Disney CEO Bob Iger has spoken out on what to expect from Marvel over the next five years, saying it's time for 'newness'.
The comments come after Marvel’s latest release Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania failed to perform at the box office and was plagued with negative reviews.
The flick tallied just $420 million globally, despite being in cinemas for three weeks. The movie scored an estimated $104 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, before taking a further $187 million in sales.
While the figures are still in the millions and higher than the total gross of the first Ant-Man’s domestic box office in 2015, the numbers are still significantly lower than theatre figures before the pandemic hit in 2020.
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Iger has since said the company would focus on new characters and plots.
Speaking during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Thursday (9 March), he said: “Sequels typically worked well for us.
“Do you need a third and a fourth for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters?”
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Iger’s comment around newer characters comes as the Thor movie released its fourth film in the series last year, meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled for release in May and The Marvels - previously set for July - will hit screens in November.
The switch to newer characters hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans, after the introduction of new faces and stories via Disney+. New characters have included Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk as well as focusing on side characters to give them more of a back story such as Loki, Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Iger also revealed the studio would be returning to its popular Avengers series, but with a new cast. He explained: “There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand.
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“I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining, and you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole different set of Avengers.”
He added: “There are a lot more stories to tell.”
The new plans from Marvel come after Disney chose to restructure the company, slashing $5.5 billion in costs including $3 billion of that coming from content.
Topics: Entertainment, Marvel, Disney
Niamh Spence