What does the show bombing mean? Publicly Amazon has denied it flopped, but the budget for season two has been slashed and we can assume internally Jeff Bezos wants someone's head to roll--many are hoping for Jennifer Salke (whose mess this is), but I think she's too well connected for that to happen. Changing showrunners is the only meaningful public change to make (which would be framed as wanting to spend more time with their family or pursue other interests), but that seems unlikely at this point. For now it seems like Bezos has chosen to eat the loss and push forward, presumably due to ego. [Right after I posted this, I saw rumours of a shadow showrunner being brought in.]
A bit of trivia: producer Lindsey Weber is married to Mike Weber, one of Wheel of Time's producers, perhaps explaining some of the similarities between the terrible fantasy shows (cheap costumes, awful writing, etc). We also know that the Finrod scenes were part of reshoots because Tom Budge was the original Finrod and these feature his replacement (Will Fletcher). Whether any of Fletcher's scenes were entirely new is less clear, but Budge did his career a favour by leaving.
Finally: I do know people who like the show (albeit not very many). These are broadly fantasy fans (which is to say, not book fans) who are unbothered by, for example, the terrible writing in The Witcher or The Wheel of Time. Their standard for genre fair seems to be: if it looks like fantasy, yay! Unfortunately for Amazon, such fans are few and far between and they are mostly outside the key demographic, instead appealing to older fans who, in small numbers, gravitate towards it (which mirrors the Phase Four audience for the MCU).
Speaking of Phase Four (whose nickname, Phase Bore, needs some work), Black Panther 2's box office is projected along the same path as the rest--a big opening followed by a sharp drop (estimated to earn half or less the original's gross). There's agitation from toy producers about losing a cash cow for boys with the absence of Black Panther (cf), as they don't believe the female leads answer that requirement or make up for it elsewhere (referencing the horrific sales of Phase Four merch other than Spider-Man).
Black Panther is ‘a very specific character’ whose ‘appeal is very ‘male’, even more than usual.’ This seems especially true with black men. Black men have the strongest relationship with the character, with an interesting, strong pop on the father/son dynamic. Black men identify with the Black King, strong male figure. Word association: noble strength. How the character holds himself. They admire that in the hero; inspiring to them. …seeing the movies was a great bonding [experience] for many black men and their sons. … Black men are even less likely to buy female-IP driven merch for either themselves or their sons.
Apparently Disney is pitching Storm as a way of ultimately solving that problem, but understandably the manufacturers don't agree (the binary of gendered toy sales, despite attempts to eliminate it, has not meaningfully changed).
She-Hulk is finally over (it's irrelevance with the public is dramatically illustrated by the Trends graph above, although critics continue to praise it unlike Rings of Power). There's not much left to say about the show, as the unfunny mess won't get a second season, allowing other writers to try and salvage the character in other projects (I doubt they can, but at least it's unlikely that Jessica Gao will be involved with her again--so many ex-Rick and Morty writers have shown themselves inept without Dan Harmon fixing their material). One of the funnier things about the show is that it's marketing was focused on guest stars rather than the titular hero, illustrating how little faith Disney had in the product. I also wonder how much it stings Feige and Victoria Alonso that the only Disney+ show getting a second season has a white male showrunner/writer (not that Michael Waldron has any talent) and a white male lead (Loki).
As for the show itself, other than further degrading Daredevil (what exactly he likes about She-Hulk is a mystery the show doesn't attempt to resolve--her desire for him seems to be all that matters--very Wonder Woman 84), I think the future for Matt Murdock will lean on his solo series (his role in Echo, which I expect to perform even more poorly than She-Hulk, won't matter). It's worth noting She-Hulk was written three years ago in a very different environment. Our present is in the midst of war, hyper inflation, an energy crisis, and political upheaval, such that a tale of She-Hulk's First World struggles of relationships and internet trolls doesn't cut it (the writers don't even understand bullying, which impacts the powerless, not invulnerable alcoholics). Whether this is the canary in the coal mine for Feige or not is difficult to say--if he learned nothing from The Eternals he's likely beyond the point of changing.
The Deadpool 3 announcement is a late, desperate decision echoing D23's sudden jettisoning of Phase Four for a Phase Five no one cares about either. Feige finally pulled the trigger on Hugh Jackman to reprise Wolverine, likely also caving into whatever demands Ryan Reynolds had that were preventing the film from hitting production. I don't think this guarantees Deadpool 3 will be good, as Deadpool 2 (which Reynolds controlled) was a poor sequel to Deadpool. Despite that, I think fans will show-up for Jackman, as the power of the memberberry is strong (that seems to be the one thing Feige took away from Far From Home--more memberberries!--albeit it did not work in Doctor Strange 2).
More broadly, MCU delays continue as the troubled Blade shifted over a year (Sept/23 to Nov/24), which is insane; Secret Wars moved back six months (Nov/25 to May/26), and Deadpool 3 (just announced) and Fantastic Four also moved a few months. Shuffling the schedule isn't new to Marvel, but has been particularly bad since Phase Four began (She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel are classic examples, as they swapped places then failed spectacularly). The changes represent the chaos going on internally. I think the reality of Phase Four's failure is dawning on them. The fly in the ointment for Marvel is that since Feige has had full control, the writing at Marvel has turned to utter shit, but I don't think there's awareness of that (Michael Waldron is still employed, after all).
My guess is that Mahershala Ali is trying to force Blade into being something other than a disaster--I think he's the reason why Stacey Amma Osei-Kuffour's moribund script was tossed (it wouldn't surprise me if he had it leaked). That said, replacing her with Beau DeMayo is not necessarily encouraging (Witcher and Moon Knight credits are worrying ahead of the animated X-Men '97, granting I was not a fan of the animated show it's borne from).
Speaking of DeMayo, the former Witcher writer happily threw his colleagues under the bus, proclaiming "Some of the writers were not or actively
disliked the books and games (even actively mocking the source material). It’s
a recipe for disaster and bad morale. Fandom as a
litmus test checks egos, and makes all the long nights worth it. You have to
respect the work before you’re allowed to add to its legacy." This is great to hear, but DeMayo's own episodes from the show is awful (especially "Kaer Morhen"), illustrating no respect for the source material, so we'll need him to put words into action before crediting him with sanity. That aside, Witcher has always been a disaster due to the writing (via the incompetent showrunner) and I firmly believe season three will be the end--Henry Cavill returning as Superman implies he's not putting aside time for the Netflix show.
I haven't discussed Ezra Miller in awhile. The Flash star has pled not guilty to burglary charges and because Miller is both wealthy and has industry support (going to jail would jeopardize hundreds of millions of WB's money), I don't foresee jail time. I still think writing the actor out of the WB is in the cards, since who wants the headache, but until that happens the support will remain. Those rumours from the summer (cf) that Miller would not be returning as the Flash have popped up again--the substance is the same (insiders at WB say Miller is done), but presumably have reemerged due to the court proceedings.
It has been months since I wrote about Conan, but not that long for Red Sonja. Marketing for the latter has continued with on-set shots of the lead being released. Other than Matilda Lutz having red hair, there's nothing to be drawn from them (albeit for modern entertainment that in and of itself is a minor miracle). As for Conan, the news is confirmation that there is a showrunner for the Netflix project (why their identity is being kept under wraps, I have no idea, but presumably reflects a state of early pre-production). It's worth repeating that these two projects are completely unrelated due to the rights situation, so it's all but impossible for the two characters to meet on-screen.
I've heard Apple's adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is a train wreck, but like most people I haven't seen it (no one is discussing it either). I read the original trilogy as a teenager and enjoyed it, but Apple hasn't made something people want to watch. Because of where it aired and its lack of impact, I don't think the result hurts the IP (unlike Amazon killing the Wheel of Time).
I haven't discussed Ezra Miller in awhile. The Flash star has pled not guilty to burglary charges and because Miller is both wealthy and has industry support (going to jail would jeopardize hundreds of millions of WB's money), I don't foresee jail time. I still think writing the actor out of the WB is in the cards, since who wants the headache, but until that happens the support will remain. Those rumours from the summer (cf) that Miller would not be returning as the Flash have popped up again--the substance is the same (insiders at WB say Miller is done), but presumably have reemerged due to the court proceedings.
I jumped off the Star Wars train a long time ago (Force Awakens was the final nail, with the prequels providing the rest), but it's interesting to see Andor suffering from the weight of prior failures. No one is watching the show, to the point that even the shills are discussing that reality. A prequel to a prequel for a franchise that hasn't done anything worth watching since 1983 did not appeal to anyone. I don't think this changes anything going forward, except lowering future budgets for whatever else is coming to Disney+. The just announced decision to bring in Damon Lindelof (!) illustrates LucasFilm still doesn't know what it's doing.
One of the reasons anime does so well is that it's not locked into the current Western political paradigm--writers are free to tell a good story. This is clearly seen in disasters like Cowboy Bebop, where American approaches were imposed. You can't make art or entertainment when your primary goal is pushing a message--that's just propaganda and people reject it even if they don't know why. We can see another example of this with The Woman King, which did the classic Hollywood thing of taking historical events and ignoring them for a message. In this case being caught proved disastrous, because Dahomey is a troubling African nation to depict positively. It's easy to imagine a Hollywood producer simply asking for African warrior women (perhaps inspired by the Dora Milaje from Black Panther) and not caring about specifics. Turns out both Africans and African-Americans were well-aware of that history and spoke out against it (including actors like Lupita Nyong'o), meaning the usual strategy of calling criticism racism/sexism couldn't work and the film bombed spectacularly (there's another related example of Latino's rejecting the invented 'Latinex' label). When will fans and creatives be freed from agenda-driven films? I have no idea.
This article was written by Peter Levi
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