Is The Age Of Morally Grey Superheroes Over? Here Is What The MCU Can Learn From ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’
Superhero movies and TV shows have seen a significant decline in recent years, with the MCU taking the brunt of the battering, a trend largely attributed to superhero fatigue. However, the success of James Gunn’s Superman disproved the idea that fans are disenfranchised with superheroes, as viewers embraced the new, vibrant, and hopeful version of the Man of Steel. A similar trend is being witnessed in HBO’s latest hit show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, whose popularity is largely down to the main character, Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), a hero of the common folk whose story reads like a superhero from the golden age of comics, minus superpowers, of course.
The primary argument for morally grey protagonists is that they are more realistic, better reflecting the actual face of goodness in modern society. Traditional pure heroes were largely sidelined as they were seen as boring and predictable. Adopting morally complex heroes and antiheroes worked perfectly for the MCU in its early days, heralding the success of the first Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor films. At the time, Iron Man had his trauma and guilt as well as alcoholism, while Cap had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Thor and Hulk had their personal struggles too, but they never let these shortcomings define them.
However, for a long-running franchise like the MCU, the goal has to be gradual improvement of the protagonists to become better agents of light even as they face darker forces. On the contrary, the majority of the MCU’s protagonists have grown sadder and more depressing over the years, inspiring more fear and uncertainty than hope, which is the last description fans want for their favorite superheroes. For some reason, the character-driven franchise doesn’t allow its heroes to just be the force for good in the face of darkness, like its early days.
While the MCU’s superheroes weren’t perfect In its heyday, the Avengers were actually happier together, which made the films a lot more light-hearted and enjoyable. However, the smiler and humor that accompanied the goofier side of the MCU have faded over the years, leaving films devoid of any emotional depth. With the MCU set to reboot after Avengers: Secret Wars, the franchise could use the return of authentic protagonists that haven’t lost touch with our world, and Kevin Feige and the rest of Marvel Studios could use a few lessons from HBO’s latest hit show.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is another hit installment from George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire universe on HBO that has revolutionized cinema after the incredibly high standards set by Game of Thrones. While the show isn’t flashy, it embodied the spirit of the books so well that the majority of the ASOIAF fan base fell in love with it. The most amazing part is that the first season was shot for less than $10 million per episode, which is a masterclass when compared to the skyrocketing costs of recent MCU movies.
The Game of Thrones prequel has also received some of the best critical ratings in history, beating both the flagship series and House of the Dragon. At the center of the story is Ser Duncan the Tall, a lowly squire who teams up with a disguised prince on a tumultuous journey into knighthood in a corrupt society where the mighty trample on the weak and justice is largely nonexistent. Sound familiar? Well, it should because with a little superpower, Dunk would fit perfectly into the Sacred Universe.
Duncan and Aegon (Dexter Sol Ansell) rise from the ashes to become true heroes. They are not perfect by any chance, as both of them have their flaws, but they are nothing like the sad, gritty, and jaded characters that dominate the screens in the MCU. As the MCU’s catalogue of superheroes has continued to grow over the years, they have managed to somehow distance themselves from the simple human traits that made The Avengers special. Besides Spider-Man, there is hardly any MCU protagonist that could be termed as your friendly neighborhood superhero.
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Another problem with the MCU is the continued pressure to turn every event into a world-ending battle, without necessarily attaching the emotional stakes. Despite ASOIAF being a vast universe with the potential for bigger battles, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms chose to focus on a single event: a tourney with seemingly little significance. However, the story is so intimately written that its emotional stakes alone made it irresistible.
In the MCU, the franchise often overshadows the current story as every film turns into an advert for the next one. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms drops the franchise and just focuses on Dunk and Egg’s story, allowing it to be self-contained. While there is nothing wrong with setting up grand battles, the MCU needs to get the emotional depth of its stories back on track, even if that means focusing on smaller stakes.
AKOTSK‘s adherence to the source material is another aspect of filmmaking that the MCU has lost touch with. George RR Martin worked closely with the production team, playing a big role in retaining book fans by ensuring the show literally reflects what they read. One thing Martin doesn’t do is compromise the depth of his characters, a trait fully replicated in the miniseries.
In ASOIAF, Martin is extremely detailed, giving each character a strong background while allowing his villains to be very bad and his protagonists to be really good. His style gives fans the chance to judge each character individually, without forcing his ideals on them. While the majority of the MCU Superheroes are similar to Martin’s protagonists in early comics, Post-Endgame, MCU movies and TV shows have strayed so far from the source materials that their characters are just caricatures of their book versions.
From superheroes like Iron Man and The Hulk to antiheroes like Wanda and Loki, and even powerful supervillains like Malekith and Gorr the God Butcher, the MCU has stripped the characters of everything that makes them great in the comics. The MCU has strayed from seeking complexity in real-world-looking protagonists to filling the screens with broken individuals possessing alien traits that even the biggest book fans don’t recognize. Cases in point, 2025 films like Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
As a result, the franchise has continually darkened and grittified fan-favorite superheroes, leaving their films and TV shows unhinged and jaded, which has played a big role in the ongoing superhero fatigue. While addressing the issue in 2023, James Gunn blamed the trend on poor writing that focused on the spectacle rather than emotionally grounded stories. Marvel’s Kevin Feige also admitted that the MCU prioritized quantity over quality after Endgame, although his admission didn’t address the franchise’s increasingly unpopular writing style.
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