James Gunn shares his thoughts on the recent struggles for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While The Multiverse Saga was looking at raising the bar for the MCU timeline following the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, that has been easier said than done for Marvel Studios. Despite many successes through Phases 4 and 5, there have been a lot of misses for Marvel Studios, with various TV shows and movies not performing or being received the way they were hoping.

While speaking to Rolling Stone to promote his new Superman movie and the future of DC Studios, Gunn, who directed the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, briefly addressed the recent struggles for the MCU. Gunn, who now serves as the co-CEO of DC Studios, had the following conversation with Rolling Stone about what he thinks has killed some of the MCU’s success lately:

Rolling Stone: Over at Marvel, they’ve been pretty open about the fact that they realized what’s gone wrong over the past few years. They put out too much stuff.

James Gunn: And [longtime Marvel executive producer] Louis [D’Esposito] said that privately to me. I don’t even know if it’s really their fault.

Rolling Stone: They were under a corporate mandate, yeah.

James Gunn: That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them.

What James Gunn’s Marvel Comments Mean

There have been many changes happening at Disney over the last couple of years, especially with the launch of Disney+ in 2019, there have been a lot of shifts at Marvel Studios, as the demand became more about quanтιтy rather than focusing on quality to fill the streaming service. To Gunn’s point, the mandate to produce even more content became something that overwhelmed Marvel Studios. That is why many finished products were not well received, from rushed CGI work, due to MCU VFX artists not getting enough time to work on it, to last-minute rewrites.

But given the negative reception to various MCU movies and TV shows, that is why Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is attempting to return to the status quo where quality comes before quanтιтy, especially as they are heading into the end of The Multiverse Saga. From the restructuring at Marvel Television, which has several in-development shows on pause, to letting struggling films like the Blade movie reboot be put on the back burner for the time being, Gunn is right that a lot of the faults with the MCU lately came from a regime where they had an incredibly tough mandate. That is why it will be fascinating to see how Phase 7 and beyond are executed.

Our Take On James Gunn’s Marvel Comments

Given Gunn’s long history with the MCU, hearing this sentiment from the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy filmmaker is extremely crucial, as he knows what does and doesn’t work inside Marvel Studios, and has been able to see it for himself. Time will tell how the movies and TV shows in Phase 6 will be received following Feige’s retooling of Marvel Studios’ slate. But as the MCU gets close to wrapping up The Multiverse Saga, hopefully, it will get to go out on a strong note both in terms of reception and at the box office.

Source: Rolling Stone