Delays, first reported by THR, are hitting heavily. Of the shows, only Secret Invasion and Loki season two will appear in 2023, with the already completed Ironheart, Echo, and currently filming Agatha Harkness moved to the following year (three shows no one asked for or wants). Don't get too excited, as Feige doesn't have any David Zaslav in him, so these abysmal products are still going to appear. Slow-dripping garbage isn't going to make it taste any better, but it does give Disney+ space to try and produce something that's actually crowd-pleasing.
Speaking of crowd-pleasing, Ant-Man 3 has arrived with the same anemic power of its Phase Four brethren, earning a paltry 367 million thus far and will settle in the doldrums of Shang-Chi/Eternals box office territory. This means casual film fans have given it a pass and even fewer people than expected will have any idea who Kang (the next Thanos in the MCU) is. The only response Feige and Bob Iger have had to failures like this is suggesting they need more jokes, but that's not going to cut it (as the emergency reshoots of Ant-Man 3 demonstrate). While one can argue the good stories in the MCU are relatively simple, that's fine for a comic book film--Iron Man isn't trying to be Citizen Kane. It's clear that the major issue at Marvel is that the creative people involved aren't that talented (there's hilarity in shills like John Campea saying the problem is that Feige needs more control--he's been in complete control throughout Phase Four and beyond!).
Back to the MCU's response to the problem: joining the TV delays is The Marvels (aka Captain Marvel 2) getting moved again. It had been pushed back from February to July, but now has been moved to November. The change provides plenty of time for reshoots (more jokes!), but given Phase Four's inability to fix anything with reshoots, it's not going to improve a film no one wanted in the first place.
The MCU is like the Titanic, except that everyone other than its leaders is aware of the iceberg. This kind of blindness killed the Star Wars IP, but it seems like Iger and Disney are unwilling or unable to identify the problem (the bar for 'good' could not be lower right now--Avatar 2 and Top Gun: Maverick are average films).
I feel fortunate that we got three good Phases out of Marvel--that's a string of quality content unlikely to be replicated--but what an awful fall from grace. It reminds me of the horror of the Star Wars prequels, which turned the IP into Jar Jar's memes and ramblings about sand (never forget). I have no idea why YT outragers heap praise on George Lucas, who saddled us with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (equally as stupid)--while the sequels are bad, that doesn't magically make the prequels good.
I wonder if Zaslav is already having buyer's remorse about hiring James Gunn, as every time he opens his mouth the DCEU's future looks bleaker. For a guy who supposedly has his finger on the pulse of his audience, he's clueless about what works for DC fans (it's difficult to imagine a worse handling of the Henry Cavill situation). Despite an outpouring of positivity when his involvement was announced (misplaced, in my opinion, but it was there), there's been nothing positive since. Shazam 2 is tracking to bomb even harder than Ant-Man 3, and the other moribund DC properties on the slate are also expected to struggle (as WB goes all-in on Ezra Miller and The Flash--you'd think this would pose problems for the very progressive Gunn, who ought to be outraged by the accusations against Miller, but I guess a fat paycheque overcomes moral objections). That's a terrible lead-in for whatever Gunn is planning and nothing he's announced sounds exciting. I feel think the future slate will change quite a bit (which is nothing new for DC on film).
Let's open this by making it clear that I'm not really a Harry Potter fan--I don't hate it, but it's impact on me is limited. I read the books and watched the films (RIP Richard Harris and Alan Rickman), which were entertaining enough, but one-and-done was enough for me. As for J. K. Rowling, I always found her faintly ridiculous (making comments about Hermione being black with the reflexive, backwards looking virtue signaling people in her class are notorious for). What Rowling has discovered is that no matter how hard you try to keep up with Neo-Liberal attitudes, you cannot cross the Dave Chappelle line. The backlash she's received is loud but ineffectual (no impact financially or on her career and, unlike Chappelle, no one has tried to physically attack her), but what Hogwarts Legacy has shown is we've reached the point where the public no longer cares about the outrage. I don't know where the tipping point was--Chapelle's The Closer (2021) is an indicator, as are things like George R. R. Martin (another virtue signaler), criticizing the movement and bemoaning not being able to call himself a feminist anymore. At some point the cancel crowd lost its fangs. This goes well beyond Rowling's specific controversy, as high profile cases involving Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson have also gone against the 'believe all' rhetoric of 2018. I think things like the Amber Heard or Kyle Rittenhouse trial played a role in the public's changing attitude (where accusations had to meet a burden of proof and viewers could make their own judgements).
The fact that Hogwarts Legacy has made a fortune doesn't inherently make it a great game. What it does show is that journalists and the elite screaming at people has no impact on public interest. This has been evident in film and TV for years (Ghostbusters, anyone?), but the failed attempt with Hogwarts is so large it can't easily be ignored or forgotten. The movement, if you want to call it that, seems to have forgotten that progress is made by forging alliances (unions aren't formed by a hivemind, after all), not screaming at anyone who isn't already inside the club. While I'm glad to see the insanity starting to simmer down, I wish this kind of energy was being channeled into practical things like helping folks who are living under bridges. On a larger scale, the zeitgeist is changing, but into what remains to be seen.
The hype for HBO's The Last of Us was so loud I was expecting at least Rings of Powers-type Nielsen numbers, but now that they are out, it turns out the hype is bigger than the viewership (a banger show is well over 1,000 in the watched category above). This reality matches the Google Trend data I looked at previously (which was good, but not great)--for some perspective, TLOU's peak was 61% lower than the most recent season of Stranger Things, and 46% lower than Wednesday. The show's trends are trailing off, with episode five hitting at less than 50% of episode one. It's easy to forget that modern shows rarely impact audiences like they used too--Wednesday lost to reruns of Seinfeld, after all. None of this means we won't get a second season and I'm sure this one will win awards--it would even if no one was watching--but it provides perspective on the hype. The IP is so degraded it's hard to feel the same affection for the original game that I've long had. The trends are awful--a disappointing DLC followed by an awful sequel, a poorly handled remake, and now an adaptation 'made for a modern audience'. Unlike The Witcher, where Netflix's hamfisted treatment leaves room for someone to do better, we won't get another adaptation for The Last of Us.
This article was written by Peter Levi
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