Disney CEO Bob Iger has addressed the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, teasing a fresh crop of Avengers on the way – and questioning if every hero needs a trilogy.
The MCU just recently kicked off Marvel Phase 5 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which scored a disappointing 47% Rotten Tomatoes score and plummeted 69% in its second weekend at the box office, the lowest drop in MCU history. The release slate is packed full heading into Marvel Phase 6, which will feature two new Avengers movies, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.
"Marvel – there were 7,000 characters, there are a lot more stories to tell," Iger said during a presentation at Morgan Stanley's 2023 Technology Media and Telecom Conference (H/T IndieWire). "What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel storytelling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters. Sequels typically work well for us. Do you need a third or a fourth, or is it time to turn to other characters?
"There's nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand," he continued. "I think we just have to look at what characters or stories we're mining. And if you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you're going to see a lot of newness. We're going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers."
There's no shortage of characters who could form the newest band of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, with everyone from Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, AKA Captain America, and Letitia Wright's Shuri, the new Black Panther, to all-new characters like Oscar Isaac's Moon Knight among the pool of potential candidates.
Next up from the MCU is Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which arrives this May 5. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and Disney Plus TV shows for everything else the MCU has in store.
