Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has begun, but not with the smashing start that Disney & Marvel Studios had hoped. The 1st film in Phase 5 of the MCU, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, opened to mixed reviews, suffered a 70% 2nd weekend drop from a strong $106.1M opening weekend, and is barely at $465M worldwide with its final global cume projected to end at $500 million. While this does not bode well, all hope is not lost. The next film in Phase 5, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, Marvel Studios looks to have received the message to return to a quality over quantity approach and may end up as the highest-grossing film at the global box office for 2023. However, the rest of the Phase 5 roll out may end up being controversial. Not just with fans, but with political figures as well.
The Marvels (the sequel to the billion dollar smash Captain Marvel) and the fourth Captain America movie called Captain America: New World Order, look to be too controversial to become hits. Why? Well, The Marvels is proving controversial as the former’s lead star, Brie Larson, has been trolled, mocked, and hated by a rising loud minority of internet incels on the right for telling the truth that film criticism and film press tours need more inclusion and diversity, even though she was seen by the far right as someone calling for erasure of white men due to those said comments. And the latter film, Captain America: New World Order, could prove to be very divisive by way of the fact that the new Captain America is a black man in Sam Wilson/Falcon going up against a corrupt president of the United States of America in Thunderbolt Ross/Red Hulk. With the latter figure being seen as an allegory against former President Trump, this could alienate fans of the MCU on the right who feel their films should stay away from politics and act as a tool for escapism without real-life controversy paralleling the story. This may prove to be even more anxiety inducing than usual since it is being released in a presidential election year. To make matters more worrying, Thunderbolts‘ and Blade have their own sets of problems. Thunderbolts’ is a movie about villains forming a team to face a dark new threat that is being written by a comedy writer while Blade has been delayed twice due to script rewrites and losing a director. It would seem that after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is released things become bleak for the MCU. But there is one film, at the end of Phase 5, that looks like it could be the least controversial MCU movie of 2024, aside from also being one of the last remaining anticipated MCU movies. A film that will likely be the best of the 4 MCU movies set for release in 2024 – Deadpool 3.
Set for theatrical release on November 8th, 2024, Deadpool 3 is the final film in Phase 5 of the MCU and the 3rd installment of the franchise about the titular Merc With A Mouth, who will be played once again by Ryan Reynolds. The Deadpool franchise has been in the works since the original became a smash hit at the box office in 2016. Those box-office numbers catapulted Deadpool into a loose sub-franchise in 20th Century Studios’ X-Men franchise (before it was sold to Disney). This third installment has been in development since Deadpool 2 was released in 2018. Thanks to films like Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Endgame introducing the concepts of time travel, along with the introduction of the Mutliverse through Phase 4 stories such as Loki, What If, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, the anticipation for Deadpool 3 has only grown. Not only has this anticipation been mounting for 5 years, fans have been electrified by none other than the return of Hugh Jackman in the iconic role as Wolverine. The marquee X-Men member will mark his 10th appearance with the release of Deadpool 3.
Not only will this film see the dramatic return of Wolverine, it is also the 1st film in the MCU slated to be rated R. This rating has immense marketing potential that I believe Disney and Marvel Studios should give a significant amount of attention toward. This rating could signal that Disney and Marvel Studios are ready to grow up and make movies and TV series for adults in their core franchises and hopefully produce more R and TV-MA rated stories. We could see the Daredevil revival series, Daredevil: Born Again, TV-MA and, if it is delayed until 2025, Blade could also be another R-rated film.
And, finally, the studio should lean into the excitement and anticipation for this movie by promoting the return of the writers from Deadpool 1 & 2, Rhett Rheese & Paul Wernick. Not only is their return critical to retain the signature humor of Deadpool, it will also breathe fresh life into the MCU’s humor. Humor that may end up temporarily lost after the theatrical release of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 which will be the final film for director James Gunn who has molded the core humor in the MCU. Their return could also ameliorate the writing we’ve currently seen in MCU films set in the Multiverse. Especially that of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This is all the more reason for the next 2 Avengers films to get better writers than those of the Rick and Morty likes.
If Disney & Marvel Studios market Deadpool 3 strongly with these elements they will establish it as THE MCU movie of 2024 at the box-office. They’ll have good reason to see why they need to up their ante and have the MCU change with the times so it can be better than it was before. Will it work? Possibly. But knowing that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool 3 are the 2 MCU films expected in Phase 5 to deliver on high quality, it would be in Disney’s best interest to see that those 2 films are the answer as to how and why the MCU can be saved only through quality, not quantity. Let’s just hope they learn that lesson in time, before it’s too late as that lesson being learned needs to come to the MCU immediately to make their salvation come through, now more than ever.
Al Says All 