Disney Is Ruining Marvel and STAR WARS

Before I say anything, there are two points I wish to clarify here. First, everything I say below is an opinion and you’re free to disagree with me. Second, Marvel and Star Wars are not being destroyed by “wokeness.” That is not what I’m going to be talking about here. Should we dive in?

It’s a bold statement that makes up my headline. I’m claiming that Disney is ruining Marvel and Star Wars. Disney basically owns the box office and the majority of content in terms of TV and movies these days. They’re not hurting, and I’m sure that Marvel and Star Wars projects dominate all kinds of charts and lists for doing well. So, how are these giant franchises being ruined? Is it by introducing diversity and being “woke?” If you read my first paragraph, you’ll understand that is not my position. In short, it’s because there’s too much content coming out for these projects, and Disney is making them more and more connected.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a very interesting beast. When it first started up back in the late 2000s/early 2010s, it was doing something that many studios weren’t doing. It was creating a shared universe for several different movies to build up to team-up movies. Sure we had movie series and trilogies, but those typically followed the same character and were sequels and prequels with maybe a spin-off. I loved it and so did so many others. Unfortunately, the success of the MCU has led to more and more studios trying to create similar universes.

There’s a problem with these cinematic universes though: consumer burnout. I was fully onboard with the MCU through Avengers: Endgame. I even watched and greatly enjoyed WandaVision. However, a couple years ago, Disney ramped up the amount of Marvel content being released. Endgame came out in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic forced a break in 2020, but since the release of Endgame, there have been seven MCU films and about 10 MCU series released! That’s a lot of content to release in 2 years!

After WandaVision, I was so burned out on Marvel content. I wasn’t excited about any other projects. The only other parts of Phase 4 that I’ve watched are Black Widow (family gathering social reason), one episode of What If…?, and then Spider-Man: No Way Home. That last one was the first Marvel project I was excited for in a very long time, and I left the movie disappointed. I thought I had gotten over my feelings of being burned out and everyone was saying it was an incredible movie. I thought it was fine and it had its moments, but when I left the theater I just thought it was okay. To me, this proves that Marvel has a problem.

The problem is that because they are connecting everything together, there is a huge barrier to entry. If you haven’t kept up since about 2009, you’re probably going to be lost. Even if it’s not true, Marvel has cultivated, and even relied on, this feeling of FOMO in the MCU where consumers have the feeling that they need to watch everything in order to know what’s going on. This means that either the consumer has to spend a large chunk of time watching the content they’ve missed before the next one drops which is probably in the next week or two or the consumer will stop consuming the content/never start consuming the content. Right now, I’m in the latter category and I know a lot of people are in there with me. Because Marvel has created a culture of having to consume all their content, and they’re pumping more and more of it out, more and more people are going to start not caring and stop watching it.

So far, I’ve only talked about Marvel, but my title mentions Star Wars. Why? Well, Disney seems to be starting to do the same thing with Star Wars. Like many of you, I grew up loving Star Wars. I remember being home from school sick and watching our VHS copies of the original trilogy countless times. I remember hearing fabled tales of Episodes 7, 8, and 9. Like many of you, I wanted more Star Wars content. I loved it when the prequels came out because I was a kid and it was more Star Wars! When the sequel trilogy came out, I was excited (that excitement died with Rise of Skywalker). Rogue One didn’t seem all that great at first, but after watching it, it’s one of the best Star Wars movies out there! The Mandalorian is an incredible show. However, I worry that Disney is starting to repeat the MCU mistake of tying everything together in the Star Wars Universe. I haven’t watched The Book of Boba Fett because I was under the impression that it was a spin-off and I didn’t really care about following Boba Fett’s story after Season 2 of The Mandalorian. However, it seems like the two shows are much more entwined than I was led to believe. Do I need to go watch The Book of Boba Fett to understand what’s happening when Season 3 of The Mandalorian releases? I don’t want that!

Give me self-contained stories. Do small crossovers that don’t require the consumption of hours and hours more content. It’s a real turn off when I’m asked to watch days-worth of content in order to see a new show or movie. A month or so ago I talked about how many people for years have been yelling about how there’s a lack of original content being made. Studios just remake, serialize, or spin-off from already popular IPs. Now, more and more studios are interweaving those projects forcing consumers to partake in so much more content to feel “caught up” on pop culture. This creates a vicious cycle of consumers wanting one thing, but only being given another and so we keep getting the latter.

What are your thoughts on the amount of content Disney’s pumping out for Marvel and Star Wars? Am I crazy for thinking this content mill is a problem? Have you also felt the Marvel/Star Wars burnout?

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