Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Edgy

It couldn’t be clearer by now that The Marvels is a significant box office failure. Any hope for a recovery was dashed with the second box office weekend, in which the movie had a massive 78-percent box office drop, the biggest in Marvel Cinematic Universe history. It will join the likes of John Carter and The Lone Ranger on the list of the biggest movie-related box office failures in Disney’s history, regardless of whether the film truly deserves this total rejection from the audience. It will also take a bunch of heat off Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, now no longer Disney’s biggest financial bomb of 2023. There were several warning signs leading up to this moment, with evidence suggesting that Disney and Marvel Studios realized they were headed for an eventual disaster.

One way in which the two are trying to combat the fatigue? Edginess. The MCU has been criticized for lacking the Juice™, being unwilling to go as far as some comics and other non-MCU Marvel works have in terms of its themes and violence. It’s adhering to mainstream-friendly themes and levels in movies and TV shows. Smaller works like Werewolf by Night showed how they were willing to go a step further, even if it got away with a TV-14 rating despite light and not-bloodless dismemberment — even in the recently-issued color version. Now, it seems, they’re willing to take that a bit further.

The biggest and most immediate upcoming “edgy” Marvel content is TV series Echo. The work was initially presumed to be a successor to the 2021 Hawkeye series, which introduced the titular character (aka Maya Lopez) as played by Alaqua Cox. Her actions were enough to show that the MCU version was taking an altered approach compared to the comic book iteration of the character, dropping the ability to mimic the superpowers of others she sees and fights. She, however, keeps her hard edge and thematic story, and her relationship with The Kingpin, Wilson Fisk.

The tone of this upcoming work was clear from the description, where Disney mentioned that settings would have to be adjusted to allow for “TV-MA” content on Disney Plus for the series to surface. (The United States version of Disney Plus lacks a bunch of the TV-MA/R-rated content compared to the service as it appears in other countries.) The combo of this and the trailer show how the tone will be closer to the Netflix Marvel shows (aka the Defenders Saga, now that they’ve moved to Disney Plus) than anything related to previous 616 MCU content. This makes sense considering that both Daredevil/Matt Murdock and the aforementioned Kingpin are both part of this series. Kingpin in particular displays his violent tendencies from the Daredevil series.

Echo is the first in the Marvel Spotlight series, indicating Marvel works that occur separate from the larger stakes in the universe, and don’t require prior Marvel knowledge to enjoy. This step was bound to happen with how deep the Marvel lore has become.

Look, I’m not going to lie here: I like what I saw from the trailer. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed watching the entire Defenders Saga throughout last year, starting with Daredevil’s first season and ending with Jessica Jones’ third season, I wanted to see more like them. I can only hope that Echo is the start of Disney and Marvel bringing those back as alternative shows and possible movies compared to the other MCU content.

Considering the timing, though, it’s tough not to see this as preemptive damage control for The Marvels’ impending failure. It was clear weeks before the release that the movie was going to massively underperform; Disney fully knew this when they started their campaign to throw director Nia DaCosta under the bus. The timing of the trailer feels like a response, but we’ll see if they have further plans for such works beyond Echo. I’d love to think this is why production on the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again was rebooted.

In other “Phase Edgy” news: The Blade movie is reported to be gunning for an R-rating now, according to director Yann Demange. The new movie has been in development hell since shortly after the announcement; its production has felt like a game of chicken to see how much it will take for Mahershala Ali to bail on the project. That entire time, it was criticized for gunning for a PG-13 rating, despite the old movies starring Wesley Snipes being very R-rated in content. Now, it appears that the new movie will be taking after that interpretation, the Blade most people know, instead of some comics.

Deadpool also shouldn’t be forgotten here. Deadpool 3 was once the only upcoming R-rated Marvel movie, but it now should be in good company with the above Blade. Disney once seemed extremely resistant towards making works directly released from the main Disney studio (as opposed to subsidiaries 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures) R-rated, but they’ve thankfully cooled on this a bit. The movie appears to have resumed filming following the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, according to an Instagram post from Hugh Jackman and his grey beard. There’s potential for this film to alone right the Marvel ship that’s gone askew now that it’s the only MCU movie coming next year.

Time will determine whether this new experiment on the edge will work out for them, and I sincerely hope it does. This universe could use more variety in the stories it wants to tell; not every work has to a galaxy-level tale focused on a big threat to the Multiverse looming in the background. This won’t come close to fixing all of Marvel’s issues, for which their plans need a total rethink. But it could at least stitch one of the rifts.

Well, assuming the audience isn’t fatigued with comic book stories entirely. Nothing they can do will help that, outside halting the ship entirely.