A study of over 5,000 movie, TV and gaming fans between the ages of 13-54 was conducted by Fandom in November last year and revealed that ‘superhero fatigue’ had become a real issue.
The results indicated over 33% of Marvel fans had gotten fatigued with the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a considerably higher amount than the 20% of fans who said the same thing about the DCEU.
Outside of that survey, more generalised talk of ‘superhero fatigue’ has set in among not just cinephiles but casual moviegoers and could be seen in articles over the way that “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” two films outside the genre, beat Marvel at the box-office in 2022.
Speaking with The Movie Business Podcast, Marvel Studios President and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige was asked how he tackles the issue of ‘superhero fatigue’ among moviegoers – especially with Marvel pushing out so much product to cinemas and on streaming of late. Feige says he’s heard these concerns before:
“I’ve been at Marvel Studios for 22 years now, over 22 years, and most of us here at Marvel Studios have been around a decade or longer together. From probably my 2nd year at Marvel, people were asking, ‘Well, how long is this going to last? Is this fad of comic book movies going to end?’
I didn’t really understand the question. Because to me, it was akin to saying after Gone With The Wind, ‘Well, how many more movies can be made off of novels? Do you think the audience will sour on movies being adapted from books?'”
Feige goes on to say that just like books, comics can offer a range of stories to keep the genre fresh:
“There’re 80 years of the most interesting, emotional, groundbreaking stories that have been told in the Marvel comics, and it is our great privilege to be able to take what we have and adapt them.
I found that if we tell the story right, and we adapt them in a way that the audience still, knock on wood so far, is falling us along 22-plus years later with, that we can tell any types of movies that share two things.”
The comments come as Marvel is about to kick off ‘Phase 5’ of its movies and series with the release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” on February 17th. That film’s writer Jeff Loveness spoke with Empire recently and made the bold claim that the Quantum Realm, the fantastical place where much of the film takes place, is “a limitless place of creation and diversity and alien life. It’s Jodorowsky’s Dune within Marvel”. That comparison has drawn some understandable reaction.
Marvel also has “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” getting its Disney+ debut on February 1st, and has the series “Secret Invasion” set for sometime this Spring.
