Disney has previously been thought to be scaling back the MCU, which has recently become overloaded with underperforming films in theaters and vastly expensive shows on Disney Plus. Now, we may be hearing what that will look like in practice.
Insider Daniel Richtman is reporting that Eternals 2 is no longer in development, and other potential projects like a third Captain Marvel movie or a fourth Ant-Man will be pursued.
If you’ve been tracking Marvel hits and misses, these three specifically may not come as a huge shock as something Marvel does not want to invest in from here. All performed poorly, relatively speaking, among critics and at the box office. The three last films in question:
- Eternals – 47% Rotten Tomatoes, $402 million worldwide
- Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania – 46% Rotten Tomatoes, $476 million worldwide
- The Marvels – 62% Rotten Tomatoes, $206 million worldwide
I think The Marvels was probably the movie alarm bell that set all this off, while the $200 million Secret Invasion was probably the show alarm instead. As much as I think both Eternals and The Marvels were underrated, given their performance, I can understand why sequels would not be pursued.
However, I don’t think it’s wise for Marvel to just ditch Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, and Iman Velani’s Kamala Khan should be given more to do, not less, given how great she is in the role. As for Ant-Man and the Wasp? They can show up as Avengers, I suppose. But Eternals is probably going to have to remain a “what could have been” situation, and I would not expect to see them again.
It’s also important to consider what era Marvel is moving into here. They are about to kick off several extremely important properties from here, namely The Fantastic Four, and then later, their take on the X-Men, in addition to keeping other heroes like Spider-Man and Captain America floating. So in that context, slotting in a fourth Ant-Man movie or Eternals 2 which would probably still cost several hundred million each, seems ill-advised.
We’ve seen this to some extent on Disney Plus, but perhaps not quite to the same lengths yet. She-Hulk does not appear to be getting a second season, as according to its star, Tatiana Maslany, they “blew their budget” on the pricey (but still bad-looking) effects. Loki appears to be over. There will certainly not be a Secret Invasion season 2. Disney still has a few questionable shows coming up, like the idea that people will tune into Agatha, a story far away from mainstream MCU territory based on the villain from WandaVision. Instead, they may focus on more street-level, and probably cheaper content like Echo and the upcoming Daredevil revival, which seems wise.
Most of Marvel’s slate in the next few years is set, even as dates keep shuffling around. But no, I am not shocked these three movies specifically are probably not seeing the light of day.
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