Heck, the Netflix series already took care of that, since by the end of it, Colleen Wing was the Iron Fist. I'd be perfectly happy with them picking up that status quo.
Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread
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Heck, the Netflix series already took care of that, since by the end of it, Colleen Wing was the Iron Fist. I'd be perfectly happy with them picking up that status quo.
My man Iron Fist gets no love.
Right?
Overall a very good analysis...
Just a couple minor things:
Birds of Prey was wrapping up at the beginning of the pandemic... and there might have been people who were starting to get cautious then. Even at the end of January, CHina (a growing source of movie revenue) started locking down their cities. January 31, WHO declared a Global EMergency and by Feb 3 the US declared it a national emergency. While according to this timeline, the lockdown didn't happen in the US until March... i think a lot of people were getting cautious by February. I remember even in December of 2019, there were reports of this mystery illness (One of the earliest cases was in my hometown of Hoffman Estates , IL, so that's how it alerted me).
For sure it killed the international intake (from what i can see on BoxOfficeMojo , it never even opened in CHina at all... where Aquaman earned $290 million there)
Also, Wonder Woman was the highest grossing in the US of all the DCFU films... but Aquaman had the most internationally.
Now,t he general rule is that a movie has a marketing budget equal to to the production budget. I am guessing Aquaman's PR budget was waaaaaay less than the production budget (especially after whatever they spent on the Flash was clearly a failure). If it wasn't less, then they need to sue their PR companies for negligence!
I actually have to agree with @Christopher on this -- DC could have easily started with a Justice League film. here's How I Would Have Approached That:
Start with a Justice League film, but have the centers be 2 "minor" heroes -- Superman , Batman & Wonder Woman are there but not the center of it... Then also have a Superman movie immediately ready to start production once Justice League hits... we put that news right at the heels of Justice League Hype.
Then a few months later, announce production of a breakout character (in this case,it was Wonder WOman).
4th up will be Justice League 2, which will have their weakest character tweaked & improved (Like Hawkeye in Age of Ultron),
Batman would be announced just like Superman was, and a few months later, another breakout character gets their chance to shine.
By this time, you will be ready to do more sequels of any of the previous, plus ready to experiment like Guardians of the Galaxy was with the MCU.
=== but going back to the MCU.... yeah, we are in a slump... but it isn't unrecoverable, as a few here are predicting.
As , again Christopher has mentioned somewhere, MCU has really tried to diversify in terms who they are featuring both in front and behind the camera, which i think is a great thing.
However, they haven't been able to capture a culture's attention as Black Panther did, so they need to budget accordingly, so buzz can up "upgrade" newer properties. ALso, "progressive" whites need to step up and support non-white characters
Right now, both DC & Marvel are feeling like the comics were ot me after the first Crisis/ Secret Wars. Back then, it wa snew and innovative to tie-in to different series and connect it to the bigger picture. While i was willing to afford it for that first event...that was not sustainable for me...and neither for the viewers.
If done right, you can have a great standalone story, but it will be more meaningful for those who know the bigger background.
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Lastly, i am wondering how merchandising is fitting into this... that would also be a huge part of it, i would think.
Do not hold your breath waiting for that last part to happen. Similar to companies like Disney--ever touting how "progressive" they are in any number of categories, their record on race has been disturbing...at best. They can crow about Black Panther as an event, but that's one film (a corner) headlined by a black character. That does not erase notable matters such as the serious Boyega complaints about the way he was increasingly marginalized in the Star Wars sequels' marketing and the handling of the Finn character (complaints which were conveniently never adequately addressed / rectified). Finn was--supposedly--the biggest black character of the new age of SW movies, yet he was a panting, screaming ex-janitor (I call LFL/Dinsey "just" being tone-deaf on that one pure BS), who lost any level of importance with each passing film. That kind of uncaring, fucked-up perception of the only black character of the ST's so-called "Big Three" mirrors how some "progressive whites" (as you described them) create their value judgements about characters, and it was certainly the case in a general consideration of Finn.
I recognized the same with the Arrowverse's Jimmy Olsen, where Brooks was both resented (for "not being right"...code for white) and dismissed by innumerable, self-identified "progressives" (or recognized by statements on certain sociopolitical subjects) as unimportant, and from the production end, ultimately marginalized as an afterthought, which never happened to any of the other main stars of Supergirl.
So, historical examples leads one to believe the call for "progressive" whites to show the same level of support for non-white characters is something one should never expect to see--certainly not on any consistent level. The reaction to a film such as Black Panther was the textbook example of an outlier event, one that will likely never be repeated with say, Captain America 4--the movie debut of Wilson taking his place as one of the new "A-list" superheroes going forward.
Here in the Puget Sound region, there were reports of something coming out of China as early as November-December 2019. The first confirmed case in the United States was on 21-January-2020 in Snohomish Country followed by the announcement on 19-February-2020, that several residents and staff at a nursing/senior home in Kirkland had contracted and tested positive for the virus and were being transferred to Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland.
I distinctly remember that day, as I was helping a friend of mine move and I was on 405 north just passing Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland/Totem Lake heading for home, when the announcement was made on KOMO radio.
After that, the virus really took hold and by 29-February-2020, Governor Jay Inslee declared a State of Emergency and the shutdowns/lockdowns began.
George Miller was all ready to start production on 'Justice League Mortal' in 2007 before the plug was pulled, which could have led to an expanded universe before Iron Man hit the screen.
I had enjoyed "Iron Fist" - a lot more than I did "Daredevil". But I didn't like how it ended, with Colleen Wing becoming the new Iron Fist. One, I found it unnecessary, considering that Ms. Wing was supposed to be an iconic character in her own right. And two, Danny Rand had regained his powers by the last frame of Season Two.
Well, he did become Force-sensitive in the third film, for what that's worth. ( In the second film, because he was part of the B-plot concocted to keep other characters busy while Luke/Rey/Kylo were doing the A-plot, his importance suffered along with the other B-plot participants. )TREK_GOD_1 said:
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Iron Fist has always been a problematic character, and since Shang Chi is a success we don't need Danny Rand anymore
Case in point.
I think Iron Fist became a "problematic character", due to the reaction of Tilda Swinton's controversial casting in "Doctor Strange" as the Ancient One, a character that was Asian in the comics. Because "Iron Fist" was released on Netflix about four to five months after "Doctor Strange" hit the theaters, and Danny Rand had spent half of his childhood in the Himalayas; the controversy transferred to "Iron Fist" and many MCU fans had decided it was a terrible series and accused the showrunner of whitewashing Danny's character.
While I can see the argument that Danny Rand fits the stereotype of the "white savior" trope, the fact that he's a rich, privileged white man is essential to his dynamic with Luke Cage. I think that its a missed opportunity that we got separate shows with Luke and Danny, but we never got any real exploration of the Power Man and Iron Fist dynamic. Luke and Danny always represented a societal yin and yang, with Luke often calling Danny out on his privilege. I would have much preferred getting more of that to them each getting separate solo seasons.
I can take or leave Danny honestly. That said; the way his show ended Colleen Wing is the Iron Fist as of about a decade ago, while Danny is doing some weird gun-chi thing. If they want to use Iron Fist for anything, they could just go with Colleen. Danny can either be forgotten about, or pop up as a supporting character / one-off / villain if they ever get around to a 'Heroes For Hire'/'Daughters of the Dragon' thing.
. . . But between the whole white privilege AND cultural appropriation vibe, probably best to leave him be.
. . . But between the whole white privilege AND cultural appropriation vibe, probably best to leave him be.
Oh, no doubt Danny Rand was a white savior figure, but what redeemed season 1 of the Iron Fist TV show was that it deconstructed the white savior idea. Danny wasn't a perfect hero who saved everyone else with his superior ability and wisdom; he was a privileged, spoiled rich kid whose assumption that he was entitled to get everything he wanted was a continuing source of complication and conflict in the storyline, and who repeatedly needed to have sense knocked into him by the hypercompetent women of color around him, much like your point about how Luke did that in the comics.
Well, Jessica Henwick would certainly be up for it. When she was given the choice between a role in Matrix 4 or role a in Shang-Chi (Xialing), she chose The Matrix partly because doing Shang-Chi would end the possibility of ever playing Colleen again.
https://www.slashfilm.com/716540/the-real-reason-jessica-henwick-turned-down-a-role-in-shang-chi/
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I've said before, I would really like a Shang-Chi and the Daughters of the Dragon movie.