Yahoo Movies Disney boss details new approach to Marvel sequels
The Walt Disney Company's big boss, Bob Iger, has stated that the entertainment giant is changing how it's approaching Marvel Cinematic Universe content.
The recently reinstated CEO has been talking about the House of Mouse's biggest franchises and how they need to focus on a "quality and not volume" approach in order to offset skyrocketing costs (via The Hollywood Reporter).
"What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel storytelling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters," he explained.
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"Sequels typically work well for us, but do you need a third or a fourth, for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters? There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we are mining.
"And if you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. Now, we’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers, as an example."
He does not outright mention audience fatigue, which feels like it's a growing sentiment online (Marvel's Phase 4 was the length of the first three Phases combined), but makes a nod to it when talking about the company's Star Wars output, noting that "maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive".
He continued: "You know, there’s so much consumer choice right now. It comes back to what is differentiated? That’s one thing we have talked about, those brands: Star Wars, Marvel and Disney and Pixar, for instance. But quality is also a differentiator.
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"I think HBO proved that well in their halcyon days, when high-quality programming made a big difference, not volume. And because the streaming platforms require so much volume, one has to question whether that’s the right direction to go, or if you can be more curated, more... picky about what you’re making, and to concentrate on quality and not volume."
With so many future MCU projects already announced, it'll be interesting to see when these changes start to come into effect, and how much the MCU slims down its output in addition to relying less on solo character sequels.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in cinemas now.
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