The Marvel Cinematic Universe has faced way more criticism after the release of Avengers: Endgame than it did before, and that has led to many questioning whether the franchise has truly fallen from the spot it used to be after its biggest event film. Some of the MCU’s best movies have been released during the Multiverse Saga, such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine. While that is true, it is well known that this most recent period of the franchise has been far more divisive than what came before.

During its Infinity Saga, which culminated in Thanos versus pretty much all MCU heroes in Avengers: Endgame, the MCU had a lot of success. It established the franchise as the most successful in cinematic history, with multiple movies breaking the $1 billion mark. However, future Marvel films will have a tough job getting to those heights, as several projects in the Multiverse Saga have either struggled at the box office or faced mixed/negative reception in the case of the MCU’s TV offerings. Avengers: Endgame ended the MCU’s most popular era, but is the franchise really worse now?

Captain America: Brave New World Is The Latest Divisive Marvel Movie

Sam Wilson’s First Captain America Film Has Divided Audiences And Critics

One thing that both those who love and those who dislike the Multiverse Saga releases have to agree on is that this period has been the most divisive of the franchise by far. A few of the projects that really divided people in the MCU are She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Captain Marvel. Among those, only the latter was released during the Infinity Saga. Still, the slot between the two biggest Avengers movies to date pushed Captain Marvel to over $1 billion, while its sequel, The Marvels, has become the MCU’s lowest-grossing film.

That movie was released during the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, and its ties to the MCU’s least beloved show, Secret Invasion, and the somewhat divisive Ms. Marvel did not really help the project. Now, the first of the MCU’s 2025 movies has been added to the list. Sadly, Captain America: Brave New World is not the major hit that the MCU expected it to be. The film has a very low 40% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. Captain America: Brave New World also holds the lowest CinemaScore in MCU history, with a B-.

Even though the reaction from fans is slightly better than the one coming from critics, Captain America: Brave New World has turned into a misfire in what once was the MCU’s best hero franchise. Captain Marvel aside, all of the MCU’s most divisive projects have been released during the Multiverse Saga. That makes it clear that something has changed since Avengers: Endgame was released. A few factors explain why recent Marvel projects have not always been successful and why the overall popularity of the franchise is not quite where it was years ago.

Why The MCU Is So Divisive After Avengers: Endgame Explained

The Multiverse Saga Has Been Dealing With Multiple Issues

The reasons for the divisive reception to Multiverse Saga projects vary, going from external factors not necessarily related to just the MCU to the quality of projects to risky choices and more. Sadly, female-led projects like Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law suffered from being review-bombed for racist/Sєxist reasons. While some might argue that the projects themselves were not among the MCU’s best, which is true, the shows received a ton of 1-star negative reviews on the day they were released, which speaks for itself. That said, the series are part of a franchise-wide issue.

A key factor that differentiates the Infinity Saga and the ongoing Multiverse Saga is that the latter includes TV shows. Marvel Studios notably had problems with its way of developing shows, which is why a major overhaul has happened. Instead of limited series that often felt like movies divided into multiple episodes, the MCU’s shows are now being developed as multi-season series with showrunners behind them. As for the movie side, the loss of huge stars and the focus on smaller characters did not pan out well for the MCU, with characters going absent for years, also a negative point.

Marvel Movies Are Not Worse Now, But The Narrative Has Changed

Public Opinion On The MCU Shifted

All in all, it is not possible to say that the reason the MCU is more divisive now is that the movies are worse than they were before Avengers: Endgame. Films like Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World are among the franchise’s most criticized, and they were birthed near the first Avengers movie, which made the MCU extremely popular, starring main heroes from the shared universe. The truth of the matter is that Avengers: Endgame was a unique event that culminated everything Marvel did from 2008 to 2019 beautifully. It’s a cinematic achievement that is hard to top.

Avengers: Endgame was the franchise’s high point so far, which makes it easy to see how all projects released after it, especially since there has not been an Avengers film yet, have seemed smaller or worse by comparison. Another aspect is related to how popular opinion is now much harsher on the MCU. Captain America: Brave New World is a perfect example, as it is a clear middle-of-the-pack MCU entry, but reviews paint it as one of the franchise’s worst projects ever. With so many Marvel and DC movies, the bar has been raised high for superhero films.

Will Marvel Movies Get Better?

The MCU’s Release Slate Has Some Major Projects

While the MCU has gone through a rough patch since the Multiverse Saga’s start, the franchise has better days ahead. It is hard to claim that things will be like they were before Avengers: Endgame was released, when it felt like any MCU movie released would be loved by critics and become a box office hit. However, Marvel Studios has a few juggernauts on the way that could turn public opinion on the franchise back to more positive days. Among the MCU’s upcoming movies are Tom Holland’s Spider-Man 4, Avengers: Doomsday & Secret Wars, and the X-Men reboot film.

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The MCU needs to make changes to get close to Avengers: Endgame‘s type of success. Focusing the movies on huge characters and teams is a great way of making them feel like events to audiences and not homework. There also needs to be a firm high-level script in place before a movie enters production. That is the stance James Gunn is taking with his DC Universe, so if the MCU does not follow that, the franchise could soon be left behind. Characters cannot go missing for years like they have, and with those fixes, the MCU can thrive again.

Upcoming MCU Movies

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  Thunderbolts*

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  May 2, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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  July 25, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Doomsday (2026)

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
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  Spider-Man Homecoming 4

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  July 24, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

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  May 7, 2027
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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