Disney Confirms How Many Marvel Movies & TV Shows To Expect From Now On
Disney is switching up its release strategy for Marvel Studios. During the company's fiscal Q2 earnings call (via The Hollywood Reporter), CEO Bob Iger told analysts that he's working with Marvel Studios to reduce output, putting an emphasis on quality — not quantity. "We're slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four, and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two or at the maximum three," Iger said. These adjustments won't impact this year's slate, though 2024's MCU releases have already had major changes.
Iger's comments come at an interesting time, as 2023 was a historic year for Disney movie and TV show bombs. The company suffered several failures, with Marvel Studios' disappointments particularly pronounced. While the studio had decent success with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," they suffered a flop in the form of "The Marvels," and the maligned "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" posted less than stellar receipts. Marvel's small screen offerings were also notably criticized, with "Secret Invasion" emerging as a dud.
Iger is confident that reducing output will do wonders for the studio and is hoping to see upcoming films perform well. "And we're working hard on what that path is, we've got a couple of good films in '25 and then we're heading to more 'Avengers' [films], which we're extremely excited about," the exec said about the future. But are these changes really substantial?
Do Disney and Marvel's changes really matter?
This year, audiences are only getting one theatrical Marvel Studios release: "Deadpool & Wolverine," which will hopefully strike gold at the box office. In terms of Disney+ projects, audiences have the live-action "Agatha" and animated programs like "Eyes of Wakanda" and "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" to look forward to. On the surface, it may look like Marvel Studios is taking it easy, but this year's slate shifted in part due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, which forced projects like "Captain America 4" to be pushed back.
Bob Iger's new comments about having two (maybe three) Marvel films a year have pretty much been the norm since Phase 3, which industry analyst Scott Mendelson pointed out on X (formerly, known as Twitter). "Disney releasing three Marvel movies a year is 'business as usual,' from 2017 through 2023, not a decrease in output," he said. 2021 has been the only year where Marvel released four pictures theatrically. If anything, 2024's release strategy is a signifier of true, genuine reduced output.
Based on Iger's statements, the television side of things may be more affected than the movies. It's unclear if the upcoming slate has been changed, but there are several Marvel Studios TV shows in production, including "Daredevil: Born Again," which will feature the return of Jon Bernthal's Punisher.
Still, Iger is excited about what's next, telling analysts that reducing output is something he's focused on. "... [I]t's something that I've committed to spending more and more time on, the [Marvel] team is one that I have tremendous confidence in, and the IP that we're mining, including all the sequels that we're doing, is second to none," he said.