What's Inside?
- Kevin Feige plans to scale back Marvel’s content, focusing on quality storytelling with fewer films and shows annually.
- Future Marvel projects like Fantastic Four will be standalone, eliminating the need to follow previous films or series.
- Inspired by DC’s Superman, Marvel shifts to leaner productions and stronger world-building to combat superhero fatigue and audience burnout.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has finally addressed the elephant in the room: superhero fatigue. But instead of shying away, he’s doubling down with a strategic reboot. After a string of underwhelming box office performances, Feige is scaling back Marvel’s content volume, pointing to DC’s recent hit Superman, starring David Corenswet, as proof that audiences still crave capes and cowls. Especially when the stories are told right.
Kevin Feige Reveals His Future-Proof Plans For Marvel
During a recent sit-down with Deadline and Variety, Kevin Feige outlined what might be Marvel’s most important course correction since the launch of the MCU in 2008. The simple fix, according to him? “Making less.”
“Making two or three movies a year, some years it will be one, some years it will be three,” Feige explained. “We’ll be down to a single live-action show a year,” Feige added. (via Deadline).
The shift comes after Marvel’s output nearly doubled in the post-Endgame era. Between 2007 and 2019, Marvel produced around 50 hours of content. But in just six years since Avengers: Endgame, that number has ballooned to 127 hours across films, live-action shows, and animation.
Of course, the expansion seemed like the logical next step at the time, Feige now admits it had a damaging effect. “It’s the expansion that is certainly what devalued [the studio and its content],” he said.
Feige’s pivot toward fewer, higher-quality projects is also aimed at strong storytelling, risk-taking, and careful world-building. In its essence, it is quite similar to all things that DC’s Superman reboot got right. “Look at Superman, it’s clearly not superhero fatigue,” Feige noted. “I liked it a lot… This is a fully fleshed out world,” ( via Variety).
Kevin Feige Admitted Marvel’s Fatal Flaw
Marvel’s recent missteps, including Eternals, Thunderbolts*, and The Marvels, were direct examples that more wasn’t always better. Characters were being introduced faster than audiences could keep up, and cross-platform storytelling created a homework-like experience for casual viewers. Feige told Deadline—
“Thunderbolts* was a very good movie, but nobody knew that title, and many of those characters were from shows. There was that residual effect of [audiences going], ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is?’”
Now, Marvel is stripping things down. Future TV shows won’t be tethered to big-screen storylines. Films like The Fantastic Four: First Steps are being designed as standalone experiences, removing the pressure of catching up. “It’s a no-homework-required, go see the movie. It’s literally not connected to anything that was made before.”
Financially, Marvel has also begun tightening its belt. The superhero brand is adopting leaner production methods and taking cues from indie-style filmmaking; projects like Deadpool & Wolverine and Fantastic Four are being made for nearly a third less than their pre-pandemic counterparts. “The movies made over the last two years have been upwards of a third cheaper than they were two years before that,” Feige confirmed.
Behind a padlocked wall in the Marvel Studios conference room are plans stretching through 2032. It’s an ambitious roadmap, yes, but this time, the focus is on sustainability rather than mere saturation. “Quantity trumped quality,” Feige admitted (via Variety).
“We spent 12 years working on the Infinity Saga saying that’s never going to happen to us… Suddenly, there’s a mandate to make more. And we go, ‘Well, we do have more.’”
But as Superman proves, audiences are still game for heroic tales, just not ones wrapped in excessive lore or diluted character arcs. And it appears that Marvel has learnt the lesson and will walk on a carefully laid out path.
