The real endgame. Should the MCU ever end?

[pr0xyt0xin]

And no I'm not talking soon. I'm just curious to what extent people think this gravy train should keep flowin. In your mind, when should the MCU end?

We are at 20 films as of this year, 23 as of 2019. Several more planned beyond that. If the first three phases are 22 films, I personally would like to see something along the lines of 9-10 phases (70-75 films). And obviously I would want them to retain the avg level of quality we've seen so far.

But after that I'm quite certain I would want the MCU to end. What is that? 20 years from now? 40 year old Spider-Man? 70 year old Tony Stark?

We all know what stories look like when they should have quit while they are ahead (Dexter, Scrubs, Family Guy come to mind). And I don't want to see the MCU become something that turns sour some day.

I guess I just want Marvel to have its day in the sun, and then I want it to die with dignity (probably in like 2038). 75 films is more than I could feasibly marathon in a month. And I think that's a worthwhile accomplishment.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

Maybe if some sort of viewing technology improvement was game changing would I like to see a hard reboot. Otherwise let Avengers live a natural lifespan, Thor goes back to the cosmos and bring in mutants for the far future.

 

[Silvermoth]

I think it would be fun to tackle stories like Hulk: The End and obviously I know some characters will eventually have to be recasted further down the line.

But honestly I would be devo if the marvel u ended. That’s part of the fun, no matter what, the story always ticks along somewhere

 

[Yowza]

Unlike the comics, there is 1 thing that makes it likely some major characters may be killed such as trying to continuously make new movies while managing cost of production along with actors only be able to commit to so many films before wanting to move onto something else.

Sure there's both Indiana Jones and Bond who essentially are unchanging or unkillable in the film genre but so many interconnected movies and multiple properties trying to juggle may help the MCU buck this trend somewhat at least in regards to maybe giving a character a farewell once it seems necessary to make other films around different characters. The 1 trend that will continue though is that characters (ignoring Quicksilver of course) most likely won't be killed off right after they're introduced.

Once 1 franchise ends, audiences will focus on the other franchises for many years. Once time to backtrack and do a reboot, Marvel can simply tap into the "multiverse" concept and relaunch a franchise with different actors and so forth saying this is such and such without acknowledging the re-casting while retaining ability to start anew again.

As far as ending things all together, I think it will come down to how long the movie industry lasts the way it is as well as types of studio's currently in business. From a fictional context, once the whole phase system starts to erode then elseworld or more genre specific movies may begin to pop-up. That's how I see it anyway.

 

[Drizzle]

I have to imagine it'll end someday. Like Agent Romanoff said,

It won't be any time soon, but eventually its popularity might dwindle once they start recasting actors or delve into movies featuring more obscure characters that not everyone will be on board with. As it is, I'd say if the Fox deal goes through and they get the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four, there's enough steam for at least another decade and a half.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

All genres go through boom and bust, and the superhero genre is no different.

I believe Marvel should start branching out into other genres if they want to survive long-term as a studio. A Tomb of Dracula trilogy would be a great way to start, with the added publicity of bringing Blade back to the big screen.

 

[Chance Jackson]

With all the underserved demographics that the mcu can tap into I expect that the mcu will be around for a long time

 

[MasterCat]

With all the underserved demographics that the mcu can tap into I expect that the mcu will be around for a long time

Which characters are you talking about? Without using the words "Ms. Marvel".

 

[2kt09]

Which characters are you talking about? Without using the words "Ms. Marvel".

Reptil. The Brazilian & Central/Latin American market is blowing up in general.

 

[MasterCat]

Reptil. The Brazilian & Central/Latin American market is blowing up in general.

Yeah, the Latin market was the first thing to jump to mind. Second was "Does Marvel have Hindu supers?"

 

[2kt09]

Yeah, the Latin market was the first thing to jump to mind. Second was "Does Marvel have Hindu supers?"

Stan Lee tried to make one, but there isn't really one. Kamala Khan isn't one.
Her & Amadeus Cho are bound to pop up sooner than anyone else if they pop up.

 

[MasterCat]

Stan Lee tried to make one, but there isn't really one. Kamala Khan isn't one.
Her & Amadeus Cho are bound to pop up sooner than anyone else if they pop up.

I'm ok with Amadeus Cho if that entails Hercules being a supporting character in at least one movie first.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I'm ok with Amadeus Cho if that entails Hercules being a supporting character in at least one movie first.

Marvel won't bother with Hercules as they don't own the character.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

Marvel won't bother with Hercules as they don't own the character.

Thor is also in the public domain.

 

[psylockolussus]

At some point it should end as all of the actors in this franchise aren't immortal. Though of course there would be a reboot as well.

 

[MasterCat]

I doubt there will be a formal ending film. The long-predicted superhero fatigue is likely to be a gradual process where first all the year's Marvel films only make Ant-Man money, but that's still tentpole money, so Disney keeps funding two Marvel films a year... adjust Marvel's role within Disney's film schedule if the next Avengers doesn't make $2 billion... at some point you go a whole year without an MCU film. But Disney will get as much milk from the cow as they can, and the most popular superhero could be as evergreen as James Bond.

 

[AlluAllu]

I'd like to see MCU continue for another 10 years with the new generation of heroes. After that it would be a good time to reboot.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

[BLACKOUT][/BLACKOUT]

Thor is also in the public domain.

Yes, but Thor has never been anything like as famous a character as Hercules. There have been many Hercules movies and TV shows, and many versions of the character - Steve Reeves, Kevin Sorbo and Dwayne Johnson to name a few. How many Thors have their been that aren't the Marvel version?

 

[jolldan]

Lol only kidding.

But yes it has to come to an end sometime, as a huge fan I hope its not for years preferably decades.

 

[DACrowe]

Disney is never ending the ride.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

The question becomes will they recast to keep a Tony Stark character or keep rolling forward with, now young in the MCU, men and women as different characters

 

[Chance Jackson]

Which characters are you talking about? Without using the words "Ms. Marvel".

Cho, Shang-chi, Blade, Ms America, Morales, Spider-Man India etc there are no east Asian led franchises, no Latinx franchises, no south Asian franchises etc there is only 1 black led franchise, and only 1 female led franchise there is enormous room for inclusion here and that should keep mcu going for a long time

 

[Thör-El]

I actually think Marvel are going to have to decide on how long they want things to last pretty soon. They've got two options:

A) Not recasting, retiring/killing off major heroes when the actors want out and reducing the lifespan of the MCU since (even though X-Men and F4 will help) there's a finite number of Marvel characters you can build franchises around

B) James Bond style recasting of Iron Man/Cap/Thor etc when the actors want out meaning that they can keep going indefinitely until people stop wanting them to.

I suspect it's closer to option A because if they wanted to keep it going forever/keep their options open to recast characters then surely they'd have done that with all the major villains rather than killing them off (Ultron, Loki, Killmonger, Klaue, Hela, Malekith).

Plus unless they start writing new films so you don't need to know the history of the characters the lifespan of the MCU's probably limited because eventually the continuity becomes too much to keep track of for the average fan.

 

[MasterCat]

I actually think Marvel are going to have to decide on how long they want things to last pretty soon. They've got two options:

A) Not recasting, retiring/killing off major heroes when the actors want out and reducing the lifespan of the MCU since (even though X-Men and F4 will help) there's a finite number of Marvel characters you can build franchises around

B) James Bond style recasting of Iron Man/Cap/Thor etc when the actors want out meaning that they can keep going indefinitely until people stop wanting them to.

I hope they commit to B. It's not urgent, because they have two characters who can replace Steve Rogers as Captain America and Chris Hemsworth doesn't want to leave yet.
It's only the Iron Man franchise where they have an urgent problem. They've gotten themselves into a repeat of Eon's James Bond problem, where Sean Connery became so identified with the role that he was able to negotiate an unaffordable cut before finally being let go. This is why I expect Tony Stark to die in Avengers 4, so nobody will be tempted to write him into a Captain America or Spider-Man or whatever film. That'll give them several years of breathing room before Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, or whoever else says "I'm done", at which point I hope they're willing to start recasting.

 

[Iceman]

Once I’m dead they are free to end. Not a second sooner though.