Blockbuster Report Sheds Light on Major Issues at Marvel Studios: Jonathan Majors, ‘Blade’ Script Changes, Possible Revival of OG Avengers, and More
Jonathan Majors as Kang The Conqueror in Marvel Studios’ ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.
The rise and fall of Marvel Studios must be one of the biggest stories in Hollywood history. Its 2008-2019 run was completely unprecedented, going from independently financed films that could have made or broken the studio to having the biggest film of all time at the worldwide box office.
The pandemic, among other issues, then caused them to pivot on their core strategies, increasing the number of projects a year so they could fill up the pipelines of Disney Plus, but it also marked a shift in the audience’s interest, where they are less interested than ever in the past 15 years to retread the same waters. They are craving for something new, as evidenced by the success of Barbie, Oppenheimer, or Across the Spider-Verse this summer (or the underperformance of The Flash, Blue Beetle, or Fast X). But is this Marvel’s fall, or is this just a bump in the road?
As the studio gets ready for its next big theatrical event, or rather braces for impact on one of its most disappointing opening weekend numbers, Variety has shed the spotlight on the core issues that the studio is facing, and some of the solutions it’s thinking about implementing.
Jonathan Majors’ legal troubles and the possibility of bringing back old Avengers
After a few months, it’s now time to stop putting this aside. Jonathan Majors, who was once supposed to be the overarching villain of Marvel’s new big story, dubbed “The Multiverse Saga”, was arrested in late March and is set to face trial at the end of November for misdemeanor harassment and assault charges. The only chance Marvel stands of keeping Majors as the new big bad is if the court completely exonerates him. But that seems like a very slim chance at the moment, especially amid a constant fire of damning media reports and overall chitchatting that Majors is indeed the abusive figure he’s been exposed to be. The worst example of this remains that outstanding piece of reporting by Rolling Stone a few months back, where 30 people who knew the actor going all the way back to college confirmed his erratic behavior, some on the record and some off.
So they are not in a good place, and things may only get worse from here — Majors can currently be seen in the second season of Loki on Disney Plus, and according to Variety, the season finale will set up his character as the definitive antagonist of the next Avengers movie. By then, it may already be too late to course correct.
Or is it? According to Variety, during Marvel’s annual creative retreat, the topic of what to do with Kang was the main issue discussed. Several possibilities were raised, including changing directions and pivoting away from Kang the Conqueror to instead focus on another big comic-book villain, Doctor Doom (who reportedly cameos at the end of the latest draft of Fantastic Four). There’s also the possibility of recasting, which hasn’t been shut down yet. There are both precedents at Marvel of recasting key characters (see: Hulk, Rhodey) and also of changing gears after making huge announcements: Inhumans, Armor Wars, etc.
Perhaps most interestingly, though, there was already some apprehension about Majors’ big role even before the arrest was made in late March, after Quantumania, which was essentially sold on his presence, severely underperformed at the box office. (This seems like a bit of a stretch, so I have to wonder if Marvel had also heard about Majors’ erratic behavior on set and was on alert.) The WGA strike prevented the studio from rewriting parts of upcoming movies and shows this summer, including their future plans for the character.
The next Avengers movie is titled The Kang Dynasty, so having Kang seems like a necessary element. But as said, Marvel isn’t afraid to change course, and apparently, not even dramatically. Variety says there have been conversations at the studio to bring back some of the original members of the Avengers, including Iron Man and Black Widow — those two characters died in Endgame, but in the Multiverse, who is really dead after all?
Chris Evans has reportedly been in conversations with Marvel since 2020 about returning and may have had a signed contract for a while. Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth have been kept in the loop and had future plans teased at the end of She-Hulk and Thor: Love and Thunder, respectively. Jeremy Renner is the unknown entity here, especially given his health condition. Scarlett Johansson was also kept on Marvel’s mailing lists after Black Widow and her legal fight with Disney, as Kevin Feige announced she’d be executive producing a future film (Thunderbolts remains the best candidate here). But Robert Downey Jr. has moved on to better things, and he is currently leading the charts for Best Supporting Actor on many Oscar predictions.
It will take a pretty penny to bring all of these people back, especially because (except for maybe Evans), Marvel needs them more than they need Marvel at this point. But do people really want to bring them back now? As I said earlier, new is better for audiences, and the generation that grew up watching Marvel films in theaters may be ready to move on. Fantastic Four and X-Men seem like the best chance the studio has right now for a do-over.
Blade and the ever-lasting script issues for Marvel
One of Marvel’s big announcements during their victory-lap panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, where they also previewed their next years in film, was Mahershala Ali as Blade. It was reported later that Ali had called up Feige after winning his second Oscar for Green Book and told him “I wanna play this character”. And the project was entirely constructed around him.
It was definitely way too early to tease the character, as development wouldn’t begin for another couple of years, and after announcing a November 2023 date in July 2022, they halted the pre-production process six weeks before cameras were to roll. They are now at their fifth writer on board, Logan scribe Michael Green, who took over the project earlier this year after Nic Pizzolatto. Green started from page one at a point in which Ali was on the edge of giving up and exiting the project. That begs the question, though: Should Ali and Marvel just give up? Seriously, what’s in it for them at this point, besides saving face? This project is pretty much doomed.
There have been plenty of drafts of Blade, and as stated, multiple writers have taken a crack at it. At one point, according to Variety, Blade himself was the fourth most important character of the movie, which was female-led and filled with life lessons. They are currently targeting a February 2025 release date, but given the WGA strike that seems highly questionable. It will probably end up being late 2025, if it even happens. The studio is apparently thinking about an under $100M budget for the film, an unusual move for a house accustomed to extending $250M checks on their productions.
For now, Marvel has plenty to worry about with The Marvels, a movie that not only is tracking quite low for a Marvel Studios movie, but that also underwent four weeks of reshoots after disappointing test screenings earlier this summer. Going no further, director Nia DaCosta, who is handling for the first time a movie of this size, started developing a separate project during post-production of The Marvels, an unusual move to be sure. Her comments about handing off creative reins to Marvel read very differently now.
The film opens in theaters on November 10.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
