The Marvel reset
Downey is back. The Russo brothers are back. PLUS: ‘SNL’ goes for the cameo with Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, and Kimmel and Mulaney pass on the Oscars.
Hello! It may be August, but this is anything but a quiet summer edition of Popculturology.
“Not Marvel’s first choice”
It’s been almost a week since we learned that Robert Downey Jr. was returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. I had heard the rumors that this might happen, but the concept seemed too wild to be true — much less to expect an announcement at San Diego Comic-Con.
But we did get that announcement, and not only did it spell out the future of the MCU, it showed us just how Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios were recalibrating the franchise.
“[The] sensational quality of the reveal — on the heels of a year where Marvel skipped the Con — obscured certain less-joyous realities,” Vulture’s Chris Lee wrote. “Namely, that this Avengers iteration, this actor, and even these directors were not Marvel’s first choice.”
They were not Marvel Studios’ first choice.
When Feige first announced the next two Avengers movies in 2022, they were Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. Jonathan Majors was set as Kang, first appearing in the Season 1 finale of Loki while playing the villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. A new roster of superheroes was being introduced, with characters like Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk and the Eternals ready to step up. They would be joined by old favorites like Sam Wilson assuming the Captain America mantle.
After the critical flop of Quantumania, the box office flop of The Marvels and the return of Bob Iger as CEO, though, Marvel Studios appears to be backtracking to safe territory. It’s not just Downey who’s returning to the MCU. Marvel confirmed that Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, were also back to take the reins of the next two Avengers movies, which were now titled Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
While the version of Kang played by Majors was never going to be the future of the MCU after the actor’s arrest and conviction, the studio could’ve held its position, recast the role and continued to make good on its original plan for the Multiverse Saga. What we have instead is a reset.
The signs have been there.
