As successful as Marvel Studios has been over the last few years, a serious problem (well, two) reared its head over the course of it’s Phase Two run of movies. People started to notice the ‘Marvel formula’, which was basically the same story been rehashed over and over again and the same action packed 'army vs. army’ finale from The Avengers being wheeled each time. Now, don’t get me wrong, most of Phase Two’s output was fantastic (guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier especially), but this formula is to blame for the growing lack creativity that has plagued Marvel movies of late and is leading to a sort of superhero fatigue, even from hardcore comic book movie fans. And all the blame lies squarely with the Marvel Creative Committee.
Headed up by Marvel Entertainment president Alan Fine, the committee consists of prolific Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel Comics publisher Dan Buckley, and Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Enterprises Joe Quesada, and they had an unbelievable amount of control of Marvel Studios output from the scripting to the filming stage. Now, these are all talented people, but at the end of the day they were towing the company line. These were also the guys who made Edgar Wright walk away from Ant-Man, a project he had been working on since 2003, and were responsible for all the set-up for Phase 3 clumsily inserted into Avengers: Age of Ultron. And really, when did the words ‘movie making’, ‘by’, and ‘committee’ ever lead to anything good? But we can now breath a sigh of a relief, as according to Birth. Movies. Death., the creative committee is no more, as new era dawns for Marvel Studios. This come hot on the heels of Marvel Studios moving away from Marvel Entertainment, and Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter who has reportedly caused ‘years of frustration’ for them, and answering directly to Disney. Both these events put greater creative control in the hands of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co-president Louis Esposito, which could see some new life being breathed into the coming slate of movies, now that they are free from the whims of those higher up.
This change will probably not come with Captain America: Civil War or even Doctor Strange, but future Phase Three projects, including Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man, and Black Panther, could benefit greatly from this change in creative direction. Or this could all be for nought, and Marvel Studios continues down the already financially successful path its on. Only time will tell.
What do think this new direction means for Marvel Studios? Sound off in the comments below.
