What happens when Marvel Run out of A-Listers?

[Spider-Aziz]

Right now the only A-listers who Marvel have left to develop are Blade, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Shang Chi and the Thunderbolts.

What?

You and I have a very different definition of "A-Lister."

My first thought reading the line above from the OP.

 

[Dasher10]

^ listen to this man Marvel.

I salivate at the possibility of a Beetle (Spidey villain) vs. Ant Man movie.

Heck even a Black Panther vs. Kraven would be screen worthy.

Also Doctor Strange vs The Real Mandarin.

Hulk vs Spider Man would be a sight to behold.

Yeah but Ant-Man still has Whirlwind, Egghead and Crossfire to fight first.

And I was actually hoping that Black Panther would fight Doctor Doom in the sequel if Marvel could get the FF for Phase 4. I still feel like Panther has more villains than just Klaw and Killmonger. Man-Ape and Malice were cast and will probably be used in the sequel.

That doesn't change the fact that Marvel will be juggling far too many franchises at once and even bringing the total number of films per phase up to four a year will still lead to too many films.

I'd honestly rather see a Black Widow, War Machine or Vision solo film since all three of those characters already have solo material to draw from. I'm at a point where I really feel like I'm done with origin stories for the most part. I'm hoping that Carol Danvers is an Inhuman and we see her origin after the credits of Infinity War: Part 1.

The problem with origin stories is that they all fall into the same plot structure. It's always a story of, "ordinary person gets extraordinary abilities" with few other themes. I want to see more character development.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I feel like Black Knight COULD work if directed by Francois Girard. Something which details the various Black Knights up until Dane Whitman gets the sword from Nathan Garrett. No villain for Dane but villains for the rest to fight. A total change from the usual origin story.

I still can't see Black Knight getting a sequel because he lacks a strong rogues gallery. He has Proctor who's more of an Avengers villain. That's it.

I feel Morgan Le Fey would be a good fit for a Black Knight movie (particularly given the legacy aspect of the character). Who is she supposed to be a villain of, just Spider-Woman?

 

[Stark Bauer]

Yeah but Ant-Man still has Whirlwind, Egghead and Crossfire to fight first.

And I was actually hoping that Black Panther would fight Doctor Doom in the sequel if Marvel could get the FF for Phase 4. I still feel like Panther has more villains than just Klaw and Killmonger. Man-Ape and Malice were cast and will probably be used in the sequel.

That doesn't change the fact that Marvel will be juggling far too many franchises at once and even bringing the total number of films per phase up to four a year will still lead to too many films.

I'd honestly rather see a Black Widow, War Machine or Vision solo film since all three of those characters already have solo material to draw from. I'm at a point where I really feel like I'm done with origin stories for the most part. I'm hoping that Carol Danvers is an Inhuman and we see her origin after the credits of Infinity War: Part 1.

The problem with origin stories is that they all fall into the same plot structure. It's always a story of, "ordinary person gets extraordinary abilities" with few other themes. I want to see more character development.

Ironically, origin stories have a lot of character development. See Iron Man 1.

 

[DrCosmic]

But you liked watching a Guardians of the Galaxy movie with Star-Lord, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot in the lead roles? What is the difference between that and, say, an Avengers movie with Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Winter Soldier?

Hopping in, the difference is "these nobodies are taking my Avengers from me!" That's why a skillful transfer is indispensable. You have to convince the audience they should be as excited about that line-up as they would be "the real" Avengers or else you need to call it The Ultimates or something.

 

[MbJ]

On the subject.
http://www.cbr.com/hawkeye-needs-a-netflix-show-but-should-it-star-jeremy-renner/

 

[MbJ]

Getting back to the previous point that was made about very few franchises ever surviving big cast changeovers, I would point out a lot of those installments were just generally crappy movies to begin with. Yes, Jurassic Park III got rid of most of the characters people cared about from the original two movies, but it's also pretty widely considered to be a crappy movie in its own right. Ghostbusters had all that online hate from people complaining about it ruining their childhood, but it was also just a really mediocre movie regardless of the gender of the cast. It was a quick cash in.

That's the thing with a lot of these franchise pics. Cast changeovers often go over poorly...but that's also largely because said cast changeovers often coincide with a really big dip in quality (which is why a lot of the original actors decline to return in the first place).

If you made an actual good, or even great Avengers or Champions or New Avengers or Young Avengers or whatever movie, I'm sure you could market it successfully.

 

[SirStrangefolk]

Getting back to the previous point that was made about very few franchises ever surviving big cast changeovers, I would point out a lot of those installments were just generally crappy movies to begin with. Yes, Jurassic Park III got rid of most of the characters people cared about from the original two movies, but it's also pretty widely considered to be a crappy movie in its own right. Ghostbusters had all that online hate from people complaining about it ruining their childhood, but it was also just a really mediocre movie regardless of the gender of the cast. It was a quick cash in.

That's the thing with a lot of these franchise pics. Cast changeovers often go over poorly...but that's also largely because said cast changeovers often coincide with a really big dip in quality (which is why a lot of the original actors decline to return in the first place).

If you made an actual good, or even great Avengers or Champions or New Avengers or Young Avengers or whatever movie, I'm sure you could market it successfully.

The difference is also that, for example with something like Ghost Busters, they didn't slowly introduce the new cast over the course of several movies while the original cast left one by one. Instead the complete cast was swapped out and replaced from one movie to another.

 

[Zarex]

Within the last two years we've seen sequels in Jurassic World and The Force Awakens that expanded the audience from prior installments despite large cast turnover, all while maintaining franchise continuity. I don't see why Marvel can't do the same.

And in the case of Ghostbusters, I think a scene in which Ray gives the ladies his blessing to reopen the business would have put a lot of fanboy minds at ease.

 

[SirStrangefolk]

Within the last two years we've seen sequels in Jurassic World and The Force Awakens that expanded the audience from prior installments despite large cast turnover, all while maintaining franchise continuity. I don't see why Marvel can't do the same.

And in the case of Ghostbusters, I think a scene in which Ray gives the ladies his blessing to reopen the business would have put a lot of fanboy minds at ease.

With The Force Awakens they're doing exactly what I suggested, by introducing the new characters while the old favourite main characters (Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, etc.) are still around, and then slowly writing them out.

Jurassic World is an exception I guess, although I would argue the dinosaurs are just as much main characters and fan favourites as Alan Grant, Ellie Satler or Ian Malcolm.

In the case of Ghostbuster the old cast members were all cameos and they didn't portray their old characters. So it wasn't Ray, just Dan Aykroyd the cabdriver for 15 whole seconds. That is something very different than slowly introducing the new and taking out the old one by one.

 

[Mike Murdock]

On the subject.
http://www.cbr.com/hawkeye-needs-a-netflix-show-but-should-it-star-jeremy-renner/

I like how that article refers to Jeph Loeb as "Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige."

I'm not opposed to it featuring Kate Bishop. I would hope, if it does, Jeremy Renner is at least a regular (appearing in at least one quarter of the episodes). So far, Netflix has not demonstrated that they're willing to soften the tone of their shows to something that would fit a Kate Bishop show, though.

 

[Chris B]

I think they have enough properties to develop for a long time. And while I think they are/will be taking a break from them I think they will resume making solo Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor films at some point.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think we need to stop doubting Marvel at this point.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange definitely were not A-listers. Doctor Strange got better reviews than Civil War and is on its way to out-grossing Thor: The Dark World.

So if they run out of A-listers? They can turn the c-listers into A-listers.

If they want to use other characters again, they can always recast them and readjust things. Seriously, why not?

 

[Zarex]

I am still confident that Feige and company can turn comicbook B and C listers into cinematic attractions. But an awful lot of promising characters, including many rumored to be in future films, are now firmly in TV land. Inhumans, Runaways, Daredevil, Punisher, Heroes for Hire and Cloak & Dagger.....that's at least one Phase of films off the table. The FF can't come back home fast enough.

 

[ehh]

Marvel will dig up some additional unknown characters and turn them into A-list characters, as stated above.

And they still have so, so many stories left to tell with the characters they currently have. And with a multiverse element added, they'll never run out of material. At some point they could introduce an Iron Man from another universe played by a totally different actor if they needed to. They have virtually unlimited material.

And we can assume that at some point in time Marvel will get their hands on Fantastic 4 or X-Men.

This isn't something I worry about.

 

[psylockolussus]

I am ready for the phase 7 films for Black Knight, Hercules, Spider Woman, She Hulk and Swordsman!

 

[ehh]

I just wonder what the next overarching story will be after A4/Thanos.

 

[Erzengel]

I'm kinda laughing because pre 2008, outside of Spider-Man none of these were A listers.

 

[TheVileOne]

I just wonder what the next overarching story will be after A4/Thanos.

You would think the natural next place to go is Galactus, but they can't use Galactus for now.

Like what's a threat they could build up over a number of years that would bring all the films together?

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm kinda laughing because pre 2008, outside of Spider-Man none of these were A listers.

Exactly. Except for maybe Captain America due to his long prominent history and popularity due to the WWII era. We need to stop doubting Marvel.

Thor definitely wasn't an A-lister.

 

[ehh]

You would think the natural next place to go is Galactus, but they can't use Galactus for now.

Like what's a threat they could build up over a number of years that would bring all the films together?

The Beyonder? Something leading up to Secret Wars? Although having another Galactic enemy with a battle in space might be too repetitive.

I remember hearing a rumor from supposed leaks that after phase 3, the big story arcs will be contained to individual phases, rather than multiple.

Would be cool to see Norman Osborn as a major MCU baddie now that Sony is playing ball with Marvel.

 

[TheVileOne]

The Beyonder? Something leading up to Secret Wars? Although having another Galactic enemy with a battle in space might be too repetitive.

I remember hearing a rumor from supposed leaks that after phase 3, the big story arcs will be contained to individual phases, rather than multiple.

Would be cool to see Norman Osborn as a major MCU baddie now that Sony is playing ball with Marvel.

Thing is, Beyonder isn't really an evil malevolent entity. He's more like an observer.

Now for an individual phase, honestly, I would want Masters of Evil. You don't have to call them anti-Avengers, but I would want Avengers vs. the Anti-Avengers.

You could do Thunderbolts too.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

I just wonder what the next overarching story will be after A4/Thanos.

I hope for Dormammu or Galactus, personally

 

[Erzengel]

I know it'd be impossible to keep a lid on but if after Avengers 4, the end credits scene should be SS kneeling saying he's found a planet and panning to Galactus.

 

[TheVileOne]

I know it'd be impossible to keep a lid on but if after Avengers 4, the end credits scene should be SS kneeling saying he's found a planet and panning to Galactus.

That would certainly be something, but A LOT would need to happen for that to take place.