Bob Iger tells Marvel to stop shoveling movies and TV shows down your throat

It was exciting when Marvel Studios started making all of their connected movies. It looked like the comics they were based on. The common threads were passed from one story to another, resulting in larger “event” films. If you’ve seen all their films, it makes the event films more special. Slowly but surely, movies (and eventually TV shows) faced the same problem as comic books. There are too many things.

This problem has become more prevalent with the addition of Marvel TV shows to Disney+. Marvel had already dipped into television, but shows like Agents of SHIELD And Daredevil were less connected than initially expected. There would be shared threads, but the universes rarely seemed separate. Then shows like Wandavision, The Falcon and the Winter SoldierAnd Loki were presented and what seemed like a fun idea became a homework assignment.

Bob Iger noticed this problem. Iger addressed this issue during an earnings conference call, promising to scale back Disney Marvel’s production. “We’re going to slowly taper off and probably go to about two TV series a year instead of four and reduce our movie production from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three,” the Disney CEO said to investors. . “And we are working hard on this path.”

Iger made sure to portray this as a good thing and not some sort of retirement. He’s optimistic about Marvel’s future, even though it was overhauled after removing Jonathan Majors as its next major villain. When discussing the MCU’s upcoming slate, Iger said they have “a few good movies in 25, and then we’re heading into more ‘Avengers,’ which we’re extremely excited about.” He went on to say, “Overall, I feel good about this list. It’s something I’ve committed to spending more and more time on. I have immense confidence in this team and the intellectual property we leverage, including any sequels we make, is second to none.

While addressing Marvel’s bloat is a positive development, it’s hard not to wonder if this is more a fallout from the WGA and SAG strikes. People like Iger often threatened that less could be done if unions got what they wanted. It was a bull tactic used to dissuade people from wanting a decent wage. Today, people in Iger’s situation may be following through on their threats by continuing to pay each other absurd amounts of money.

Just because he doesn’t say the quiet part out loud doesn’t mean he isn’t cutting production to line his and his investors’ pockets. Marvel should take a step back, but that didn’t seem to be the goal last year. In a few years, when the consequences of strikes are easier to analyze, this could be considered a turning point.