The Marvel Cinematic Universe is without a doubt one of the biggest, most successful cinematic franchises in history. The fandom is undyingly loyal, the characters have practically taken over the world. And yet the more they release, the more it can be questioned: Just how much longer can it last?

While the films themselves were wildly successful, I strongly believe that it is the characters themselves that made the franchise. Tony Stark was a character so complex and unlike anything the industry had seen with the release of Iron Man in 2008. It was probably the first time we saw the modern superhero, a realistic depiction of the human, and a decent storyline combined and something that nobody really thought much of at the time became the start of something huge.

The start of the downward spiral of the MCU could be traced back to the conclusion of the ‘Infinity Saga’. 15 years’ worth of build-up, an epic conclusion, and suddenly they couldn’t top themselves. I can’t speak for every release following 2018 being a flop as Marvel has produced the likes of Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and Spider-Man: No Way Home since that time, and all of these have been excellent.

I do wonder if some of the issue could be put down to No Way Home. A universe that prided itself its humanity suddenly could access every part of the multiverse and there were barely any consequences for our heroes’ actions anymore. There was an unrealistic jump from losing to never being able to lose again. I think the audiences lost their connections with the world.

We had also lost almost every character we were attached to by that point, our three leads were dead, so much had been done and undone that none of the characters were the same as we knew them. We entered an era where every release was an origin story, and none of them were just quite as good. Looking upon phase four and five, it’s definitely the sequels that appealed more and achieved better at the box office (bar Shang-Chi), but even then, Doctor Strange and Thor: Love and Thunder were questionable and fell flat.

Beyond that, it is obvious that the MCU has jumped on the capitalist conveyor belt. We went from two films in two years to four in twelve months. The stories were unfinished, the writing was bad, the CGI was getting worse and worse. And all of a sudden, we were juggling the films and the newly discovered TV show format that after three years, they have only managed to semi-master once (I will leave you to debate which one that is). It seemed as though they couldn’t win us over anymore with the quality, so they tried to grasp us with quantity, and that became tiresome. There was too much, and so much that relied on a million and one other projects that had been released in the last twenty years and it became hard to keep up with, and even harder for new fans to jump in and understand what was going on.

You could argue this chaotic struggle to produce as much as possible was put down to shut down that came with Covid-19. And then the SAG-AFTRA strikes. They couldn’t produce what they wanted in the way they wanted, they couldn’t market as they wanted, and it was down to sheer hope for the fandom that these new films would do well. Taking The Marvels as the most recent example, a film that in my opinion was actually one of the better releases of the past few years. The strikes meant that there was no press, no discussion and most people barely even realised it was coming out at all. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t done so well at the box office, which could be put down to this, the lack of personality in Carol Danvers’ character, or could simply be due to audiences growing fed up.

At the end of the day, I don’t think the MCU will die in its entirety until projects stop being released and those of us left have watched every film and TV show until we can’t stand it. Because while there are so many flaws now, there is something that will drag us right back in. Somehow just as you lose hope, the production team pulls together to make something spectacular and keep you watching for a reveal that may not come for a decade, or a cameo that has been teased, and still after twenty years we are eating it up. Kevin Feige truly has done a fantastic job at brainwashing us all.

Enjoyed this article? Check out these other articles from Redbrick Film:

Review: The Killer | Redbrick Film

In Defence of: Twilight| Redbrick Film

Feature: Best Films of 2023| Redbrick Film