Back in 2019, Marvel Studios was on top of the world with the release of “Avengers: Endgame”, becoming the most successful film at the box office of all time.  Marvel was hitting it out of the park with almost every film release, and with the launch of Disney+ becoming a priority, Marvel Studios was tasked with creating new shows for the streaming service.

The first batch of shows, which included “WandaVision,” “Loki,” and “The Falcon And The Winter Soldier,” were hits with viewers, especially since audiences were still restricted by the pandemic, resulting in more people watching television at the time.

However, over the next few years, the shine fell off Marvel Studios’ releases, and with the quantity of releases increasing, the quality of the product was reduced.  Fans started to get burned out on the endless stream of shows and films.   Viewership of new Marvel shows on Disney+ has been in decline and many of the Marvel movies have failed to ignite the box office success of the previous sagas.

A recent report from the WSJ has highlighted how Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, has dealt with the situation, stating that he felt that watching all of the studio’s movies and shows had started to feel more like homework than entertainment.

He has apparently acknowledged that in his efforts to keep the stream of content flowing for Disney+ and cinemas, they churned out too many movies and shows with interconnected stories.   Resulting in fans being overwhelmed and eventually alienating viewers.

The other big problem with the amount of content being created was, as you might expect, it resulted in a drop in quality, as Kevin Feige and his team’s resources had been stretched too thin.  His feedback was essential, and due to his busy schedule, the creative teams could spend weeks working on something, only for Feige to insist on changes. Some staff were even resorting to chasing Feige in the halls of their building to try to get answers they needed.

Marvel Studios’ spending was getting out of hand, with the budgets for shows and films increasing, sometimes costing over $200 million for a show, due to the a-list actors involved and also expensive visual effects. 

We’ve already seen Marvel Studios drastically change course, slowing down its release schedule, stretching out its releases, such as “Ironheart”, which is due to be released on Disney+ next month, but was originally going to arrive two years ago. 

During this period of slowdown, Marvel Studios has gone through an overhaul to get back on track by reducing the number of shows they are creating for Disney+.  They are also trying to make these shows stand on their own, away from the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, so viewers can just enjoy them, without needing to have seen everything released. 

The film division has also gone through many changes, as they look to get their theatrical slate back on track.  While Marvel Studios has had some major successes in the past few years, with both “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” being some of the most successful box office hits of all time, but it’s also had some flops, like “The Marvels”, “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantamania” and “Captain America: Brave New World”.

While in 2025, there are going to be over ten different releases from Marvel Studios, with three films, three live-action shows and multiple animated projects.  Many of these were put into development before the big slowdown, and it does feel a little bit like Marvel is just trying to get as many of these projects out of the way as soon as possible, allowing for a restart with fewer titles in 2026.

The plan looks to be that we are only going to see one or two Disney+ shows released annually, with them also consisting of multiple seasons, rather than keep launching brand new shows.   The Disney+ shows are also being overseen by a senior executive, allowing Kevin Feige to focus on the movie side of things, especially as he’s had to deal with the failure of “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantamania” and the fallout of the legal issues with Jonathan Majors, who was going to play the big villain of the upcoming “Avengers” movies.  

These next two “Avengers” movies are going to be big tests for Marvel Studios. They are going to be epic superhero adventures with a massive cast and a lot of pressure to deliver something amazing. That’s why all of their effort has been on getting these movies right rather than on churning out lots of movies and shows.

Roger’s Take:  I still remember when Kevin Feige revealed the roadmap for the MCU at San Diego Comic Con in 2019, with dozens of movies and shows set to be released over the next five years.  I always felt like it was too much, and I was right.  Even with a drastic slowdown due to the pandemic and strikes, we are still dealing with the aftereffects of Marvel revealing way too many projects, too early.  Lucasfilm did the exact same thing with Star Wars, along with many of Disney’s other studios, such as Pixar, which couldn’t just increase output without it having disastrous implications.

I think Kevin Feige’s decision to slow everything down, focus on the main theatrical releases and reduce Disney+ releases is the correct path forward.   For die-hard fans of Marvel, they will no doubt be disappointed with fewer releases, but the releases we do get should be far better.  2025 feels like the year some of these projects just get dumped out onto Disney+, to get it over with, such as “Ironheart”, “Marvel Zombies” and “Eyes Of Wakanda”.   

Do you think it’s right for Marvel Studios to reduce its output?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts