MCU Troubles Continue, RT Exposed, Snow White Drama, and Abrams' Constantine Cancelled

Marvel/Disney's issues are piling up and the hilarious, on-target South Park "Panderverse" (ostensibly pointed at moribund Star Wars head Kathleen Kennedy) hits all things Disney--is there a project that doesn't fit the mocking narrative? One of the primary signs that this specific approach is disappearing is that the gigantic corporations funding it (BlackRock, Vanguard, etc) are actively withdrawing from ESG. This means ESG will cease financially dictating these decisions and, while it's likely to be replaced by something similar, it could mean a pause as the industry tries to recover from the damage following it has caused.

Vulture has exposed that RT reviews are rigged (cf). This isn't a surprise to those who follow this issue, but having it confirmed means the numbers can be ignored. IMDB has similar issues (owned/controlled as it is by Amazon), so ultimately we are left with box office, Nielsen ratings, toy sales, etc to measure success/impact.

This story paired nicely with the discovery (via Rolling Stone) that HBO created fake social media accounts to attack those who criticized their shows. This approach is less impactful than the RT manipulation, but illustrates just how petty entertainment giants are when it comes to criticism of their products.

Changes at Disney continue--not only did they sell off ESPN (to add liquidity given their money problems), but a number of D+ shows have been cancelled or released for their creators to try and find a home/financing:

• Doogie Kamealoha (riffing off the 80s hit Doogie Howswer) after two seasons; no, I'd never heard of it either
• The Spiderwick Chronicles (based on the popular children's books, 03-09) - filming of the show is complete (it's apparently a fairly straightforward adaptation) and its makers found a home on Roku; the IP already had a film made in 2008 (Nickelodoen, which bombed)
• Nautilus (based on the Jules Verne novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) - filming of the show was complete (made via the usual 're-imagined' modern adaptation), and it was picked up by AMC

This was accompanied by two rounds of MCU shuffling (second round), some of which is related to the ongoing strike in Hollywood:

• Echo - the unwanted spinoff of Hawkeye has moved from November to January; filming is complete, so I can only assume this change was made to make room for What If? (which gets the better release slot because Echo is apparently a disaster and much of it had to be re-shot, with the episode count dropped from eight to five and debuting Netflix-style--all at once--which is not normal for D+)
• X-Men 97 (animated) - shifted from fall 2023 to early 2024; filming is complete so this is either a change due to lack of confidence or it's meant to be a palate-cleanser after Echo
• Agatha - the unwanted spinoff of WandaVision from winter 2023 to fall 2024; filming is complete and I suspect this is going to get the Echo-treatment of a Netflix-style one-day dump whenever it appears (no word about episode cuts as-yet, but it has been renamed three times)
• Ironheart - has been pulled from the schedule entirely (THR says filming is complete, but it's impacted by the strike, which is hard to accept when a date swap could have covered that (as it has for other shows)--for those unaware, this is the Miles Moralesing of Iron Man (the same creator created both)
• Daredevil - filming interrupted by the strike and it being completely retooled (see below)
• Wonder Man - filming interrupted by the strike and it may be cancelled entirely (at the moment it's on an indefinite hiatus)
• Other planned shows are also rumoured to be scrapped (link above), but none have been named (those announced: a Wakanda-based show; two animated Spider-Man shows; Marvel Zombies; a Nova series; Vision Quest; and a third season of What If?; I suspect the animated efforts are safe)
• Deadpool 3 - from May/24 to July/24 (great slot to an okay one; the small shift is likely strike-related); this is the only film approved/made by Bob Chapek prior to being ousted
• Captain America 4 - from July/24 to Feb/25 (okay slot to a bad one); filming was complete, but emergency reshoots are occurring now as apparently the original plot was calqued on January 6th
• Thunderbolts - from Dec/24 to July/25 (bad slot to an okay one); yet to be filmed and thus could easily shelved or jettisoned in the future
• Blade (again!) - from Feb/25 to Nov/25 (bad slot to an okay one); it's not clear if this film has a script yet (after discarding four already)

Marvel is scrapping the eight episodes they've filmed of the new Daredevil-series and completely retooling it. From reports, what was completed was a bland court drama with ESG casting, and while I expect the latter to remain unchanged, the belief is more action will be inserted (whether Daredevil will need a smarter, more talented female character to save him and defeat the villain remains to be seen, but that would be on-brand). What I don't think we'll get is the kind of frenetic, meaningful action from Daredevil season one on Netflix (and to a lesser degree in its other two seasons).

The Marvels is projected to bomb hard, with projections putting it behind Ant-Man 3 and it has opened on Thursday lower than Ezra Miller's Flash. This is a film with a ton of baggage, from Brie Larson fighting with fans (to the point of losing top billing, as this was originally Captain Marvel 2), to no one watching Ms. Marvel (whose video game also bombed), to Monica Rambeau having the least interesting origin of all time (walking through a force field?) and then absolving Wanda of torturing an entire town because she felt a little sad. Guardians 3's modest success has provided no lift for the film and no one knows (or cares) what's going on in Phase Five. As a reminder for context, here are the superhero film performances from this year (I've included the official budgets after the slash, but many of these are actually higher; broadly speaking a film needs to more than double its budget to turn a profit):

• Guardians 3 (May) - 845/250; with inflation this is 251 million less than Guardians 2
• Miles Morales 2 (June) - 690/90; with inflation this is 217 more than its first film
• Ant-Man 3 (February) - 476/200; with inflation this is 290 million less than Ant-Man 2
• The Flash (June) - 270/220
• Shazam 2 (March) - 133/125; with inflation this is 308 million less than Shazam
• Blue Beetle (August) - 129/104

The DC movies faired worse (as they always have as the DCEU), but the MCU films got killed other than Guardians. I'm lost on the appeal of Miles Morales, but in context that's a low end performance vs just four years ago (and dwarfed by Peter Parker's 1.9 billion), so it's only in comparison to the disasters around it that Sony can feel good (I see very little merch impact from that film). Back to The Marvels, whose reported budget is 275 million and has no hope to achieve Captain Marvel's box office. It will lose money, but the question is how much. It's widely rumoured that Brie Larson will step away from the MCU after this, which is a fittingly botched ending for the character (the modern, re-imagined Kelly Sue DeConnick iteration of Captain Marvel), lest we forget she was intended to be the new leader of The Avengers. What will the MCU do? If Nelson Peltz and Ike Perlmutter take over Disney's board (a realistic possibility that's currently in progress), I'd expect massive changes whose impact will be seen in theaters in 2-3 years. If not, I don't think Bob Iger will fundamentally change anything other than budgets and the MCU will ultimately implode (assuming it's not sold off).

We have to talk about Disney's attempted damage control with their live action Snow White (a film I'd have no interest in irrespective of circumstances). Star Rachel Zegler has inflamed fans with various silly comments (nothing unexpected--watch Rings of Powers interviews and its rinse and repeat; she has been quiet lately, so clearly she has been told to shut-up), which in part had the film's release date bumped (March, 2024, to March, 2025). This was explained as being due to the strikes, but we know that's not the only reason as the filmmakers have replaced their diverse group of Dwarves with a non-diverse group of creepy CGI Dwarves. In many ways this is exactly like so many other recent films, but as I said prior to all this happening, I don't think there's any appetite for this regardless (I'm still lost on who believes Gal Gadot would feel jealous of Zegler). Time will tell.

Speaking of race swaps, J. J. Abrams' planned (2021) Constantine series is dead. Sope Dirisu was apparently up for the role, but the series (along with another race-swapped property) could not find a home (on HBO or elsewhere). I wonder if Abrams' ability to get paid to do nothing has finally run out (he hasn't had a film in theaters since Star Wars in 2019 or a show since 2014-15). In terms of the IP, Keanu Reeves may come back to reprise the role, but at his age (59) it's difficult to see that being more than a one-off. We seem to be at the tipping point of maximum pandering, but given production schedules, it will take some time before any change will be seen in theaters or the small screen.

This article was written by Peter Levi