Why It’s a Good Thing Marvel Is Slowing Its Roll in 2023

Marvel Studios is preparing to slow down its annual output, which couldn't come at a better time.

By Douglas Laman for Collider

In talking about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the wake of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s release, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige revealed that the studio would be slowing down its annual output. Marvel Studios wasn’t about to slim down to just one movie per year, but this outfit was angling to make its individual projects and especially its Disney+ shows feel special. This couldn’t come at a better time for the franchise. After the last few years of near-monthly doses of Marvel Studios programming and features, this saga needs to slow its roll now more than ever.

When the MCU Began, They Only Made Two Movies a Year

Back when Marvel Studios started this whole operation back in 2008, the plan was only for the company to produce two movies annually. There were hopes of eventually getting to a point where Marvel Studios could produce more features in a given year, but for starters, just two a year. After all, among other hurdles, they weren’t the only studio in town producing Marvel movies since Sony and Fox had the film rights to key characters. Not being able to control how many total movies based on Marvel characters got released each year, Marvel Studios opted for caution.

Marvel Increases Its Output, Thanks to Disney

This approach worked so well that the studio continued to produce, at most, two features a year. Only in 2017, nearly a decade into its run did the studio increase its output to three features. That would remain the norm for the rest of the 2010s, but change would quickly come thanks to larger studio politics in its parent company, Disney. The Mouse House was getting its answer to Netflix, Disney+, off the ground and needed all of its entertainment divisions to produce original projects for the platform. Marvel Studios, as a result, would now be getting into the TV show business. This ensured a drastic expansion of how many projects the studio would be producing annually. The number began to creep further upwards when the COVID-19 pandemic ensured that there was now a backlog of Marvel Studios properties that needed to get unleashed.

On top of all that, the prospect of an uncertain number of rival Marvel comics adaptations emerging from other movie studios was a minimal issue in this new decade. Disney had bought up 20th Century Fox and the Marvel character film rights it had. Meanwhile, Sony and Marvel Studios were working together on Spider Man movies (though Sony continued to make its own independent comic book movies). With more control over how many features were released in a year, Marvel Studios got to work molding the pop culture landscape to its vision.

The result of these factors ensured that 2021, the year Marvel Studios both returned to releasing new features in theaters and dropped original projects on Disney+, was crammed to the gills with MCU projects Five seasons of original TV shows dropped on streaming while four separate movies all debuted theatrically. In 2022, three further seasons of television and three further theatrical movies debuted. On top of all that, two TV specials would premiere on Disney+ in the final three months of the year. This meant that eight to nine Marvel Studios projects were now dropping annually, a staggering increase from the norms of years past.

The Consequences of the MCU's Spike in Releases

The drastic increase has certainly ensured Disney+ isn’t devoid of “content,” but it’s also ensured that even die-hard fans of this franchise have been overwhelmed with options. The specialness of getting two to three Marvel Studios projects a year has been replaced by gradually growing accustomed to the fact that MCU TV shows are often in the middle of a new season just as a new MCU movie is hitting theaters. Without much room to breathe, it’s been harder than ever for individual projects to stand out. It’s hard to appreciate the meal you’ve just eaten when you’re being hurried off to the next table to scarf down something else.

The rapid-fire release schedule also hasn’t yielded the benefit of increasing viewership for the individual Disney+ shows. Disney may have imagined that just rolling out one Marvel show after another would mirror how HBO tends to end the run of one major program before starting up another one week later. But that’s usually for shows that couldn’t be more different from one another. A season finale of Barry being followed a week later by the season premiere of The White Lotus, to use a theoretical example, would be fine since they’re so far apart in tone and atmosphere. But having various programs in the same universe just dropping one right after another doesn’t inspire habitual viewing in people. It just gets you primed and ready to be more easily frustrated with what you’re watching.

Will Marvel and Disney Stick to Their Word?

Still, even with this public comment about Marvel Studios making fewer projects, it’s hard to tell if they’re significantly winding down their output. While Secret Invasion and the second season of Loki are reportedly the only Marvel Studios TV shows due out in 2023, there’s still a handful of other live-action programs on a shelf that need to be released while four new theatrical movies will debut next year. And with Disney+ having recently announced that they lost two million subscribers, an increased slate of projects to lure viewers back wouldn't come as a surprise. Only time will tell if Marvel Studios is true to its word and gets back to its roots in terms of producing fewer but more meaningful creative endeavors. That would certainly be the wisest move to make and one that could ensure the studio’s long-term longevity in the world of pop culture.