The Walt Disney Company is known for being one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in the world, but lately, it’s been missing the mark with its movies, and fans have theories as to why.
Disney owns some of the most profitable franchises out there today that, admittedly, were helped by the resources afforded to them by the Walt Disney Company. Think Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and Pixar. While some of these deals were more controversial than others when it came to Disney CEO Bob Iger’s decisions, many of these acquisitions have more than delivered on the investment Disney made.
Related: Per Bob Iger, Apple Buying Disney is More Likely Than You Think
However, recently, Disney has seen a stream of failures (some more worrying than others) at the box office, and particularly, many Marvel Entertainment fans are becoming exhausted with how Disney has been handling the franchise. Criticisms of the franchise being “too much work to follow” and “over-produced” have been heard on more than one count.
Why is Disney’s treatment of Marvel not working? And what should they do instead?
One fan took to Twitter to share their thoughts, and they broke down the difference between the films Spider-Man: Into the Spidervese and Everything Everywhere All At Once and Disney’s Marvel films, highlighting why the former are more successful.
I think Spiderverse and EEAAO's success demonstrates why MCU and other multiverse stories aren't working. Two ways to go about a multiverse story:
1) "Look at all the different worlds out there"
2) "Look at all the different *yous* out there"Here's why option 2 works. (1/x) pic.twitter.com/KSp6LEwsa7
— Ari Noble | Metajoker (@AriNobleWrites) July 19, 2023
Ari Noble shared,
While Multiverse of Madness and other multiverse stories will play with the concept of the MC’s “alternate self”, you often find that they lean much more into “we can cameo every single property in this movie. Here’s Patrick Stewart! Here’s every Superman ever!” (2/x)
Everything Everywhere works because while yes, it embraces the wonderful absurdity of multiple universes, it is fundamentally about how our destiny is nothing but our choices. Spiderverse discusses the various ways our identity shapes and alters our reality. (3/x)
Noble continued in their breakdown, “That’s not to say cameos are bad. Spiderverse is full of them. But they must serve as cherries on the cake, and let’s be real: if your cake sucks, you can’t fix it with all the cherries in the world. MCU wants the multiverse to BE the stakes rather than serve the stakes. (7/x)”
It’s no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most extensive productions there is; however, as the fan discussed, perhaps that is the problem. Going back to the roots of Marvel—as opposed to continuing with the current direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—and reminding comic book fans of why they loved them in the first place might serve Disney better than having a huge production with theatrics and special effects.
