before we get started does anyone want to get out this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe God I love this place back in 2019 they put out the biggest movie of all time is it the biggest movie of all time yeah it is y wow at least it was until Avatar got re-released again I got this but the point is they were on top of the world nothing will change that what have I to fear fast forward to 2023 with the release of the Marvels being their lowest grossing movie of all time what the the MCU
is now quite literally at an alltime low but why why is Gamora what is causing the MCU to not be the same as it was I believe it all started here W division 2021 we are an unusual couple you know oh I don't think that was ever in question you see up until this point Marvel had always maintained a limit when it came to their output for context we got go back to the beginning of the MCU when do we start we just did from 2008 to 2012 Marvel released six movies across 5 years averaging
just above one movie per year takes us a while to get any traction I'll give you that one from 2013 to 2016 Marvel maintained a steady stream of two movies every 12 months keep it simple before finally raising that number to three movies a year at the end of the infinity Saga in 2017 18 and 19 did it work and and I got to say for the most part this worked for the MCU I think it worked and that's when we arrive here 2021 the start of phase 4 and the new saga for the MCU
and guess what they did they surrender exactly in 2021 alone Marvel put out four movies black widow enough shuni who are you eternals Ikea and Spider-Man no way home hello Peter already more than they had ever done during the infinity Saga but on top of that they decided it would be smart I am smart to put out five Disney Plus shows W division Falcon in the Winter Soldier Loki wh if and Hawkeye should we be worried no no it's nothing each show consisting of on average six episodes at about 45 minutes per episode so if
we do the math you're great at geometry you could do geometry about 4 and a half hours per show that's double the length of a standard MCU film that means the five shows were essentially equivalent to 10 full Marvel length films I'm so confused in addition to the four movies they released in theaters that year an exponential increase in energy output meaning Marvel in one calendar year put out the equivalent of roughly 14 entire movies not a great plan and when you start putting out that much quantity it causes some problems Rosie our new friend
thinks I'm going to blow up the city first of all it just becomes a lot harder harder for audiences to keep up with wait who are you now I've heard a lot of people say that the MCU now requires you to do homework homework where it never used to feel like that but I would push back on that the MCU has always required you to do homework before going to watch Captain America Civil War you were expected to have at least kept up with most of the previous Marvel films I could do this all day
most people understood that they should have probably seen the majority of Marvel movies before going to watch endgame I can do this all day yeah I know I know so the concept of homework is nothing new for the MCU but when the MCU was a two or three time a year event it was a lot more reasonable for audiences to keep up with who's Scott Ant-Man there's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man and while keeping up with this insane amount of content might not be difficult for you because you're a Marvel nerd he's also a huge
dork chicks take that for casual audiences this is way too much yeah what how why and the Casual audiences are important because when Marvel movies were making billions of dollars that didn't come from just hardcore fans in order for the MCU to be the biggest thing in the world it needed to be something that was accessible to the more General audiences and even just speaking from personal experience I know so many people in my life that watch the entire Infinity Saga from Iron Man I am Iron Man to endgame I am Iron Man and then
sometime during phase four and five they just stopped watching okay that's enough often because it was just too much it's been a little much but also because they thought it kind of sucked I think it's good except it sucks it's no secret that one of the reasons Marvel is struggling is their quality has taken a dip and this is coming from someone who enjoyed a lot of the stuff in phase four and five more than most people like guys doct strange 2 was not that bad Falcon in the Winter Soldier was not that bad quantam
Mania no actually that one was pretty bad but even I'll admit that Marvel's consistency is not what it used to be projects like Quantum Mania Thor love and thunder and secret Invasion just feel like misfires that were not used to seeing from the MCU this usually works well performance issues the more projects that you try to make all at once the less time and attention you have to focus on making each individual project great Marvel's a great example of that they had not been in the TV business at any significant level not only did they
increase their movie output but they ended up making a number of television series and frankly it deluded focus and attention like for Kevin feige the man who's been the one constant Steady Hand across all of these different Marvel projects he's the only common denominator across all of these films there's just no way that he's able to oversee everything going on at Marvel the way he used to when they were only pumping out two or three things a year I used to know everything then I come back 5 years later and now I know nothing and
that's a shame because I think almost all Marvel fans would agree we want quality more than quantity the perfect example of this is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy and here we go the first movie Batman Begins came out in 2005 I'm Batman we waited 3 years for the sequel The Dark Knight kill the Batman and then another 4 years for the conclusion to the trilogy The Dark Knight Rises the time of his death 8 years ago but it was worth it that entire Trilogy has stood the test of time and is remembered with the
middle chapter The Dark Knight still being viewed as the greatest superhero movie of all time you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain I can't imagine that people are going to be fired ing Up episodes of secret Invasion 15 years from now not even you're unusually attractive an no no no no no but despite everything I've just said I actually don't think either of these are the biggest problem the MCU has I'm going to pretending didn't say that no I'm being serious I believe the area where Marvel
is struggling the most is when it comes to the big picture of the MCU got to keep the big picture in mind let me explain I'm listening throughout the infinity aaga Marvel always had a strong overarching narrative that provided a sense of direction with a clear end goal that up there that's that's the end game in phase one that was putting the Avengers together if I told you we were putting a team together and even though half of the movies in Phase One Like The Incredible Hulk Iron Man 2 and Thor got somewhat mixed reviews
that didn't stop phase one from being a very successful Launchpad for the MCU yeah I can fly why because the overarching story of seeing the Avengers Assemble was just so exciting I just get excited and stuff and as soon as the Avengers came together Marvel immediately and I mean immediately like in the post-credit scene of the first Avengers film cour death they established the next long-term Target for this universe tell me his name again a big purple nut sack Thanos and so all throughout Phase 2 and phase three excitement for the MCU only grew larger
as we got closer and closer to the inevitable conclusion of infinity war and endgame I am inevitable but ever since then Marvel has completely lost this now we just have a bunch of disconnected separate stories that as a whole aren't really going anywhere I'm not proud of this and it makes sense when you're trying to put out such a high volume of quantity it becomes nearly impossible for everything to stay focused and moving in the same direction there's simply too much going on to somehow connect everything the world's a big place it start making it
smaller people are still enjoying certain individual projects like Spider-Man no way home this feels amazing Guardians volume 3 I'm done running and more recently people are pretty excited for Deadpool and Wolverine Marvel Jesus but when it comes to the overarching story of the MCU and where all of these projects are building up to it just feels aimless and lacks The Narrative moment momentum that powered the infinity Saga how are you guys planning on beating that we still get projects here and there that push the Multiverse Saga plot forward we are currently in the midsts of
the Multiverse Saga like Multiverse of Madness where we hear about incursions incursion Quantum Mania where we got to see Kang I am K and the Loki TV show that deals with the Multiverse and different timelines but those are far and few between and now feel like the exception rather than the norm and this lack of focus doesn't just apply to the mcu's Grand story it's also affecting the characters it didn't say anything in Marvel's bid to put out more quantity they've essentially forced themselves to spread the focus onto more and more characters I mean it
was inevitable when you're making seven or eight different projects a year you eventually exhaust all of your a tier characters we're a team no no no no no we're not a team we're not a team and are forced to scrape further down the bottom of the barrel to find more characters to make more shows about and that's why we're now in a position where Agatha is getting her own show why would you think that vision is getting his own show because you are not only are fans not excited about this but it also means that
we're spending such little time with each individual character even their biggest current Stars we are 22 projects deep into the Multiverse HG and we've seen Doctor Strange twice Wanda twice that doesn't seem fair Thor we've seen once and Spider-Man the biggest Marvel character of all time once you're a very difficult person to contact Spider-Man this is the exact opposite of what they did so well in the infinity Saga where they focused on a small group of characters that we got to see frequently and then became highly invested in we'll lose and we'll do that together
too this is how often we got to see our main characters through 22 projects of the infinity Saga I'm not going to be counting minor cameos like Tony in The Incredible Hulk Iron Man first showed up in the first yeah Iron Man before returning for Iron Man 2 not playing so well with others in The Avengers I don't play well with others which was followed by appearances in Iron Man 3 Avengers Age of Ultron Captain America Civil War a smaller role in Spider-Man homecoming before finishing off with infinity war and endgame a whopping nine appearances
for his friend that he always got along with so well Steve Rogers big man in a suit on armor take that away what are you he was in Captain America 1 Avengers 1 Captain America 2 Avengers 2 Civil War Infinity war and endgame that is America's ass seven appearances the God of Thunder first appeared in Thor this drink I like it followed by The Avengers the Dark World Age of Ultron Ragnarok Infinity war and endgame let me do something good something right Black Widow and this one really surprised me in spite of not having a
solo film during the infinity Saga also appeared seven times in Iron Man 2 The Avengers The Winter Soldier Age of Ultron Civil War Infinity war and endgame let me go we first saw Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk before he returned with a new face in The Avengers Age of Ultron took on a supporting role in Ragnarok and was back together with a team for Infinity war and endgame I know it's crazy I'm wearing shirts now and lastly even Hawkeye the least prominent of the original still showed up quite frequently appearing in Avengers 1 and
2 Civil War he did skip out on Infinity War but then returned for endgame we starting to think we mean different people here at fasion this was a huge reason we were so invested and cared so much about these characters and not only did we see the characters often but they saw each other a lot which brings me to my final reason why I just don't think the MCU is the same anymore they're missing the Avengers where are the Avengers man let me ask you a question what was the longest we ever went without the
Avengers coming together in the infinity Saga 8 years 7 months and 6 days give or take well let's take a look the MCU started off with five movies Iron Man The Incredible Hulk Iron Man 2 Thor Captain America before the Avengers assembled for the first time following that we had four movies Iron Man 3 Thor the Dark World the winter soul soier Guardians of the Galaxy before the Avengers reconnected in Age of Ultron ulton then we had one movie Ant-Man before the next big Avengers crossover in Civil War and I know Civil War was a
Captain America film not an Avengers film but basically all the Avengers were there except for Thor and Hulk so shut up next we once again had five movies dror strange Guardians 2 Spider-Man homecoming Ragnarok and black panther before we got Avengers Infinity War thoughts are strange oh using your madeup names then I am Spider-Man then two movies Ant-Man and the wasp and Captain Marvel before the story came to its end with Avengers [Music] endgame so throughout the entire Infinity Saga the longest we ever went without the Avengers coming together was five movies I don't think
many people realize just how important that that was to the success of the MCU The Avengers crossovers were like the glue that held this universe together and stopped it from feeling well how it feels now directionless and disconnected Our Heroes would go off on their own solo Adventures but there was always a teamup film around the corner to pull these separate drifting story lines back together maintaining narrative momentum and keeping the MCU as a whole ridiculously excited uh very exciting but now we are 22 projects into this new Saga without a single Avengers film and
it doesn't look like we'll be getting one until Avengers 5 or 6 come out several years from now and look I understand why they got rid of the Avengers film when we were doing Phase 1 Phase 2 and phase three there were less projects over more years and it felt appropriate at that point that after three you know every 2 or 3 years that it took for a phase we would do an Avengers film when you're trying to put out a million projects a year it becomes virtually impossible to try to coordinate an Avengers film
in the midst of all of as four five and six were coming together there are more projects in less years and that Avengers films really should be the Capper to a saga but having all the Avengers come together only at the end of The Saga isn't a good idea because remember the reason a film like endgame works so well is because of the relationships between our heroes that had already been built up through past teamup films I said we'd lose you said we'll do that together too if everyone was meeting each other for the first
time in Infinity War an endgame who the hell are you guys then I don't think it would have been the satisfying conclusion that it was so all of this begs the question how can Marvel save itself can the MCU even still be saved well those are topics for another video and when I make those I'm sure that I'll link them somewhere around here but until then to make sure you don't miss out on them when they drop
