The MCU is at perhaps its biggest ever crossroads, and there appears to be one surefire way to ensure its next steps forward are the best for its future, though this would involve a metaphorical death for the current MCU. Discussions about an MCU reboot have been happening for years, but recent history has made this seem far more possible.
What previously seemed unthinkable now seems almost inevitable, given Avengers: Secret Wars is set to adapt the two comic stories of the same name that revamped Marvel’s on-page stories, and given figures like Kevin Feige have alluded to an upcoming reset for the franchise. As it stands, the current landscape for the MCU arguably needs this opportunity.
The MCU Is Having To Balance All Of The Challenges Of A Goliath Franchise Without Guaranteed Box Office Success
The MCU’s 17 years of movie history have provided a wide array of benefits – crafting an interconnected universe the likes of which haven’t really been seen before in the live-action movie world, supported by years-long character arcs and an ᴀssortment of stellar movies – but it’s also naturally provided complications as its layout grows increasingly labyrinthian.
The longer a film franchise runs, the harder it can be for said franchise to keep what made audiences first love it while staying fresh and innovative. Though the MCU timeline has been behind some of the biggest movies of all time, this concept holds true for it too, and provides trickier tasks for the creatives involved.
New MCU releases don’t just have to ensure they slot into almost two decades of elaborate lore that often contrasts with the comic source material. They also have to feel in line with the broader universe and the characters within it, and yet also distinct enough to avoid seeming too similar to much of what came before.
The nature of this task means that while we’ve seen many rise to the challenge even in the MCU’s most recent history, we’ve also seen examples of the multifaceted ways these demands can undermine films and result in releases, showcasing how the MCU’s grip on the superhero genre doesn’t automatically translate into box office success.
The MCU’s Trajectory Has Often Fought Against Its Own Success & Longevity
Unsurprisingly, when Iron Man first released and birthed the beginning of the MCU, the plan wasn’t to set up the 36 movies that would release after it. Indeed, Iron Man was considered enough of a risk that interviews and documentary footage show the focus was on trying to see if the 2007 film alone could work, let alone any follow-ups.
Since the MCU’s growth and current existence as a movie franchise that focuses on tens of heroes and villains wasn’t pre-planned – because it simply couldn’t have been predicted – it was inevitable that details would crop up that didn’t fit so smoothly into place for the cinematic universe as it began to take shape and become something totally unprecedented.
While the architects of the MCU deserve credit for several course corrections over the years – most recently via retroactively confirming Daredevil as canon through Daredevil: Born Again – certain decisions can’t be so easily undone. This is perhaps most notable when it comes to Marvel’s mutant characters, who the early MCU wrote around, even changing Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s stories accordingly.
On a similar note, with Avengers: Endgame providing such a monumental ending to so many of the MCU’s major storylines, its own astounding success has worked to some degree against later chapters of the franchise, closing up mysteries that kept audiences invested and ending arcs of some of its biggest characters. Ultimately, Endgame‘s changes highlight a fascinating new challenge.
Marvel’s Box Office Results Underline Viewers Fear Homework, But Love Established Histories
With the MCU’s viewing catalog now being tenfold what it was in earlier Phases, concerns around how much an average cinemagoer would have to watch in order to be fully up-to-date are valid when it comes to the franchise.
While the solution has seemed to be to ensure audiences can go into movies without needing to watch prior installments, Marvel’s box office history suggests this isn’t the ideal move.
Almost all of the MCU’s most successful films have still banked on decades of superhero movie history, with $1b+ box office hits like Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine all highlighting that the franchise’s most consistently lucrative road to success has been to delve into expansive film series.
With these results in mind, there’s clear credence in still using the expansive history of the MCU – even if 2025’s mixed box office results embody how tricky the current landscape is. Instead, leaning fully into a potentially risky but certainly rewarding path does feel to be the cure for what ails the franchise in the modern day.
I Genuinely Love The MCU – And That’s Why I Think It Deserves The Phoenix Treatment
In the world of superhero comics, a franchise-wide reboot is a decidedly common concept. Both Marvel and DC have rebooted their entire universes several times over the decades, and while not every instance of this can be considered strictly popular, both remain тιтans of the industry to this day, showing they very much survived the process.
As such, the MCU’s teased reboot after Avengers: Secret Wars – which even Kevin Feige has alluded to, referencing plans for a “reset” in July 2025 – is a perfect chance to build a path forward that can account for the new shape and size of the franchise in a way the initial construction of the MCU simply couldn’t.
Using a reboot to signify to audiences that they can delve into upcoming MCU releases without needing to back-to-back watch a week’s worth of movies – while also keeping the stories and figures that resonated with audiences – is arguably the best and most comic-esque way the MCU could handle its current trials and tribulations.
Of course, this does mean a death of sorts for the MCU as we’ve known it – but, much as the deaths of the MCU’s biggest heroes were necessary to keep the franchise moving forward, the death of this genre-defining epoch may be just what the MCU needs in order to rise again from the ashes at its full potential.
