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Marvel mega-fan Chris "Supafly" Markland has taken to TikTok to mock Marvel by suggesting reasons for the studio's recent poor box-office performance.
The Disney-owned studio—known for its superhero content called the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) which once ruled cinema and streaming networks—has seen a decline in box-office success, experienced in-house dramas and overworked VFX workers.
That's not to mention the accusation of abuse and possible jail time for what Marvel hoped would be its new breakout star, Jonathan Majors.
The Loki actor will face a Manhattan court over charges he allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, in a March incident in New York City. His lawyers have denied all charges against him.
Newsweek has contacted Marvel via email for comment.
Markland told Newsweek he believed Marvel's issues can't be contributed to one cause but rather "a death by a thousand cuts," and "pumping out" content so quickly there's less quality control then there was in the past.
In the viral video, Markland played two characters, a Marvel executive and an intern who were discussing the potential reasons for Marvel's troubles.
"I ain't gonna lie, man. It's just not looking good. We might be in trouble. Apparently, our friends don't really f*** with the cinematic universe the way they used to, and it's starting to cut into our bottom line," the executive starts.
Warning: the video contains adult language.
The intern then starts throwing out ideas such as, oversaturating the market "by prioritizing quantity over quality," rushing "phase four without a clear road map," introducing a dizzying number of new characters, or creating too many new spinoff shows about characters nobody cares about.
He also questioned whether it was "because we've overworked and underpaid our VFX artists by forcing them to turn out movie after movie, in completely unrealistic time sets, while at the same time over relying on CGI and VFX to cut corners to the point where all of our movies start to look like unfinished Spy Kids video games?"
Then the interned touched on staffing dramas including firing "entire writing teams before a show even starts," as real headlines about Marvel's "tail spin" appeared on the screen.
"And Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was one of the worst performing movies we ever put out," the executive said.
The movie, released in February, had taken $470.9 million in the U.S. and Canada by April. With theaters generally retaining around 50 percent of the takings, the studio just about turned a profit. Its production budget was $193.2 million, according to Forbes.
Majors was supposed to be Marvel's new supervillain, Kang the Conqueror, the executive argued, but the studio faces a major dilemma as to whether to keep him on, but the intern in Markland's TikTok argued the Ant-Man plot undermined his character.
"We'll always have our Hail Mary play," the executive concluded, referring to rumors Marvel was planning to bring back the original Avengers cast in an attempt to save the franchise.
Markland explained that "when major Hollywood studios find themselves in this kind of conundrum, the lead executives will often look to find a scapegoat to blame for their misfortunes."
Instead of recasting him, as rumors have suggested is the plan, Markland suggested Marvel take the time to "build Kang up as a viable threat like they did with Thanos, they would see much more positive results."
He advised Marvel to slow down its rate of content output and increase the quality.
"With familiarity breeds contempt and when Marvel was only putting out two to three movies per year, fans were much more excited to see the next one in theaters because of all the months of anticipation between films," Markland told Newsweek, adding it also needed to hire directors who were not afraid to experiment with the Marvel formula.
But despite its recent troubles, Marvel should be given credit where credit is due.
"I think it's easy for longtime MCU fans to take this franchise for granted, but the fact still remains that it's the most profitable franchise in film history," Markland said.
"For better or worse, they've changed the trajectory of filmmaking as we know it and has given me scenes from the comics I read as a child that I never dreamed I'd ever get to see in live action."
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more