Posted in: Disney+, Movies, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: Marvel Studios, mcu, opinion

Stop Blaming Marvel Studios' MCU Movie Woes on Its Streaming Shows

From WandaVision and Loki to Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, whatever problems Marvel Studios' MCU has, its streaming shows aren't to blame.

During an interview with CNBC from back in July 2023, The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger made it clear that change was on the way when it came to the number of films and series Marvel Studios would be putting out moving forward. "You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less," Iger shared, offering Marvel's move into original streaming content as an example. "Marvel is a great example of that. It had not been in the television business at any significant level, and not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of TV series," he added. "Frankly, it diluted focus and attention." Less than a year later, Iger offered more specifics on what the reduction would look like. "We're slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three," Disney's CEO shared during the company's quarterly earnings call in May 2024.

But were the streaming series really the problem, or are they being used as a scapegoat to mask bigger issues that aren't discussed nearly enough regarding the current state of the MCU?

IT'S NOT THE SHOWS' FAULT! Let's take a look at the MCU in terms of streaming series and feature films that have been released (not including the shows and movies still set to hit this year and beyond) to see if the lineup of streaming series somehow "cheapened" the MCU brand:

Streaming Series: From January 2021 through April 2025, we've had WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…?, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion, Echo, X-Men '97, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and Daredevil: Born Again. In terms of specials, we've had Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and the I Am Groot series of shorts.

Feature Films: Sticking with the approximate timeframe (July 2021 – May 2025), we had the following on the feature film side: Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts*.

We're not sure how anyone can look at the lineup of streaming series and specials and make a serious argument that they hurt the MCU in any way. If anything, they proved that the MCU could be a creatively vibrant sandbox for creators to play in. Look no further than the first three shows that were released: WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki – three shows that no one can accuse of being cookie-cutter copies of one another. Even with the disaster that was Secret Invasion, you could argue that one of its biggest failures was that it tried too much to be a film chopped up for television instead of a television series that tells a meaningful story… and it showed (painfully at times).

"THE STREAMING WARS" LED TO SOME BAD DECISION-MAKING: Years from now, there will be semester-long media classes focused solely on "The Great Streaming Wars." That was when every studio out there believed that the grass was greener on Netflix's side, so they took their shot at the king (and made some questionable calls along the way). Look, we're not in the position of calling anyone a winner or a loser, so we're just going to say that a lot of studios not named Netflix (including one that rhymes with "Misney") were left to lick their wounds and do a lot of cost-cutting measures while Netflix was having its metaphorical crown refitted.

One bad move was creating a whole lot of original and pricey programming – and then keeping it in-house to sell the streaming service. That's an interesting idea, if you're the only one doing it. But if everyone's doing it, the competition gets a whole lot uglier. And since you're holding onto it to see your streamer, you're not getting a dime because you're not licensing it (one of the oldest and most reliable ways of getting some cash flow going). Translation? Disney had a lot of great shows, but there was only one place to see them.

"AVENGERS: ENDGAME" SHOULD'VE BEEN AN MCU REBOOT: If there was ever a film that felt like it was built to be an MCU reboot, it was 2019's Avengers: Endgame. But it didn't, and that was a mistake. If Marvel Studios had used the moment for an MCU redo, they could've had the perfect synergy between film and television because both would be starting up around the same time. Six years after "Endgame," we could've been at a point where we were re-introducing new takes on major players like Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man on the film side while fleshing out more of what this new MCU was all about on the streaming side.

Instead, the slightly refurbished MCU rolled on by embracing the Multiverse and all of the complications that come with it, requiring series creators to find ways to make their shows work within the overarching MCU mythology. Now, we're at the point where someone would have to spend some serious time doing some serious "homework" to know everything you would need to know about what's going on. That's not how you bring younger viewers into the mix, and it's beginning to show more and more.

Thankfully, we still have Ironheart, Eyes of Wakanda, Wonder Man, Marvel Zombies, and additional seasons of Daredevil: Born Again, X-Men '97, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man on the way. Hopefully, those who make the big decisions can see that those shows, and the ones that came before them, represent the best that the MCU has to offer.

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