Actor Jonathan Majors’ conviction Monday on charges of misdemeanor assault and harassment — and his resulting ouster by Marvel Studios — should be a wake-up call to Disney.
That message from Captain Obvious? Start over completely.
The need for a reboot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been apparent for years now. Disney’s “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out” firing of Majors, who played the villainous Kang the Conqueror in the painfully stupid “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” was really just the straw that broke the Marvel’s back.
Admit it, guys: The MCU in its current form is a mountain of unsolvable problems.
The 33-film, who-knows-how-many-TV-series behemoth had already become incomprehensible. Most new entries are confusing mashups of cliches, indulgent lunacy and cardboard performances. The special effects are ripped from a Windows XP screensaver.
A slew of favorite characters have reached the end of the road, storywise.
Jonathan Majors, right, played Kang the Conquerer in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and was set to appear in several more MCU films before being fired.©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
There was a devastating real-world tragedy when actor Chadwick Boseman, who was the lead of 2018’s “Black Panther,” died in 2020.
And the studio’s box-office bombs are on the rise. “The Marvels,” starring Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, was the MCU’s first full-on floperoo.
Fans try their darnedest to ignore these realities, and are quick to point out that post-pandemic releases such as “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Doctor Strange in the Multi-Verse of Madness” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” all performed very well.
Golf clap. But those are exceptions.
Plus, consider where characters from that trio of films are now. (Spoilers ahead.)
The Guardians of the Galaxy went their separate ways in “Vol. 3,” when director James Gunn left for rival DC Studios.©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
The Guardians — including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Vin Diesel — formally disbanded in “Vol. 3,” and helmer James Gunn decamped to rival DC Studios. So, Groot-bye, that’s over.
And at the end of “No Way Home,” the entire world’s memory of Peter Parker and Spider-Man was wiped out to save the multiverse. Zendaya’s MJ has no clue who her old boyfriend is, and Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May died.
On one hand, that bold move opens the door to a clean-slate Spidey revamp with the talented Tom Holland. On the other, the most funny and youthful series in the MCU has just entered a depressing midlife crisis.
The future of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was left hanging in 2021’s “No Way Home.”©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Doctor Strange is still whooshing around. But it’s hard to picture Benedict Cumberbatch, playing an annoying magical Squidward, as the leading man of the world’s biggest entertainment franchise.
Meanwhile, other, better options for a tent pole have dwindled.
We already know we’re not getting any more Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man or Chris Evans as Captain America (Anthony Mackie takes over the latter in 2025).
After Boseman sadly died of cancer, a “Black Panther” sequel without his T’Challa still worked, but the death of Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda in “Wakanda Forever” gave fans one fewer character to latch onto. Marvel has yet to confirm a third “Black Panther.”
And the other heroes who remain are on the C-team. Ant-Man, Black Widow, Thor (sadly), Captain Marvel and the Hulk have all been unsatisfying in their own movies. “Shang-Chi” was a fun ride in 2021 but is already fading from the cultural consciousness.
Actor Chadwick Boseman, who played the title role in “Black Panther,” died in 2020.AP
The time is nigh to sever some limbs to save the body.
Marvel should first scrap Majors’ two Kang movies — “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” which was set to be released in 2026, and “Avengers: The Secret Wars,” slotted for the following year. They’ll inevitably not live up to “Endgame” anyway. Frankly I could also do without the five other previously announced MCU film projects that sound as fun as homework assignments.
The studio would be smart to take a breather and begin fresh with the X-Men, which Disney acquired when it bought 21st Century Fox.
At the same time, they should shift focus to solid, entertaining stand-alone stories with relatable — albeit powerful — characters and shove aside making tenuous connections to other films and TV shows and all the multiverse claptrap.
What’s a shame is that Marvel is reintroducing X-Men’s Wolverine in a who-cares “Deadpool 3” instead of his own flick. They’ve also wrongly brought back 55-year-old Hugh Jackman, who’s been playing the part for more than 20 years like he’s Carol Channing in “Hello, Dolly!”
What a mess it all is — fit for a garbage can.
Hugh Jackman is back playing “Wolverine” in “Deadpool 3.”Photo credit: James Fisher
And how funny that Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige can’t see what they’ve done.
They’ve turned an extremely accessible, buzzy, must-see franchise into “Star Trek,” a decades-old enterprise that — with 900 television episodes and 13 movies — is too dense for the casual viewer to dip into.
For Marvel to thrive, people of all walks of life all over the world have to be excitedly buying tickets. These films have gotta be broadly appealing events.
Because you can’t make $250 million movies for a few thousand cosplayers in a Las Vegas convention center.
