It may seem strange these days given how the Marvel Cinematic Universe is well and truly established as the biggest franchise in the entire industry, with many of their competitors still scrambling to play catch up, but when Marvel Studios first launched in 2008 the idea of a series of blockbuster movies being connected by a single overarching narrative was an unprecedented business strategy.
Each entry in the MCU is connected to at least one previous installment in some form or another, which made it a surefire way to guarantee success at the box office, because if fans want to fully understand the entire story they’d have to pay to see every movie. However, that doesn’t seem to be enough for Kevin Feige, with the recently-appointed Chief Creative Officer now admitting that the huge number of newly-announced shows set to debut on Disney Plus will tie so closely into the stories being told on the big screen that it will almost be a necessity to purchase a subscription to the new streaming service in order to fully understand the bigger picture.
A recent report went into some detail on how closely the movies and TV shows within the MCU will tie together, and it certainly sounds like diehard fans of the franchise are virtually obligated to shell out for Disney Plus.
“If you want to understand everything in future Marvel movies, Feige says you’ll probably need a Disney Plus subscription, because events from the new shows will factor into forthcoming films such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Scarlet Witch will be a key character in that movie, and Feige points out that the Loki series will tie in, too.”
On one hand, this is a smart business strategy from Disney and Marvel, one that will generate a huge amount of income on top of the countless billions that the MCU brings in from theaters on an annual basis. On the other, it seems like a highly cynical cash-grabbing ploy that comes dangerously close to pressuring fans into purchasing a subscription just to stay on top of the latest developments in the franchise. But with the Mouse House now seemingly intent on monopolizing all of popular culture, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
