rated entries on CinemaScore would land within the space of 13 months, the glances would have been just as quizzical.
Put the two together, though, and what do you get? Fans manifesting the possibility of Everything Everywhere All at Once directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert making the leap into blockbuster territory by being handed the keys to Avengers: Secret Wars – and not for the first time, either.
The Daniels won’t exactly be short of offers in the wake of their incredible Oscars glory, and they’ve got the clout to do whatever they want for their next project, with their mind-melting caper’s critical and awards season success effectively giving them carte blanche next time they head to the negotiating table.
It seems too obvious for the duo to dive straight into the MCU’s deep end with Secret Wars, but having already delivered what might be the best multiversal motion picture there’s ever been, it’s easy to see why so many supporters are desperate for it to happen.