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For any sane production franchise, whether it be the impossibly large storytelling machine of Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe or the underrated Hollywood faction of indie features, the success rate is only calculated by its critical and audience reception. The entire film industry runs on the frazzled excitement and enthusiasm of its fans toward a certain project and it seems as though Marvel consciously chucked that theory out the window when it stepped off the glorious experience that wasEndgame.
Also read:“Our writers are just putting pen to paper now”: Kevin Feige Hints Tom Holland’s Triumphant MCU Return inSpider-Man 4, Confirms Story is Already Complete
Kevin Feige Finds Respite in the Freedom of Phase Four
Kevin Feige has essentially treated the MCU Phase Four as the resident Knowhere of the Marvel Studios oeuvre. Every halted project or script that was undercut in favor of more arc-driven plots that are central to the narrative was brought and dumped here. Anything that seemed too extraordinary, eccentric, and idiosyncratic was given a free pass and the writers and directors seemed to treat Phase Four like a space where the most tangentially digressive stories could be made to come true, especially with the resources that Marvel gave to them.
Also read:“That doesn’t make a lick of sense”: Kevin Feige Was Unhappy With the Extremely MetaShe-HulkSeason Finale
The only problem with this plan? The audience wasn’t made aware of it otherwise perhaps the reception to it would be a bit different. In an interview withEntertainment Weekly, Kevin Feige claimed in the aftermath ofShe-Hulk: Attorney At Law‘s launch at Disney+:
“She-Hulk, for example, was an experiment: ‘Let’s just do a legal comedy.’ What if Ally McBeal was a superhero? How do we do a legal sitcom with an incredibly expensive CG character in the middle of every episode? And I couldn’t be happier with the tone that Jessica Gao has set for that. It’s a very different tone than many of other projects have, and that was totally intentional.”
It is also important to note that although by the final episode, the writers and production team behind the show was able to get their point across (about Marvel trolls and the entire meta bit), the viewership by then had already dwindled to the lowest of the low, and the hate that the show had been getting in the beginning for intentionally testing the fans withShe-Hulkbegan to slow down because hardly anyone was caught up in the story by then.
Also read:“I don’t want to make one type of movie”: Kevin Feige Addresses Marvel Movie Fatigue After Critical Phase 4 Failure
Perhaps if the dialogue between Marvel and its audience about female empowerment and the harsh socio-cultural reception to a female superhero in a predominantly male business was sold less as a dislocated comedy and more in sync with MCU’s mainstream tone,She-Hulkcould have actually worked out in favor of everybody involved and not just been a project for kicks on Feige and theShe-Hulkteam’s part.
Kevin Feige’s Crazed Take on the Art of Creative Liberty
For Kevin Feige, the entirety of Marvel Phase Four was an extended intro into the land of the weird and the unexplored. With a fandom such as this and a litany of IPs to choose from, MCU’s transition from the Infinity Saga to the Multiverse Saga is a lesson on successfully testing the limits of your audience while also having fun with the new popular culture trends of today. A mixture of all things profoundly uncharacteristic of Marvel dropped onto our laps in the span of two years and the world gasped at the largest production rate of films, series, and genre-exploring 40-minute specials by a single franchise ever attempted.
Also read:Kevin Feige Says Fewer MCU Shows With More Time Between Each Show’s Release Would be the Norm Now, Fans DISAGREE: “Bad idea. More shows the better”
By the end of 2022, the constant conveyor of the production line paused to give way to Feige’s plans for the mainstream theatrical Marvel saga. But in the process, the damage that was caused by manufacturing a need to constantly deliver a good spectacle on the screens has on one hand given birth to “Marvel fatigue” and on the other, driving the audience to a point of addiction where an extended gap between two projects seems an abhorrent thought to consider.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Lawis now streaming on Disney+
Source:Entertainment Weekly
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2409
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
