THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MARVEL STUDIOS’ MULTIVERSE SAGA
Ever since Kang the Conqueror was first teased in the first season of Loki on Disney+, Marvel fans have been eager to see him take on the Avengers in an epic showdown meant to rival that of Avengers: “Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.” When a character with such a rich comic book history has an actor like Jonathan Majors give one enthralling performance after another as Kang’s many multiversal variants, it’s hard not to be at least a little excited. Right?

Well, that’s where things start to get messy. If you haven’t been keeping up with Marvel Studios after the Infinity Saga wrapped up, they haven’t exactly been bringing their A-game to the table. After Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing movie of all time, Marvel seemed to have shifted to a “quantity over quality” approach. They used to release two to three movies every year, but we saw four movies and five television shows in 2021 alone, all of which varied in their critical and commercial successes.

Part of this quantity over quality decision-making has led to a lack of cohesion. What made the Infinity Saga so great was that it was very focused on its characters and had one or more of the six Infinity Stones function as the main plot device in many of the films. When a movie wasn’t about an Infinity Stone or a pre-established character, they were kept relatively self-contained. They did this in case their weirder characters, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man, flopped at the box office, that way it would be much easier to forget they ever happened and refocus the audience on their successful characters like Iron Man or Captain America.

Marvel seems to have completely ditched that plan, as many of their projects centered on new characters are more than happy to set up future stories. Not only do most of these setups not have a clear direction as to where they’ll go, but some of them don’t even have an official confirmation that they’ll be followed up on (remember the Eternals?). To make matters worse, almost none of them have anything to do with Kang.

Perhaps the worst part about this whole thing is Jonathan Majors’ legal troubles. In March of 2023, Majors was arrested after allegedly abusing his ex-girlfriend. The situation has been extremely strange, with Majors eventually being released and his ex-girlfriend being arrested instead, but the case is still ongoing so nothing can be determined yet. After being the only universally praised part of the critical and commercial flop “Ant-Man ” and “The Wasp: Quantumania,” Marvel was quick to pivot their Multiverse Saga to focus on Kang. They even plan on having the next Avengers movie use the subtitle “The Kang Dynasty.” There are many rumors that Marvel will shift away from Kang in the wake of Majors’ controversy, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

After multiple flops and a historic strike in Hollywood, Marvel had to go back to the drawing board. Most of their upcoming projects have been delayed and are undergoing reshoots, rewrites and in some cases complete creative overhauls (I’m looking at you, “Daredevil: Born Again”). 2023 has been quite the rollercoaster for Marvel Studios, so here’s hoping they’ve learned the right lessons.