When thinking about the MCU Infinity Saga movies that had the toughest time of it, Captain Marvel immediately springs to mind as it was infamously so review-bombed that its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sits at a terrible 45% to this day. And yet, if you give it a second thought, its RT critics score is an entirely reputable and Fresh 79% and there’s also the little fact that it earned $1.1 billion worldwide back in 2019. Unfortunately, its imminent sequel, The Marvels, doesn’t have it anywhere near as good.
The Marvels is facing something even more troubling than Captain Marvel‘s intense backlash: total apathy
Yes, The Marvels wishes all it had to deal with was incensed fans review-bombing it. At least that way you’d know someone cares about it. Unfortunately, as you may have heard, box office projections for the film are in danger of reaching below the biggest bombs in not just the MCU, but the DCEU too — namely, The Flash and Black Adam. The reason why has now become clear as Marvel fans’ sheer indifference to the upcoming project has been revealed. Sure, The Marvels is unlikely to be as big of a stinker as Quantumania (not that Marvel saw that one coming either), but sometimes being bad is better than being middle-of-the-road. To be clear, it could still turn out respectably for Carol Danvers and co., but the warning signs are sadly staring us in the face.
We can now add an MCU TV series to the ever-growing list of Guillermo del Toro’s unmade projects
Guillermo del Toro has so many dream never-made projects cluttering up his career that more are coming out of the woodwork all the time. Coming hot on the heels of talk he almost made a Jabba the Hutt Star Wars film, we’re learning that the Oscar-winning filmmaker once tried to get Marvel interested in letting him make a Hulk TV series in the early 2010s, only to jump ship to Pacific Rim when the studio wouldn’t bite. So that’s two MCU what-ifs this man has got in his past, what with the time Neil Gaiman pitched Marvel a Doctor Strange film that del Toro would direct. One day, the House of Ideas will have the smart idea to actually hire him to inject some of his unique style and talent into the MCU.
Thunderbolts is going to have to get seriously creative to drag itself out of the Phase Five slump
With even The Marvels, built around a heroine who’s raked in billions for the franchise, threatening to dive-bomb at the box office, 2024’s Thunderbolts is looking at risk of following it off a cliff given that it’s full of B and C-tier supporting characters and villains from such second-rate MCU fare as Black Widow and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Well, luckily, Marvel still has time to pull a Daredevil: Born Again on this one and revamp it amid the strikes before it’s too late. And the fans are putting their heads together to come up with some suggestions, both helpful — employ a new writing team — and less helpful — turn it into an epic X-Men crossover movie. Hmm, maybe in Phase Seven, folks.
You never know what’s around the corner in the Marvel multiverse — like Captain Marvel and She-Hulk heading up the Avengers? Hey, it could happen! — so stay tuned for more.
