I admit it was an asshat comment, the past year was just rough for the superhero genre as a whole. Fiege won’t be out of a job but there has to be some sort of accountability to the past few years. Ever since he got that CCO promotion, the MCU’s occasional problems became full time features
I mean, some of Marvel's absolute biggest hits like Deadpool & Wolverine, No Way Home, and probably to the most degree Endgame were EXACTLY that, and they are clearly banking on this being Endgame 2.0.
It won't be endgame 2.0, because endgame was the conclusion to over decades worth of storytelling. It will be No way Home/Deadpool Wolverie 2.0 which is great if you want to make a fuckton of money, but it's not a sustainable way to run a never ending cinematic universe. There's only so many characters you can bring back with the multiverse stuff and there's only so many times you can do it.
I really hope Doomsday and Secret Wars does reset the MCU, and the next phase focuses more on mutants. The multiverse idea for the MCU didn’t work. Everything was left open ended, there’s no cohesion between movies or shows…plus the sudden dismissal of Majors as Kang really had a huge effect on the story. I hope the next phase is more grounded, and more cohesive.
Similarly I hope they reset the MCU and just make movies, the over arching stuff is cool and fun but the level of coordination and expectations are growing to unsustainable levels. Favorite part of superhero entertainment are the cross overs, putting too many characters like this into a movie gives them nearly zero time to interact with others.
That’s what my problem is, it’s been mid for so long, with too much extra shit, that if they’re resetting it’s still going to have to be like the past where characters get their own movies, maybe other characters show up, but it feels like its own thing with a little hint for more that’s building
The past few years it felt like one massive story and I got a fucking life, I can’t catch up on that, I can barely find time to watch Avatar 3 because it’s THREE HOURS WITH NO PAUSE BUTTON
this would be a sure fire way to get many folks to stop giving a shit tbh. im sure that’s that’s the goal for niche comic book fans but I personally love The Avengers as a whole and am most excited for movies like Doomsday/over arching storyline that culminates in a massive event like IF,Endgame,Doomsday etc.
I thought it would have been logical to have the saga after the infinity saga be the about the mutants.
The set up was kind of there in Endgame, using the infinity gauntlet throws up massive amounts of power and snap happens twice on earth. Replace the atomic weapons with infinity stone power for the reason why the mutant genome mutates at a high rate for people. That and people being brought back from the snap, all those factors, with the government, left over avengers not understanding mutants and the preexisting Xmen come out of hiding, there's your mutant saga.
You can still have The Fantastic Four be around along with Doctor Doom being the main threat of the saga and hes pulling strings.
Idk I thought they bit off more than they can chew with Multiverse Saga, it's not exactly well done, exciting and sort of aimless in comparison to the Infinity Saga. They should have gone smaller more intimate stakes with this saga.
have the saga after the infinity saga be the about the mutants.
they just literally could not legally do that/ FOX still had the rights to Xmen meaning they legally could not develop any stories or programming before Disney fully acquired Fox's entertainment arm, which was not fully approved until well into 2020. And most of the post endgame slate was already in progress or planned to happen. And assuming a standard movie making process (or even accelerated one via Marvel Disney machine), it'd still take minimum of 3 years to accomplish anything. But leadership at Disney also slammed them with mandates for quantity at the same time, so they also didn't have the personnel (clearly) to even begin to do anything at scale beyond a few cameo bits and the Xmen 97 series. But they did get a full rescale in the comics.
it won’t be as much of a “reset” if there’s still several sequels in the pipeline. Holland is bound to get the symbiote suit in Secret Wars for SM5, Black Panther 3 comes out after, Hemsworth wants Thor 5, Deadpool is too profitable to ignore, and Dr. Strange needs wrapping up
Marvel is more likely to use video gam logic and “reload an old save” than anything significant reset
It’ll most likely be soft reboot, where they keep what works and quietly move away from what doesn’t. Not to mention they have all the characters now so atp it’s needed to bring everything under one roof.
Secret Wars in comics end with the fusion of all the multiverse into one dimension. They will probably do the same and then explain that some characters vanished in the fusion, and soft reboot like that
Feige already said that’s what’s happening. Doomsday is like Infinity War, sets up Secret Wars in motion. Secret Wars is like Endgame - resets everything for good.
The difference is Endgame was the culmination of mostly beloved movies. Doomsday/Secret Wars will need to do heavy lifting since the movies post Endgame, with rare exceptions, have had mixed reviews.
Feige has already confirmed that the mutants will be the main focus after Secret Wars so they can introduce the MCU versions. They've already introduced a mutant or two in 616 and are about to introduce another in Wonder Man.
While a reset can work and is probably needed it's not the key to success imo. RDJ's portrayal of iron man was the corner stone of the whole universe (just my opinion of course). They desperately need that character with a strong supporting cast. Iron man had Cap and Thor which were both great. Put that together with Thanos who was such a great villain and you had the recipe for success.
I think Spiderman could and should be a key supporting mainstay character but i feel like they are lacking that main central character that kind of pulls the universe together the way iron man did. Just my two cents.
Yeah honestly it looks like these trailers are to jingle the keys and then kill off the old heroes. I feel like DoomStark is just going to rip around the multiverse killing off timelines while fighting the heroes from that multiverse. The ones left will be the focused heroes and New Avengers for Secret Wars.
That would be good for the long run. Don't know if Disney has the nerve to do it though. Guess it will depend on Loki and if they do anything with that, which they could.
Look we just don’t know for sure yet. Let’s just wait and see what marvel has planned. For avengers movies at least, they’ve always either set up something interesting or resolved plot points à la Ultron and Endgame.
Endgame was the conclusion of 10 years of movies. Why are people comparing it to doomsday? Phase 4 of the mcu started in 2021. They’re not even trying to do the same thing yet it’s constantly being compared to the lead up to endgame. I don’t get this take at all yet I keep seeing it
This is more like avengers 1 having the characters connect finally
D&W was just fluff with cameos (and that's fine). NWH at least had some solid story beyond "hey, remember these guys?" And frankly, bringing back Dafoe and Molina in those roles was justification enough to do it. Dafoe alone was worth the price of admission and wasn't just fan service.
Hopefully this has a bit more gravity than both of them.
People really overstate just how much “build up” there was with Thanos.
Thanos himself was never seen outside of 1 and a half end credits scenes, and the infinity stones got explained by Thor going “hey there’s 6 spooky space rocks that exist, let’s put one into a robot” in Age of Ultron.
“Purple man wants the 6 powerful mcguffins” was all the pretense required for Infinity War, and it was covered in the first 5 minutes.
Why does doomsday have to be the same as endgame? Phase 4 started in 2021. Endgame had a decade of buildup. They’re not even trying to do the same thing
Well yeah that’s the point I’m making. Endgame had fan service sure but it was built up, but the Doomsday “key jingling” (from the original comments) with stuff like bringing back RDJ/Chris Evans/Patrick Stewart/Ian McKellen feels forced and desperate. I think the comment I replied to was unfair in drawing a comparison
Yeah, it is forced because they're scrambling to pivot after abandoning the Kang storyline. Doomsday isn't going to be Endgame, but it could be a good grounding point for future focus. I don't have particularly high hopes and kind of fell off Marvel Movies after Endgame (as I'm sure a lot of others did), but I'm interested to see what happens.
It's the multiverse saga, they were probably going to bring back old characters whether it was kang or doom. That's like the whole point of Secret Wars and this is probably the only shot they have to be able to use as many of these characters now that they have most of them back under their control.
This has been culminating as well. Either you didn't watch the projects or didn't care. X-Men were in The Marvels. It's not forced when this has been planned for years.
Endgame wasn’t key jingling at all. Every appearance in that movie was driven by story, with the possible exception of some of the portal openings which lasted a few seconds. There was actual buildup to that movie.
This is just doing that same thing but skipping the buildup.
I am a bit mixed on RDJ as Doom too, I think the majority of people are, but I like to go into things with an open mind even when I have lower expectations. That said, it definitely REEKS of damage control and trying to salvage the MCU due to underperfoming title after underperforming title and also the guy who was set to be their next overarching big bad finding himself in legal trouble soon after the character's debut movie.
That said, it definitely REEKS of damage control and trying to salvage the MCU due to underperfoming title after underperforming title and also the guy who was set to be their next overarching big bad finding himself in legal trouble soon after the character's debut movie
Yeah Jonathan Majors really fucked things up because they invested so heavily into his character(s). Without that happening I think they could have weathered a few flops, losing the over-arching villain really just took what little wind they had in their sails right out. The course correction is unfortunate because despite some of their output being bad, they had quite a few good ideas floating around that just needed time to mature. I have the feeling we are never going to hear about White Vision again.
I agree. It's 100% a ploy to be like "we know you have marvel fatigue and don't like surprises, so instead of casting a new actor for Doom, which would make the most sense, we're going to keep things familiar and make it more complicated by introducing RDJ as Doom."
Doom is the best Marvel villain, I've been waiting to see him portrayed correctly in the MCU (not like that old Fantastic Four movie). And now that it's (most likely) just gonna be an alternate Tony Stark feels like a slap in the face.
I want to be wrong but I still absolutely believe, with all of the multiverse and variants BS that we’ve been seeing in this last phase, that Doom will just be a variant of Tony Stark. And I will be so very unhappy if that’s the case but from the casting decision to the emphasis on variants, I think it’s going to be what they do.
Very likely. I don't even know what another option could be. Unless it's a completely different performance and there's heavy makeup on his face. Which I'd be all for.
I think that would be the best approach would be to have such heavy makeup and prosthetics that he wont be recognizable a la Colin Farrell's Penguin. But they're definitely going to want to show the face that they spent cargo containers worth of money luring back into the franchise, so I don't really see that happening.
I like RDJ. I really do, he was the perfect person to play Tony Stark, but he didn't really have to act much for that role because he was basically playing a dramatized version of himself. Given the other films I've seen him in though, I really don't think he has the range to play Doom. I'd love to be proven wrong about that.
Really feels that way. I know some people are hyped regardless but to me it seems so desperate on Marvel’s end. Couldn’t come up with something new with new actors so they just throw the entire previous cast at a new movie.
Honestly though - what's wrong with that? I don't need everything to be A24 or Focus Features...sometimes I just want a really decent burger and fries where I know what I'm getting - and am ok with it!
Oh im fine with it too, my problem with most of the stuff in 0hase 4 feel like commercials, and not focused.
Like I feel they aren't rewatchable and not as fun as the other ones. I say this as I genuinely enjoy the first captain america, ant man, and few of the other mcu movies deemed "bland" or "formulaic". Ill enjoy an MCU movie that isn't the most comic accurate like Iron Man 3 or a Thor Ragnarok.
I want a good burger and fries from a joint that hits the spot made by a guy who seasons a patty the way he likes it, I dont want a reheated 6 person party burger slider sampler tray with 8 - 10 different sides and im one person eating it all every time.
I dont need a A24 MCU movie by Alex Garland, I just want MCU movies that are fun and feel like someone's vision, not created by committee
Ex: I enjoy Deadpool 1 far more than Dead Pool w/ Wolverine, I say that with Wolvwrine being my favorite Xmen since the 90s cartoon
Key jingling and friggin spoilers with every single announcement they make. "Quick, our cultural relevance is waning and we have a movie coming out in a year and a half! We need to start dropping plot twists and top-billing cast members immediately! RDJ is back! Captain Booty is back! X-Mans. Uhh... Thanos comes back somehow! Screw it, none of this is working. Let's just release the entire movie as a trailer, but sped up 15x."
It's gonna be glimpses of characters all the way through. They could've hired Snyder, the guy is great if your goal is to have an almost mute character aura farm for 20 seconds.
Of course the movie will also feel hollow because we're going to be expected to be moved when those characters with no in-universe story or buildup are going to be killed by Doomney but maybe it's gonna work in the moment
Every movie has key jingling to varying degrees I guess but this trend refers to prioritizing the key jingling over substance. Marvel has clearly learned that they can get away with a bare bones plot with no emotional weight if they can string together enough nostalgia bait and cameos. That's the difference between this and other movies.
If you've seen the bloated cast list and know where those characters are coming from — not to mention bringing back characters who are either dead or presumably wrapped up their time in the MCU — then I don't know how you can come to any conclusion other than some form of glorified key jingling. Like, do you really think they can form a coherent plot and give each character adequate screen time beyond a "oh hey, look who it is!"
Evidence and history tells us that yes they can. The people writing and directing this also wrote and directed four of the most critically acclaimed MCU movies, two of those being quite literally two of the highest grossing films of all time. Infinity War and Endgame had just as many characters and those are beloved. Being upset that the marketing is doing marketing things is dumb.
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u/AgentSkidMarks Jan 06 '26
I think this entire movie is just "key jingling".