Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies, TV | Tagged: captain marvel, Captain Marvel 2, marvel, Marvel Studios, ms marvel, Secret Invasion, the marvels, WandaVision

The Marvels: Is the Multiverse the Disease or Cure for An Ailing MCU?

The Marvels might be the moment where we find out if shared cinematic universes that include TV shows will be embraced by audiences.

The year is 2012, and the spring is just starting to settle in. Hollywood is sitting on the edge of its seat because something big was about to happen. Since 2008, Marvel Studios took the idea of a shared universe and brought it to the big screen. Not only that, they made the cinematic universe diverse in genre, with Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain America: The First Avengers all being different.

Now, everyone was waiting to see if four years of planning was going to actually work with the release of Avengers. This was to be the team-up film that brought together heroes we had spent the last five movies waiting for, and this was the moment where we would find out if the general population could and would wrap their heads around the idea of a shared cinematic universe. By the time the dust cleared at the end of the weekend of May 4th following the domestic release, it was clear the answer was yes. The audience had embraced this, and the blueprint that Marvel created from 2008-2012 became the blueprint that other studios spent years trying to mimic as the studio carried on to the finale in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame.

As we enter the final week before The Marvels is released, the worries and concerns with this film are mirrored by the concerns and worries of industry pros back in 2012. However, instead of being worried if people would accept a shared cinematic universe, The Marvels feels like the moment where we truly get the answer of whether or not people will accept a cinematic universe where television and movies are integrated, and you can't have one without the other. When you go into The Marvels, it will be the Marvel movie that has the most "required reading," as in needing to watch multiple television shows to understand what is going on and how audiences react to that will be a tipping point.

You don't get to the box office that Avengers had based on previous fans alone, so we know that people went in and saw that movie without watching any of the previous Marvel films. That film did a pretty good job of setting up who everyone was in just a scene or two so people who hadn't seen previous films would know, more or less, who is who and what is going on. The Marvels will have to find its own way to do this. There is a very good chance people will know who Carol is because no matter what angry fanboys might say, Captain Marvel made a billion actual dollars, so people will know who she is and who Nick Fury is.

However, the film will have to take time to explain Monica and Kamala enough so that people who might not have watched WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, or even Secret Invasion know who they are and why they should be invested. The issue comes down to whether or not this film or any other film will take the time to make those explanations. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness didn't take much if any, time to explain what was going on with Wanda. The film seemed to expect you to already know that she was grieving and had lost herself to that grief.

The early Marvel movies worked because, despite what popular culture might have told you, you didn't have to watch all of the movies to understand what was going on. The early brilliance of it was that all of the Easter eggs and little crossovers made you want to watch everything so you could spot the next hint hiding in the background or the next small cameo appearance for a new character that is there and gone in a couple of minutes. However, following Endgame, Marvel has made it more and more essential for the viewers to watch everything so they can keep up, and now they are adding multiple television shows on top of it. That, combined with the hints for things to come moving from the margins to front and center, and taking up entire acts of films at times, has made skipping a single film or TV show feel like you're going to get penalized somehow for failing to turn in a homework assignment.

The Marvels is a film that has to carry not only the weight of all of that, but it also has to contend with the worst segments of the internet dogpiling on it simply because of its stars and the fact that a woman of color is directing it. That is a lot for any film to carry, and after the up and down year that Marvel has had and reports that people are getting ready to switch things up considerably in the future, you have to wonder what happens if the hypothesis fails and people aren't willing to keep up with all of this. No one wants this to be the film that could send the already extremely fragile house of cards at Marvel falling, but reactions from casual fans and anyone who isn't terminally online will be the make-or-break moment for this film and likely the way storytelling is structured at Marvel going forward.

The Marvels: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol's estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as The Marvels.

Marvel Studios' The Marvels stars Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Seo-Jun Park, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, and Samuel L. Jackson. Nia DaCosta directs, with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Mary Livanos, Jonathan Schwartz, and Matthew Jenkins serve as executive producers. The screenplay is by Nia DaCosta and Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.

Marvel Studios' The Marvels opens in U.S. theaters on November 10th.

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