By their very nature, superhero movies are loaded to the brim with clichés and tropes, because there’s only a finite number of fresh spins you can put on big-budget, effects-driven tales of costumed crimefighters using their special abilities to defeat the bad guy and save the world.
As the most successful franchise the industry has ever seen, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has got this down to fine art, by tweaking the standard formula just enough to make it feel relatively fresh each time out. WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Loki, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, What If…?, Eternals, Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home all boast plenty of individuality but dig a little deeper, and they’re all singing from the same Kevin Feige songbook.
Naturally, fans have been pointing out another one of the MCU’s favorite plot points following the release of the second No Way Home trailer, which features yet another character falling to their presumed demise in slow motion, as you can see below.
We can add that onto heroes with daddy issues, villains that are twisted mirror versions of the protagonists, the fake-out death, and somebody losing an arm as things we’ve seen far too often from the MCU. Phase Four is all about expansion and legacy, so maybe it’s time to create some new tropes.
