Capt. America: Brave New World was a flop. What’s next?
Brave New Coin
The only way to explain Captain America: Brave New World in the context of the greater MCU and to Disney as a company is a colossal financial failure. It’s a movie with a title that, if you had heard it in 2018 (before knowing what we know now), you probably would have expected at minimum a $1 billion box office.
Obviously there were some giant changes that the MCU during that time. Captain America is no longer Steve Rogers. COVID-19 effectively obliterated the box office, and companies had to build from the ground up. And some say the MCU might be dying?
Thankfully, those people are wrong. We are about to reach a new pinnacle in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Okay, maybe not a new pinnacle, but we are about to return to form.) Bob Chapek is gone, and Kevin Feige has his swagger back because of it. The first 2 episodes of Daredevil Born Again proved that. Those episodes told us, as fans, a lot about where we were headed in the most financially successful film franchise the world has ever seen.
Screen Rant
You see, those episodes proved that at its heart, Kevin Feige knows what Marvel fans want to see. My biggest worry going into the season was that Daredevil Born Again would be a tamed-down version of the Netflix Daredevil. That Matt Murdock would be a shell of his former self. That this new Daredevil show would be kiddified, and the show we used to love would be a distant memory. Well, all of those worries were squashed within the first 10 minutes of the show. We are so back.
On top of the fantastic start that Daredevil has given us, we have been receiving some pretty insane and promising leaks from Avengers: Doomsday. Whether these leaks are definite or not, they sure are awesome. We’ve seen a Hulk planet, White Vision, a bunch of TV heroes chumming it up with our movie heroes, and that’s not even touching any potential plot reveals that I do not want to spoil for you. Marvel isn’t dumb, whether they released them or not, they have no plans on stopping them anytime soon. This is doing exactly what Marvel needed at exactly the right time, drawing people in.
Screen Rant
Thunderbolts in coming in May, and I anticipate it being a Suicide Squad movie that is actually good. We know all these antiheroes, understand them, and sympathize with them. That’s the difference that makes this movie have so much more promise than their DC counterparts. We’ve seen these characters grow and morph into the versions of themselves we will see on the screens in March. Will the movie be great? I hope so and am confident in it, but could it still fail? Of course. But it’s got a giant leg up on the Suicide Squad movies, and all things considered, they weren’t exactly box office flops. Thunderbolts is a movie with a high floor and a higher ceiling. People will come out for Bucky, Yelena, and the crew regardless; if the movie is good, it’ll only help to keep the rise of the MCU back to the top.
Comic Book
And we haven’t even touched on what, for a lot of people, is the most exciting upcoming MCU project in the Fantastic 4 movie. It’s a property that should translate great from comic book to movie. It’s got umpteen fans and powers that should translate smoothly to the big screen. And yet for some reason, it’s failed twice. Okay well the reason is that the scripts suck, which is something that I can say unequivocally will not happen a third time. With the Fantastic 4 back with Kevin Feige, he understands the importance of this movie. Fans are foaming at the mouth to see a good Fantastic 4 movie, and he knows it. That’s why he’s been so patient with it. This movie was announced clear back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. We are 5 years in the making and dammit they are gonna deliver.
We only touched on a few of the MCU projects on the roadmap, but it’s pretty clear; the hype for the MCU is back on the rise. With that hype comes a lot of expectations but I have full faith that with Kevin Feige back in full control of the reigns the Marvel Cinematic Universe is back.