Why Marvel's Phase 3 Will Destroy The Franchise
Marvel's in the middle of an insanely successful run at the box office. The studio is about to enter its third phase of superhero movies, and we're getting kind of worried about them. Looking at the upcoming roster, things are looking fairly problematic for the studio. It's built an empire, but now it looks like it's about to all burn down. Marvel's gotten cocky, and the studio's bad decisions are about to catch up with it. Here's why Marvel's Phase 3 will destroy the franchise.
Everyone's Going To Die
Every rumor surrounding all of the returning heroes involves them dying. Both Captain America and Iron Man both have huge targets on them in Captain America: Civil War, and Thor's next movie is called Ragnarok, named after the Norse legend about the death of all the gods. That's basically calling the movie Thor: Thor Dies In This One. Not everyone can die, right? There's no way Marvel can pull this off. If the studio makes us think that everyone will die, and then don't, then nothing will ever be suspenseful in their movies again. If a bunch of their popular characters do die, however, then what? It's kind of hard to make movies about people after they die.
Inhumans
It really doesn't seem like Marvel has a lot of faith in the Inhumans franchise. Since it was first announced in the Phase 3 lineup, Inhumans has been pushed back twice. The first time was for Spider-Man, which is understandable. The second time was for Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is a real kick in the teeth for Inhumans. It feels like Marvel announced the movie, and now the studio just feels obligated to keep it on the schedule. The Inhumans are going to be a last minute addition to the franchise that just ruins everything. Essentially, they're going to be the ewoks of the Marvel cinematic universe. Unfortunately, the ewoks were at least cute. Little kids loved the ewoks. Based on the characters' presence in Agents of SHIELD, it seems unlikely that the Inhumans are going to be cuddly at all.
Black Panther
Marvel gained a lot of attention by dropping hints for a character in one movie, and then revealing that character fully in another. Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer show up in the Iron Man movies, and Bruce Banner is name dropped in Thor. It worked because it got people excited, but it also left enough mystery. Marvel is officially changing that strategy up when the filmmakers introduce Black Panther in Civil War. The plan is to then produce a Black Panther movie. Well, hopefully people like Black Panther in Civil War. It's a huge risk, considering the fact that the movie is all about choosing sides. Marvel's essentially going to make half of its fans hate this guy when he sides against their favorite heroes, and then hope that those people still want to see his movie. Seems like a risky, and also very dumb, marketing strategy.
Spider-Man's A Huge Problem
Right now, we're all excited that Spider-Man is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it's actually bad news. The only reason that Marvel took risks on lesser known characters is because the studio didn't have the rights to the publisher's biggest stars. Having this A-lister back just makes movies like Inhumans seem less appealing. Even worse, the filmmakers cast a little kid to play Peter Parker! If no one knew who Spider-Man was, maybe audiences would be willing to accept it. Moviegoers have seen plenty of Spider-Man over the last 15 years. When some child shows up, squeaking out "my spider-sense is tingling," it's going to look silly. The Amazing Spider-Man movies weren't super popular, but people liked Andrew Garfield. Why does Marvel think that it's a good idea to replace a well-liked actor with some teeny bopper? People love Spider-Man, and if Marvel screws him up, the audience won't come back for the riskier movies. Peter Parker's supposed to be young, but not so young that he still looks like he has a bed time.
Infinity War Part 1
Sure, the last several years have seen a boom in two-part blockbuster movies. Statistically speaking, however, they're a bad idea. By the time Infinity War comes around, Marvel will have had 19 movies to set up its story. That wasn't enough? This just comes across like Marvel's gotten greedy. The studio assumes that one Avengers movie will make a billion dollars, so two Avengers movies will make two billion dollars. That's possible, but it's very likely that the second part will make way less than the first. Even more confusing is that Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel come out in between the two Infinity Wars, and then Inhumans comes out afterwards. It's like Marvel forgot that the reason the smaller characters succeed is because people want to see how they connect to the bigger picture. The studio just gave everyone an easy excuse to skip three of its movies, which is the dumbest business plan ever.
No Hulk Or Black Widow
At this point, it feels like Marvel is going out of its way to not make movies about these two. Sure, Incredible Hulk wasn't a huge hit, but neither was Captain America: The First Avenger. Come on, Marvel, you finally figured out how to make Hulk awesome, and then you do nothing with him? You even paired Hulk with Black Widow in Age of Ultron, and she's your other super popular character that's not getting a movie. Do you really expect us to believe that a Hulk vs Black Widow movie wouldn't be huge? It's fun to see them appear in other heroes' movies, but enough is enough. The heat on these characters will eventually die down, the actors will move on, and Marvel's going to miss its window. Without a Hulk or Black Widow movie, Phase 3 has a big hole in it. A hole that Ant-Man and the Wasp just can't fill.