Kevin Feige has acknowledged that Marvel Studios, under his leadership, may have overreached in the years following Avengers: Endgame, with an unsustainable surge in content leading to growing audience fatigue.
Speaking to a group of journalists in Los Angeles, the Marvel chief said the studio produced over 127 hours of content in the past six years alone, which was more than double the output of the preceding 12 years.
“That’s too much,” Feige said. “For the first time ever, quantity trumped quality.”
Feige admitted that the rapid expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), particularly on Disney+, stretched the studio’s limited creative bandwidth. “We always had more characters than we could possibly make because we weren’t going to make a movie a month. Suddenly, there’s a mandate to make more,” he said.
The result has been underperforming films and waning viewership for TV shows, resulting in well-reviewed films like Thunderbolts struggling at the box office. “Some audiences were still feeling that notion of, ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is,’” Feige said.
The studio is now reining in production. Marvel will release a maximum of three feature films a year, and significantly cut back on live-action shows, with many expected to be standalone projects with minimal crossover into the films.
“We’re returning to allowing a TV show to just be a TV show,” Feige said, confirming that the events of Thunderbolts, which ended with a major incident in New York, would not affect Daredevil: Born Again despite both being set in the same city.
Feige confirmed that Avengers: Secret Wars, slated for 2027, will conclude the ongoing Multiverse Saga and serve as a soft reboot for the franchise.
Marvel has also parted ways with actor Jonathan Majors following his conviction, abandoning its original plan to position Kang the Conqueror as the next Thanos-level threat. Robert Downey Jr. is set to return, not as Iron Man, but as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. “We had started to realise Kang wasn’t big enough… We started talking about Doctor Doom even before we officially pivoted,” Feige said.
While characters like Moon Knight and the Eternals may return, there is no immediate plan to introduce fan-favourite Miles Morales into the live-action MCU. “We’ve been told to stay away,” Feige said.
Feige also clarified that while Marvel has sometimes started filming before a script is finalised, it remains committed to its method of incremental “plussing” during production. “We’ve never started a movie without a full script. But I’ve also never been satisfied with a script,” he said.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps, due for release later this week, will kick off this leaner, more focused chapter of the MCU. Feige described the film as a “no-homework-required” entry point for new viewers, set in a world where the titular heroes are the only known superheroes.
Feige remains bullish about Marvel’s long-term prospects but is aware of the need for change. “Marvel represents the world outside your window,” he said.
