It’s no secret that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and superhero lovers at large, are feeling fatigued by the sheer amount of movies and TV shows on offer. In February 2023, Marvel Studios will release its 31st film in the MCU, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which will start Phase 5 of the MCU. As of writing, the Disney-owned studio has completed an impressive 10 series for the Disney Plus streaming platform. Somehow, Marvel keeps churning out content that hooks fans (though, understandably, the quality of that content does vary).

Still, most MCU offerings have been well-reviewed by critics, well-liked by fans, and even more well-received by the box office. That’s an impressive track record; it seems Marvel Studios could do this all day, if needed. “The truth is, there isn’t any [secret formula],” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said on a January 2023 episode of The Movie Business Podcast. The only thing Marvel Studios might have over competitors? “Passion — in spades,” Feige says, noting that if he and his colleagues weren’t creating MCU movies and shows, they’d be the first in line to watch them.

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A producer on every MCU film since 2008’s Iron Man, Feige is the architect of the most successful film franchise in movie history. He oversees every feature film and streaming project — and, as the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finale proved, Feige isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself or Marvel Studios’ approach to shaping the MCU’s trajectory, stories, and characters. With over 80 years of Marvel Comics history to work with, the studio certainly isn't short on ideas. The only pressing issue, then, might be that of so-called “superhero movie fatigue.” So, how does Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios plan to navigate superhero movie fatigue — and will their approach work?

The Rise of the Superhero Genre, Explored

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Often, trends in film and television — the types of stories told or the genres that make a huge impact — explore and reflect our cultural anxieties at large. Looking at the anxieties that defined the 2000s, it’s no wonder the superhero genre resonated so much with moviegoers. Films like X-Men (2000), Spider-Man (2002), and Batman Begins (2005) kicked off a wave of superhero films wherein the heroes were more like us, the stories and plots more grounded.

In 2008, the MCU’s first entry premiered: Iron Man. The film follows world-renowned industrialist, engineer, and playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as he escapes from captivity by a terrorist group, and then uses his know-how to build a near-indestructible suit of armor. Tony becomes a superhero, but the very thing that defines Iron Man — that mechanized suit of armor — is telling. Armor protects and strengthens. It ensures that the wearer is safe.

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A few years later, 2012’s Avengers features a New York City that’s under siege by airborne forces. And, at the center of that fight, are Captain America, a star-spangled and shield-wielding defender, and several other ordinary folks who were given extraordinary opportunities, like Iron Man. In subsequent movies, the Battle of New York impacts Tony more than he’s willing to admit, and Stark tries to downplay his experiences with post-traumatic stress.

Throughout Avengers, and the other MCU films, there’s tons of destruction, but it’s rare when someone dies, or when a hero can’t save the day. Not all American superhero films are a response to 9/11 and the tragedies that stemmed from that moment, but, when looking at these films, there’s some amount of re-imagining real-life tragedy in a fictional world that’s undeniable. Tapping into society’s collective grief can be cathartic, compelling, or exploitative depending on how it’s handled. But the superhero genre does its best to rewrite traumatic moments and recast everyday people, or symbolic figures, as heroes who can prevent lasting harm.

What’s Next for Superhero Movies and the MCU?

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Superhero films like Marvel’s came onto the scene at the right moment. In some ways, they were born of those moments. While superhero movies aren’t just one thing or a response to just one thing, there’s clearly room for innovation in the genre. What kind of superhero stories do viewers need to see? Even in the existing MCU, there’s been some standout films that grapple with issues not often associated with the superhero genre. Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok (2017), for example, layers its action-comedy fun over a complex commentary about colonialism and the treatment of Indigenous people.

As Marvel Studios diversifies the stories it tells and the characters it centers, it’s also wading into new territory in terms of genre. Often, superhero movies are considered a genre unto themselves. These narratives contain certain tropes after all — the reluctant hero, that epic third-act battle, and so on. And Marvel films that have been the most successful, like Iron Man, Thor: Ragnarök, Black Panther (2018) and its sequel (pictured above), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), don’t try to transcend the tropes of superhero films. None of these movies see superhero fare as limiting. Instead, they all embrace those defining characteristics — and add in some innovation on top of that.

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With a longer Hollywood history than Marvel Comics, DC Comics has proven that this tactic of reinventing and embracing works. Just look at the various film and TV versions of Batman that have appeared over the years. Adam West’s Batman series was campy and comic. Tim Burton’s Batman films were a bit darker, but still very much action-adventure romps. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy gave audiences the most realistic — albeit gritty and dark — Batman to date. And 2022’s The Batman went back to the character’s detective noir roots, toning down the tech-heavy DCEU iteration of the character.

Moviegoers were given the Batman they needed (and deserved) at those specific moments in time. Each version of the Caped Crusader reflected his cultural moment. But, arguably, comic book-based works — and superhero film and TV adaptations, in particular — have never been as prolific as they are now. For the last 15 years, superhero stories have saturated pop culture and dominated the box office. So, how long will this “trend” last? And can Marvel Studios overcome fans’ feelings of superhero movie fatigue?

Kevin Feige’s Approach to Warding Off So-Called “Superhero Movie Fatigue”

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While on The Movie Business Podcast, Feige mentioned that people ask him all the time, and have asked him since at least 2010 or so, about when he thinks the “fad” of comic book movies is going to end. But with 80 years of groundbreaking stories to its name, Marvel Comics has already stood the test of time, and there’s no reason to think it won’t do the same in another medium.

For Feige, the entries in the MCU share two things: the Marvel logo on their title card, and the seed of an idea from a library of Marvel source material. Otherwise, anything’s possible. While in college, Feige recalled being exposed to all sorts of films and, as a student, thinking, “I want to make all of these.” For the prolific producer, Marvel Studios allows him to do just that.

According to Feige, the solution to overcoming the so-called “superhero movie fatigue” audiences are feeling is to break the MCU movies into genre films. Yes, they’re superhero movies, but they can also be rom-coms or horror films or spy movies. So far, most MCU titles fit neatly into the “action” or “adventure” categories; some may lean more into humor (Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1) or the hallmarks of espionage thrillers (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), but, in the end, they all wind up delivering a third-act epic boss fight. (Just to name one trope.)

Disney Plus has provided Marvel Studios with a kind of sandbox. Instead of every hero getting their own feature-film, Marvel has slotted some characters into its MCU TV series. This allows them to tell stories differently — there’s the luxury (or pitfall) of more time, for starters — but it has also allowed them to genre hop a bit. WandaVision borrowed from many sources of inspiration: at its core, it was a show about grief, but it was also a psychological mystery of sorts, and each episode explored a different era of television to great effect. Loki is sci-fi strangeness at its finest. The very meta She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a sitcom-meets-courtroom-drama.

But will taking these learnings to the big screen work? Genre-hopping might start to feel like just another gimmick if that’s all that separates these new phases of MCU films from previous entries. Reviews-wise, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was one of the MCU’s least successful projects. Directed by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), the sequel leaned into the horror and horror-comedy the filmmaker is known for. Sometimes this worked well (Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch appearing in mirrors and being altogether unsettling), but other times, it fell flat (Rachel McAdams exclaiming, “See you in hell!” before an attack).

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For recent MCU projects that try to do something different, those climatic end battles feel like the weak point. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever explores grief, the impact of colonialism on another now-isolationist nation, and the idea of reclamation, but all of these nuanced threads have to tie together in a multi-stage final fight. Even WandaVision, one of the MCU’s strongest and most genre-fluid entries, turns into a CGI-heavy battle between flying spell-casters in the finale.

Marvel Studios is open to feedback, trying new ideas, and improving upon what doesn’t quite work. Feige even mentions that they wrap every film with a “post-mortem” to do just that. And, recently, the slate of upcoming MCU releases shifted considerably, perhaps because the studio learned that quality should top quantity. Ultimately, it’s not enough to play with genres if the rest is formulaic, but Marvel Studios gives audiences little reason to fear that it won’t find a way to combat superhero movie fatigue.

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