The MCU is Going to Last Ages, But Only Under One Condition
Wouldn't you want it to last forever?
Not too long ago, people joked that by 2030 newcomers to the MCU will have to watch over a hundred movies and TV shows to know what is going on with the latest release.
This isn't a joke anymore.
The Marvel bandwagon shows no signs of slowing, as new MCU movies keep cash flowing in. And during a recent interview, Marvel producer Nate Moore doubled down on the belief that there could be no end to where the MCU could go in the future, albeit on a condition: "I mean, I think it can go for a long time. I think we have to continue to…, " he said (via).
Then he clarified: "We can't sit back on our laurels. We can't think we have the answers. We have to continue to push the envelope as far as genre and what we're willing to explore. But to me, Marvel movies are just movies. Our source material is just… It'd be like saying, 'Hey, are movies about books gonna go on forever?' Probably."
So, MCU can go on for as long as it can keep changing and covering new areas. Got it. And one of the areas in which it is currently changing, is expanding to the new forms of content. As Moore explained:
"I think we can go for a while. We have a lot of great stuff in the pipeline and stuff, honestly, we can't find room for. One of the great things about Disney+ was, we got to tell stories that we were like, 'I don't know if we're gonna be able to tell that story.' And now, we're like, 'Oh, we have another outlet?' Because, we don't wanna make ten movies a year. That's gonna be bad."
A specific example of what expansion into TV shows and specials allowed them to do was Moon Knight – the mini-series devoted to a character who just wasn't big enough to earn his own movie in MCU's busy schedule.
Moore concluded: "And I think there are a lot of other properties that we haven't had a chance to tell. So, I think it can go on for a while, forever's a long time. We certainly don't feel like we're done."
Not surprising. Then again, this endless expansion clearly mirrors what happened with Marvel Comics before - the shared universe of nominally independent but interconnected titles naturally growing larger and more convoluted, spawning new titles and spin-offs dedicated to relatively popular minor characters, as long as people keep buying... until the universe becomes so convoluted that it pushes away everyone but an ever smaller stable of hyper-fans.
With the comics, that took several decades. We'll see how long the MCU can keep going before its own weight slows it down.