2023 is almost upon us, and as always, the next 12 months will bring a slew of brand new Marvel Cinematic Universe content to both the big screen and Disney Plus.
However, fans have been calling on Brie Larson to save the franchise from what could potentially be its longest losing streak ever, while the Thor: Love and Thunder discourse has proven that it’s not ready to quietly slink off into the night as the year draws to a close.
As always, it’s been a busy day for all things Marvel that covers the good, the bad, and the ugly of everything we’ve come to expect from Kevin Feige’s unstoppable superhero juggernaut.
Fans call on Brie Larson and The Marvels to end what could be a record-breaking losing streak
Despite Captain Marvel comfortably proving itself to be the MCU’s most contentious and hotly-debated feature – no small feat for a series that’s no less than 30 films deep – it still ranks as one of the franchise’s highest-grossing origin stories after netting upwards of $1.1 billion at the box office.
Fans are hoping that lightning strikes twice, because if Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 fail to reach the billion-dollar barrier, the spandex-clad saga will have seen five consecutive installments fail to hit 10 figures since Phase One, a streak that was comfortably ended at the hands of The Avengers.
The Thor: Love and Thunder discourse takes a turn for the hyperbolic
Just when you thought the never-ending debate over the merits of Thor: Love and Thunder was drawing to a close, Taika Waititi’s wildly polarizing romp through the cosmos has been accused of no less a misdeed than war crimes. Hyperbolic, sure, but it nonetheless encapsulates the sentiment many fans have towards Chris Hemsworth’s fourth solo adventure.
Ringing in the new year clearly isn’t going to mark a clean slate for Love and Thunder, then, with the underwhelming intergalactic escapade continuing to ride the hate train right through to 2023, which is par for the course when it quickly became one of 2022’s most hotly-contested movies.
2023, which hasn’t started yet, already being labeled as the MCU’s worst year ever
There’s an oxymoronic quality to fans of a widely-beloved and unstoppably successful franchise predicting nothing but doom and gloom, but calling 2023 the worst year in MCU history before it’s even gotten started sounds incredibly harsh. Then again, we could all be looking back and hailing the oracle 365 days from now, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out.
James Gunn hoping to put an end to studio interference at DC, but he hasn’t experienced it at Marvel
The first decade of the DCU was defined by constant reshuffling on almost every level from the boardroom to the writers’ room via the casting department and the director’s chair, something James Gunn will be seeking to put an end to as he ushers in a brand new era of interconnectivity and synergy.
That makes it fittingly ironic that the filmmaker was forced to debunk chatter regarding potential interference on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by Marvel Studios, which he really didn’t need to do seeing as it’s been made clear that the mutual respect he and Kevin Feige have for each other runs deep.
That’s it for our roundup of the latest Marvel news, and our last of 2022, but be sure to check back for our maiden entry of 2023.
