Disney Boss Explains Where the MCU Went Off the Rails (& How It's Gotten Back on Track)

Aaron Fonseca
2 days ago
3 min read

AsThunderbolts*wins over critics and audiences, Disney's head honcho believes theMarvel Cinematic Universeis back on the right trajectory following mixed returns in recent years. CEO Bob Iger admits that a significant change in approach is driving the MCU back to great heights after going off the rails for a while.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts (via Deadline), Iger addressed the MCU content strategy, echoing previous sentiments about a less-is-more approach to producing Marvel films and TV shows. According to Iger, Marvel's focus on creating higher-quality films is reflected in Thunderbolts*, the MCU's Phase Five finale.

“In our zeal to flood our streaming platform with more content, we turned to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and had them produce a lot more,” Iger said. “We’ve also learned over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality. Frankly, we’ve all admitted to ourselves that we lost a little focus by making too much. By consolidating a bit and having Marvel focus much more on their films, we believe it will result in better quality. I think the first and best example of that is Thunderbolts*.”

With Thunderbolts* wrapping up Phase Five, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opening Phase Six, and the next two Avengers sequels, Doomsday and Secret Wars, promising the next major Multiverse Saga faceoff between the eponymous supergroup and new MCU big bad Doctor Doom, the MCU seems to be heading in an exciting direction. Iger called the upcoming MCU film slate “the best I have seen” since 2019, when Marvel dominated the box-office charts thanks to billion-dollar entries like Endgame and Captain Marvel.

The MCU has shown signs of life in the last year amid fan complaints of superhero fatigue. Deadpool & Wolverine gave Marvel a much-needed jolt thanks to its billion-dollar return and critical acclaim. Meanwhile, Thunderbolts* is regarded as one of the best MCU entries in recent memory, coming off a strong opening weekend and high scores among critics and audiences. While those films offer hope for an MCU renaissance, the underwhelming critical and commercial performance of Captain America: Brave New World suggests more work must be done.

Thunderbolts*, which introduced the titular group of antiheroes as the New Avengers, has earned $165.5 million worldwide at the time of writing against its $180 million budget. The Jake Schreier-helmed flick sees Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) forced to team up after being caught in a deadly trap by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Fronted by de facto leader, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the group must complete a dangerous mission to earn redemption for their past crimes. The film also introduces the Sentry/The Void (Lewis Pullman) to the MCU as an antagonist of the Thunderbolts.

The Thunderbolts Will Return in Avengers: Doomsday

The Thunderbolts are among the many groups featured in Doomsday, which is now in production in the U.K. and helmed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the Avengers franchise directors. Doomsday and Secret Wars have lots to live up to, considering Infinity War and Endgame earned $4.8 billion globally, with both films considered among the MCU's best.