In service of their previously declared efforts to scale back their output and focus on quality over quantity, Marvel Studios has reportedly dropped their plans for Ant-Man 4, Captain Marvel 3, and Eternals 2 – with the last film personally brought to a halt by Disney CEO Bob Iger out of fear that, like its predecessor, it would be an absolute box office bomb.
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Word of this supposed shake-up to Marvel’s already tattered cinematic plans was first raised on the evening of March 13th courtesy of noted scooper Daniel ‘DanielRPK’ Richtman.
In a post to his personal Patreon account, as detailed by numerous outlets including Dexerto’s ScreenTime, the Marvel-centric Twitter news outlets @cosmic_marvel, and Forbes, Richtman reported that the decision to scrap the aforementioned trio of future MCU outings had been made as part of a turn by the studio away from ‘risky’ projects and more towards surefire successes.
Further, the scooper also claimed that though Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was apparently gung-ho on pushing through with a second Eternals film despite the poor reception of the first, he was ultimately overridden by Iger and his assumption that the sequel would be likely turn out to be another Marvel box office disaster (which, if true, means due credit must be given to the embattled head of Disney for a rare but deserved, if not easy W).
While this alleged shifting of the MCU’s production schedule may spark a mix of emotions in fans – disappointment that the studio is giving up on one of their last-remaining, well-liked characters in Ant-Man thanks to one terrible outing, apathy over the loss of any future Eternals or Captain Marvel-centric adventures (Hell, even the actress behind the latter heroine herself, Brie Larson, seems completely over her time as the high-flying Avenger), or maybe even shock at Iger actually making a good move for once – it’s unlikely that surprise will be among them.
After all, the last entry in each of those respective film series stand as some of Marvel’s biggest box office failures, but also reputational ones, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and Eternals having gone down in franchise history as some of its worst overall entries.
However, while this is the apparent end of these three series, it should be noted that this development does not necessarily mark the overall end of each respective hero’s – or team of heroes in the case of Ant-Man and the Wasp and the Eternals – time in the shared cinematic universe.
To this end, though it’s currently unknown where else, if anywhere, Marvel may use them, it’s almost a safe bet to say that should rumors surrounding the film’s plot hold true, all of them will make at least one more appearance in the upcoming cameo-fest that will be Avengers: Secret Wars.
As of writing, neither Disney nor Marvel have offered any official comment regarding Richtman’s scoop.
Meanwhile, the studio’s next film, Deadpool & Wolverine, is currently set to make one last play to revive the MCU on July 26th.