‘The Marvels’ historic implosion risks the cancellation of a dream MCU project in the works since ‘Avengers: Endgame’

A funny thing is happening with The Marvels. Despite enduring no end of negative press during its theatrical run, fans are coming to the much-maligned sequel’s defense now that it’s available on digital.

As new viewers discover it and others give it another go from the comfort of their couches, The Marvels‘ reputation looks to be receiving a much-needed boost in MCU fandom circles. Unfortunately, this will do little to turn the movie’s metrics around in the grand scheme of things. With a worldwide gross of a little over $200 million, the Brie Larson vehicle is easily the weakest-earning Marvel Studios film ever.

The Marvels‘ poor box office performance will no doubt be a big wake-up call to the studio, which endured a tough 2023 all round, and could well have a significant impact on the look of Marvel’s future slate. For starters, Captain Marvel 3 seems like an outlier at this point, but even worse, a project fans have been eagerly awaiting ever since Avengers: Endgame planted the first seeds may end up tossed on the scrap heap too.

Quantumania and The Marvels don’t paint a pretty picture for the Young Avengers

With the OG Avengers bowing out, not to mention the introduction of a teenage Cassie Lang, Endgame seemed to promise that the Young Avengers were right around the corner. Sure enough, Phase Four proceeded to throw in various teen team members from the comics, like Tommy and Billy in WandaVision and America Chavez in Doctor Strange 2.

And then, at long last, moves were made to finally assemble the MCU’s Young Avengers in The Marvels, which concluded with an Iron Man-spoofing scene in which Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel recruited Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop into her “Kid Avengers” initiative. After an age, it looked like we were off… and then The Marvels flopped hard.

Depending on how Marvel interprets its financial failure, The Marvels could potentially lead studio execs to believe these next-gen heroes just don’t have enough pull to be such a major driving force of the franchise in the years to come. Let’s take a look at the facts: 2023 kicks off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, prominently featuring Kathryn Newton’s Cassie, which only makes a middling $471 million and earns MCU-worst reviews. 2023 then ends with The Marvels, earning MCU-worst box office and middling reviews. And it just happens to prominently feature another Young Avenger, Kamala Khan.

It’s worth noting that a Young Avengers project has never been formally announced, but evidently assembling the group somewhere was a top priority for Marvel. If the team is coming anywhere it will most likely be the small screen rather than the big one. And yet it’s not as if things are going smoothly over on Disney Plus either, as Marvel is in the midst of totally restructuring its approach to its streaming series. So even a Young Avengers TV series cannot be guaranteed.

To date, Marvel has done an impressive job of avoiding any instances of those embarrassing pointless post-credits scenes that have plagued Sony and DC over the years. But that may change as the fallout from The Marvels flopping becomes known.