Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread

[JD]

I disagree with the notion of "giving up on doing new things" but aside from that...

Endgame was already five years ago. In a franchise that is 16 years old.
How long should they wait to bring back proven creators?

Honestly, in the case of directors who have already done 4 movies and a TV series, never. We've gotten enough from them now, so I'd rather see them bring in more new and different directors who can bring new ideas and styles into the franchise.
Don't get me wrong, I've loved everything they've done with for the MCU, and I'm sure their new Avengers will probably be great, I'd just prefer to see someone else get a chance.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

It just took my use of a term way too literally and missed the point

Oh, that was quite obvious.

--which is, it is pretty last minute hiring a directing team for a movie that doesn't even seem to have a script finalized and is scheduled to release in May 2025.

Agreed--the point missed by some is that the Russos were not originally intended to be attached to the film, so its a rather clear indicator that film did not have some tight production so close to an announced release date, thus Marvel is reeling in the Russos as if they're going to be the magic bullet / clean-up crew. I suppose they imagine that will be a guarantee, which they need in consideration of a number of underperforming or bombing MCU films in recent history.

 

[Anwar]

I agree to an extent, but Quantumania definitely did not break even. Earning less than 500m gross on a 326m budget is not even remotely close to breaking even. Huge portions of that gross box office do not go to the studio and the budget figures don't even usually include all the marketing costs.

So, yeah, two movies in one year that lost money (large sums of money in both cases) is a serious issue, especially for a franchise that hasn't lost money on a non-pandemic release since 2008, despite releasing literally dozens of films since then.

At the same time, though, a serious issue is not automatically death's doorstep, either, and Deadpool 3 is showing every sign of probably being the most successful superhero movie since No Way Home.

You have to take into account the streaming profits too. Taking that into account, Quantumania did end up breaking even and The Marvels wasn't the massive bomb the detractors keep claiming it was.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Honestly, in the case of directors who have already done 4 movies and a TV series, never. We've gotten enough from them now, so I'd rather see them bring in more new and different directors who can bring new ideas and styles into the franchise.
Don't get me wrong, I've loved everything they've done with for the MCU, and I'm sure their new Avengers will probably be great, I'd just prefer to see someone else get a chance.

Whereas I remain hopeful that they will reunite the entire team from Winter Soldier through Endgame and bring in writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

 

[Christopher]

Hmm... I wonder, what's the largest number of theatrical feature films that any single director has done in the same series/continuity? The most prolific ones I can think of are Roy William Neill, who directed 11 consecutive Sherlock Holmes films from 1943-46, and Ishiro Honda, who directed over a dozen Godzilla and other kaiju films, though it's hard to define exactly how many of his films shared continuity.

In modern times, though, I'm hard-pressed to think of any director who's done more than four in the same series. Lucas did only Episodes I-IV of Star Wars (not in that order). Spielberg did only the first four Indiana Jones films. Christopher McQuarrie has done four consecutive Mission: Impossible films, including the one due out next year. There's Kevin Smith, whose films all take place in a shared reality, but I don't think I'd really count them as a single series.

 

[JD]

Whereas I remain hopeful that they will reunite the entire team from Winter Soldier through Endgame and bring in writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

If they bring back the Russos, it would make sense to bring them back too.

 

[Turtletrekker]

There's Kevin Smith, whose films all take place in a shared reality, but I don't think I'd really count them as a single series.

Using that context, the Russo's have "only" done two Captain America movies and two Avengers movies.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I’d say they had a rough season and rehired some top coaches who had moved on to other teams for the new season.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

In modern times, though, I'm hard-pressed to think of any director who's done more than four in the same series.

Michael Bay (Transformers) and Justin Lin (Fast and the Furious) have 5.
George Miller did 5 movies assuming the Furiosa movies count.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Confirmation from the man himself that Blade will be rated R.

Kevin Feige Weighs in on “Trying to Crack” the New ‘Blade’ Movie, Says R-Rating Likely

Mahershala Ali has been attached since 2019 to star as the Marvel character for the project that recently lost its latest director.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[Tosk]

Hmm... I wonder, what's the largest number of theatrical feature films that any single director has done in the same series/continuity?

If we focus on series over continuity, Gerald Thomas directed about thirty Carry On films.

 

[Christopher]

Using that context, the Russo's have "only" done two Captain America movies and two Avengers movies.

Except the Avengers movies had characters and plot threads in common with the Cap movies, and Civil War was practically an Avengers film despite the title.

Looking at the Wikipedia article, it seems Smith's View Askewniverse is more unified than I thought it was, so it would count as a single shared continuity in much the same way as the MCU. So that's eight or possibly nine films by the same director in the same continuity.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Confirmation from the man himself that Blade will be rated R.

Kevin Feige Weighs in on “Trying to Crack” the New ‘Blade’ Movie, Says R-Rating Likely

Mahershala Ali has been attached since 2019 to star as the Marvel character for the project that recently lost its latest director.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Don’t they need a movie first?

 

[DarrenTR1970]

If we focus on series over continuity, Gerald Thomas directed about thirty Carry On films.

There were twenty eight 'Blondie' movies made between 1938-1950, the first fourteen were directed by Frank R. Strayer; the last fourteen by Abby Berlin.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

You have to take into account the streaming profits too. Taking that into account, Quantumania did end up breaking even and The Marvels wasn't the massive bomb the detractors keep claiming it was.

You really don't. Movies are made to make a profit in theaters. Auxiliary income is auxiliary for a reason, and even the worst bomb in movie history probably could eventually creep into the black after enough decades of broadcast and streaming rights. The only time anyone ever claims otherwise is when defensive fans don't want to admit a movie failed.

It was a dumb defense for Black Adam - to which, as I recall, you weren't willing to extend this same logical get out of jail free card - and it's still a dumb defense for Quantumania.

 

[Mage]

Wh

You really don't. Movies are made to make a profit in theaters. Auxiliary income is auxiliary for a reason, and even the worst bomb in movie history probably could eventually creep into the black after enough decades of broadcast and streaming rights. The only time anyone ever claims otherwise is when defensive fans don't want to admit a movie failed.

It was a dumb defense for Black Adam - to which, as I recall, you weren't willing to extend this same logical get out of jail free card - and it's still a dumb defense for Quantumania.

Movies WERE made to make a profit in movies. Times have changed. And they might change again. But right now, studios (especially those with their own streaming services) take streaming profit into account. Can we gain more subscribers when this releases on streaming services? And they double down on that. Amazon Prime getting Dune 2 as a Buy Or Rent movie earns WB money, while releasing it on HBO Max later one as a free movie when subscribed. I've known two people close to me who considered getting HBO Max after they told me they liked the first Dune and explained how it would be free there and some of the other stuff that's on there.

It's 2024, not 2004 anymore.

 

[theenglish]

This was one of the issues in last year's strike. Cast and writers were not seeing that streaming residual. It must be worth fighting for if the writers and actors stayed on strike until it was given. And yes, I understand there were other issues involved.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Hmm... I wonder, what's the largest number of theatrical feature films that any single director has done in the same series/continuity? The most prolific ones I can think of are Roy William Neill, who directed 11 consecutive Sherlock Holmes films from 1943-46, and Ishiro Honda, who directed over a dozen Godzilla and other kaiju films, though it's hard to define exactly how many of his films shared continuity.

In modern times, though, I'm hard-pressed to think of any director who's done more than four in the same series. Lucas did only Episodes I-IV of Star Wars (not in that order). Spielberg did only the first four Indiana Jones films. Christopher McQuarrie has done four consecutive Mission: Impossible films, including the one due out next year. There's Kevin Smith, whose films all take place in a shared reality, but I don't think I'd really count them as a single series.

John Glen did 5 James Bond films, basically the entire 1980s output from For Your Eyes Only to Licence to Kill (3 Moore and both Dalton films).

 

[Mage]

This was one of the issues in last year's strike. Cast and writers were not seeing that streaming residual. It must be worth fighting for if the writers and actors stayed on strike until it was given. And yes, I understand there were other issues involved.

Oh, I know. And they should be getting residuals. But it does show that it means movies are definitely making a lot of money from streaming, if it was worth such a huge strike for the writers and actors.

 

[Christopher]

But it does show that it means movies are definitely making a lot of money from streaming, if it was worth such a huge strike for the writers and actors.

I don't think that follows. For one thing, it was just one of multiple issues that drove the strike. For another, the strikes happened because the studios wouldn't deal in good faith at all, refusing to negotiate on matters that could've been easily resolved, so it's not really an indicator of how major any single issue was.

For another, most writers and actors are struggling to make ends meet; it's only a tiny fraction who actually get rich from their professions. So every little bit helps. And the problem was that streaming has replaced a lot of their former sources of residuals and they weren't getting anything from it. So they had to fight to get something from it, even if it's less than they got before.