Rumors of a Marvel Sea Change Accompany a Canceled MCU Film

Movies

Is Marvel preparing to right the MCU ship? That’s the rumor right now, with some of our favorite people revealing behind-the-scenes moves they’ve heard from sources. During this week’s Nerdrotic Nooner, Gary and Film Threat’s Chris Gore talked about the big reveal from the San Diego Comic-Con that Robert Downey Jr. will return to the MCU as the evil overlord Doctor Doom. Gary and Chris Gore had heard this a while back and said nothing (Robert Meyer Burnett also knew as far back as last November, which he revealed on Film Threat; WDW Pro had heard this as well), and his sources told him some other things as well. You can see the clip below:

Chris Gore later appeared on the Critical Drinker’s weekly stream, Open Bar, and said that he’d been told even more interesting information, as does the Drinker:

The major takeaway here, if these reports are accurate, is that Marvel is planning to drop its All New, All Different woke crap and make stuff people like again. To that end, according to Chris Gore, they’ve gotten rid of their activist producers and other employees, and they’re planning a multiverse-induced reboot that will return the MCU to its more traditional roots. Gary’s suggestion that some of the things still waiting in the wings, like the female Silver Surfer, were not Kevin Feige’s decisions but were forced on him by who we can assume is Bob Iger, indicates that he is meeting some pushback from Disney, so it’ll probably be a struggle to fix Marvel.

That’s if you buy this, which I’m not sure I do. I’m not doubting Gary and Chris Gore; I’m sure they heard what they say they heard. But I wouldn’t put it past Marvel to have information like this leaked to people who have been critical of the MCU – and who disaffected fans trust – to put the idea out there that better times are ahead and people should hang in there and maybe see the lousy films between now and Avengers: Doomsday to prepare for the good stuff. Sure, this would be immensely damaging in the long run because it would annihilate all trust anyone has in Marvel, but as I said when talking about Robert Downey Jr.’s newly announced villain turn, I don’t believe they think that far ahead. They just want an immediate win, which is why they’re ignoring the things they should be learning from Deadpool & Wolverine, heavily flawed though it may be. They just made a hugely successful movie that acknowledged that the multiverse story was a mistake, then announced that perhaps their best villain will be a multiversal variant of their most popular hero without an identity of his own – for a movie that, as Gary says, doesn’t have a script yet. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

On the other hand, if Gary and Chris Gore heard this from the same people who told them about Doctor Doom getting a Tony Stark makeover, that lends credence to their validity. You could argue that the RDJ reveal was something they wanted out there, but I don’t think so; Marvel wanted their Comic-Con moment with that, not a rumor that spread on YouTube. There’s also the recent reveal that an unspecified Marvel movie that was to be released in 2026 has been taken off the schedule. I’m not sure what that is, but maybe it’s one of their terrible ideas that nobody wanted, one they can now pretend was never a thing because it’s been wiped from existence, Thanos style. Gary pointed out that there are still a few Marvel movies on deck that, even if this is all true, they can’t do anything about because they’ve already been filmed – some of them several times. But a sharp turn requires some skidding, so as much as these will probably suck, it’s a bump we’ll have to get over, even if they’re trying to fix the MCU.

So maybe it is true; if so, as the Drinker said, that’s hopeful and certainly an indication that they want to make the MCU great again. I still don’t like the way they’re going about some of this, especially Doctor Doom; even if the Drinker is right and there’s a real Doctor Doom masterminding everything, this is not the way to introduce him. This is something you do way down the road, after you’ve established Doom, his origin, his conquest of Latveria, his rivalry with Reed Richards, and his status as a threat to the whole Marvel Universe. This is what I hate most about how Marvel is using the multiverse: it’s essentially a fast-forward button that eschews tons of necessary character development. Doctor Doom will instantly be inserted via a phony Tony Stark possession storyline, no muss, no fuss. Except the audience needs the muss and fuss to connect with the characters. I’d love to be optimistic, but Marvel hasn’t given much to make me trust them to pull this off lately.

What do you make of these rumors? Is there a legitimate change on the way, or is Marvel blowing more smoke? Let us know in the comments!