You soon won't see as many new Marvel titles coming to the big or small screen.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday the company is scaling back Marvel Cinematic Universe productions as part of an overall mission to "reduce output and focus more on quality."
"We're slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two or a maximum of three," Iger said during a quarterly earnings call, per Variety.
In 2021 with the start of Phase Four, Marvel began really ramping up its release schedule. Now halfway into Phase Five, it's released 25 titles — 10 movies, 12 TV seasons — and two TV specials — in less than a 2 1/2-year span. That's compared to the 23 projects it created in the 11-year Phase One, Two and Three runs.
But the increase in volume didn't translate to an instant bump in success, with two of its films released last year — "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and "The Marvels" — not breaking even during their theatrical runs.
That's led to talk of audience "superhero fatigue" and questions on how the franchise will proceed with its scheduled Phase Five and Six films and series.
But on the call Tuesday, Iger said the studio is "working hard" on its path forward, adding that it has "a couple of good films in '25" before "more 'Avengers,' which we're extremely excited about." And although he's mentioned reducing output in the past, his quantification of that output is new.
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The only Marvel film coming out this year is the highly anticipated film "Deadpool & Wolverine," coming to theaters July 26. Three more series are also expected, with "Agatha" set for late this year and "Eyes and of Wakanda" and "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" not yet scheduled.
Those will probably stay put along with the scheduled 2025 films, per Iger's comment. Those include a new "Captain America" film, "Thunderbolts," "The Fantastic Four" reboot and "Blade."
Its "Avengers" films are probably sticking with their dates, too. "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" is listed for 2026, and "Avengers: Secret Wars" is scheduled for 2027.
But it remains to be seen how the franchise will handle its new villain Kang the Conqueror after it dropped actor Jonathan Majors from the gig when he was found guilty of assault and harassment.
There are also multiple projects in development without a place in the timeline such as "Armor Wars," an untitled "Spider-Man: No Way Home" sequel, an untitled "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" sequel and an untitled "X-Men" film.
