There was a time when a new Star Wars film felt like an event. The original trilogy was the trend-setting sci-fi fantasy of the late 70’s and early 80’s and defined a generation. And say what anyone will about the merits of the prequel or sequel trilogies, but those, too, felt like events.

Aiding that aura were the long gaps between sets of films. Sixteen years separated the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Ten years passed between the end of the prequels and beginning of the sequels.

And now, perhaps unbelievably, seven years have passed between The Rise of Skywalker and the latest feature theatrical release in the franchise. Yet as the time window has shrunk each time, there is an even bigger factor as to why The Mandalorian and Grogu does not feel like an event: there hasn’t been a gap in the same way. Instead, Disney+ hosted seven different live-action Star Wars shows in that time and seven different animated shows, whether new shows or new seasons in older shows, as well.

Now, it would be unfair not to note there was a plethora of Star Wars content between the OT and prequels, and prequels and sequels. The entire Star Wars Extended Universe formed in those periods, with a multitude of books, video games, some animated and live-action shows as well, and more. One could argue there was the same splurge of content between every set of films and Disney is merely doing its duty as owner of the franchise to satisfy fans.

Yet, there is something undeniably different this time. Perhaps because these are all live-action “official” works, they feel more obligatory and present?

Regardless, unlike the peak anticipation for The Force Awakens, it feels as though The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters with even Disney’s marketing treating it as just another movie. Indeed, that is the biggest criticism of Jon Favreau‘s first theatrical feature since his “live-action” The Lion King, another film that could have the same critiques levied at it. The Mandalorian and Grogu does not feel like an event. It barely feels like a feature film.

Favreau and company do a very adequate job at crafting this work. It is better than many of the trash blockbusters that have occupied cinema screens in preceding years. When it comes to creatively bankrupt IP mining, movies like A Minecraft Movie, Borderlands, Madame Web, and more all spring to mind as much lazier, more cynical, and idiotic films.

Yet, The Mandalorian and Grogu is so lacking in ambition that it is a far less memorable and entertaining experience than watching many of these other far worse movies. For one, it is an editorial slog plainly bearing the hallmarks of having once been 3-4 episodes of the show repurposed together into a feature. The result is multiple periods of narrative dead space, with the seams of story beats so bright it felt like episode credits ought to start rolling.

For another, because it must occupy a safe middle ground, the movie does nothing to advance its characters in any meaningful way. The titular duo are largely in the same exact space at the end of the tale as the beginning. There are no arcs, no difficult decisions to be made, and no sense of stakes or momentum to anything happening. While this avoids having a script loaded down with convoluted plot holes, it also avoids any sense of audience investment or that watching this film brought one something. It’s the Star Wars equivalent of watching ivory white paint dry, though dare we say you might see more change to your wall in two hours than in watching this film.

Yes, Pedro Pascal continues to do an affable job as the stoic Mando, and the puppetry work of Grogu is as cute as ever. If there are commendable aspects to the movie, it is the commitment to using more practical effects at times including multiple puppet characters and a battle with stop-motion animated droids. If only this approach could have been applied to the Hutt characters. They look as though the film tried to transfer the cheaper CG of the Hutts from The Clone Wars show to the big screen and, as a result, are ugly as sin.

Speaking of, the main attempt at an emotional center involves Rotta the Hutt, the son of deceased famed character Jabba. Voiced by Jeremy Allen White, he is the closest thing to emotionally dynamic or complicated this movie has. Unfortunately, such conflict is delivered mostly in bland exposition where White is clearly struggling to find a voice for the character and Rotta blankly tells Mando his backstory and personal struggles without much prompting. This is the most amateurish way of writing in background and is accordingly dull. Further, the decision to have him speak in English the entire movie feels entirely at odds with how Star Wars has shown Hutts to date.

Equally dull are most of the supporting cast. Sigourney Weaver crossing into Star Wars ought to feel like a big deal, yet her character is barely in the movie and has no real personality or character traits. There are apparently a number of cameos from characters originating in Dave Filoni’s cartoon shows such as Zeb and Embo, but one of these doesn’t even speak. Not exactly engaging. Martin Scorsese bizarrely offers a voice acting cameo in this too, though for a minor side character. One has to wonder what happened behind the scenes for that to happen.

One would hope at least the action is solid in a film largely focused on fight scenes with the character work so miniscule. Indeed, when Favreau first helped create the show these characters originate from, one of the more notable aspects were the creative sequences making for a “western” style Star Wars. Yet oddly, most of the battles here are cut in a haphazard manner where its difficult to tell much of anything happening half the time. Aside from the solid introduction sequence, the majority of action can be difficult to make out.

Ragging on the plot beats almost seems pointless given how narratively dead most of this is, but as part of the pervading choice to ensure none of this matters, the movie has Mando lose his helmet again, something the show established is sacrosanct to his code. Yet this all resolves in a manner to ensure there is no consequence to it.

Same for a sequence where Mando is seemingly poisoned by a deadly toxin for multiple days. While this allows one of the few interesting attempts at filmmaking, where there are nearly fifteen minutes of silence focused on Grogu caring for his father figure, it kills the pacing and stretches credulity given how poisonous the venom was said to be. It’s a shame because it gives glimpses of what a better version of this movie could have been.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is one of the most aggressively average films to grace cinema screens. Designed to offend no one, it seems unlikely to stick with anyone either. Indeed, the movie is full of shots referencing older works and more memorable moments in the franchise. Even the two lead characters are ultimately visual stand-ins for things audiences already liked from earlier films. This duo is IP-mining the safe and familiar at its most calculated. Such is where Star Wars is now: turtles all the way down on everything being a facsimile of a facsimile of substance.

Though in a way, it seems perfect as a meta-text on the status of Star Wars. Disney made a movie to match the climate of the audience. There is a lack of fanfare for the newest theatrical release and this is a film thoroughly lacking in excitement or intrigue. Even the mostly great musical score from Ludwig Göransson does little to add thrill to this empty house.

While we now only have a year to the next Star Wars theatrical release, one has to wonder if anyone cares. Even if Star Wars: Starfighter is good, it feels as though excess has diluted the thrill and special feeling this franchise once had. This seems like the direction for most major media franchises too.

Perhaps its time to look back at what The Last Jedi said about letting the past die, letting the Jedi end, and moving on. Maybe the status of the franchise is because the fans couldn’t heed Rian Johnson’s portents that it was time to do something different, and this is what has been wrought.

Tell us your thoughts on The Mandalorian and Grogu below and rank it on Flickchart now!!!!

2026 is home to yet another hot horror breakout in Obsession. Coming courtesy of director Curry Barker (no relation to famed horror icon Clive Barker), who is part of a continuing trend of comedy directors/creatives moving into the horror space, Obsession is one of 2026’s most harrowing watches yet. Anchored by a star-making and darkly captivating performance from Inde Navarrette, it readily stakes a claim for best film of the year so far.

It isn’t because of some vastly original story. Obsession plays in the well-trodden territory of the “monkey’s paw” tale, wherein protagonist Bear (Michael Johnston) has a crush on his co-worker Nikki (Navarrette), though the feelings are seemingly unrequited. “Seemingly” is a key term because Bear is too cowardly to ever fully express himself to Nikki. Regardless, Bear happens to buy a strange, kitschy trinket, the One Wish Willow, and uses it in his disappointment, wishing that Nikki loved him more than anyone else in the world. One can guess where things go from there.

Yet where Obsession shines is in Barker’s pitch-perfect execution. From the moment the wish is used, Barker uses camera framing to create tension, cutting to a wide shot of Nikki standing on her porch in shadow as Bear watches through his car window. This creeping sense of dread is arguably never fully released until the final moments of the film, a testament to Barker’s craft behind the camera.

Obsession is masterful in its balance of tone. Much of the movie aims for a dark off-kilter humor, scenes vacillating between cringe laughter and uncomfortable creepy horror in mere seconds of holding a shot longer than normal. Barker’s instincts are exactly where they need to be, with multiple sequences causing one’s face to scrunch up in discomfort at what’s onscreen before breaking out in goosebumps as the moment escalates.

Much of this works also due to Navarrette’s aforementioned performance. It is not hyperbole to suggest this is an Oscar-worthy turn. She runs a gamut of emotions and places throughout the runtime, alternating between cutesiness, extreme anger, deep pain, and also pulling in a jarring physicality when her character does some bizarre body movements.

She commands attention whenever onscreen, working in perfect combination with Barker’s framing in each shot. One such moment of a closeup on her face cast in shadows is played to perfection as it takes on an intentional uncanny valley look, yet seemingly without special effects. It’s just performance and framing and is super unnerving. Navarrette should launch into the big-time after this one.

While not quite as showy, Johnston does a more than passable job as Bear. His character is this perfect mix of dorky nice-guyness, yet continuing down a wrong path despite all the warning signs. A lesser performer might not commit to the bit and give him more animus one way or the other, but Johnston resists such temptation.

As one might guess, Obsession aims to be a commentary on the entitled nature of the “I’m a nice guy, why won’t she date me?” mindset. This skewers the violation of consent that happens in romantic dynamics at times and the way relationships can become controlling and consuming. Ultimately, the thematic commentary is a weaker aspect of Obsession, as Barker is more concerned in ramping up the visceral experience than anything too searching. Johnston’s Bear also arguably needed to be written a little meaner to justify the morality at work. The film also runs slightly too long, starting to lose a tad of steam midway through the second act.

Such flaws are minor in the end. Obsession is an unrelenting piece of horror filmmaking and goes to some wild places along the way. Despite the conclusion almost being foregone if you have any familiarity with “be careful what you wish for” tales, Obsession still manages plenty of surprises en route.

With news that Barker has the keys to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise, there is hope he might bring quality back to that series. Even if we’d prefer he keeps writing his own ideas. But we’ll try not to obsess about the future too much.

Tell us your thoughts on Obsession below and rank it on the new and improved Flickchart!!!

Perhaps this is the Countdown to Doomsday article you’ve been waiting for. Our series returns as we analyze each era of Marvel cinema on the road to Avengers: Doomsday, examining the tapestry of Marvel movie history and theorizing on how each movie may feature in the ultimate multiverse mashup.

Previously, Marvel entered a downturn. Despite their films still making money, there were arguably seven critical duds in a row, and many questioned if Marvel could sustain multiple successful franchises. Outside of major characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men, none of their movies were considered universally great.

Yet, despite these tumultuous times, Marvel Studios was laying the groundwork for something new and different: a creative company that self-financed and produced their own works, instead of relying on a traditional movie studio to license their IP. It was a big gamble, and failure meant losing even more character rights.

If they succeeded in making great movies, and maybe ones more faithful to the comics, the sky would be the only limit. Kevin Feige hoped success would mean something more than just several successful, yet separate, films. He wanted to redefine serial storytelling at the cinema.

Luckily for comics fans, Marvel Studios pulled off the implausible, and the greatest cinematic universe in history was born.

Era Four: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Arrives – or, Some Assembly Required

The fourth era of Marvel cinema is where film history forever changed. From 2008 to 2012, Marvel Studios released six films that would later become known as Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While Marvel focused on quality individual releases, the first teases of a larger interconnected narrative started showing up and immediately sent shockwaves through audiences.

There were certainly growing pains, with Feige falling back on what he learned working with Fox and Avi Arad. Resultingly, many of the Phase One films sometimes feel like rote origin stories, even if produced at a competent level and connecting audiences to lesser-known characters like Thor or Iron Man. But the box office talked, and by 2010, Feige and company were fully committed to seeing if a shared universe could work.

The year 2012 was the final test, and the release of The Avengers was not only a passing grade, but a smash hit. With money raining in and critics abuzz, this movie was proof positive that a shared universe was something workable and that audiences wanted. Many were also pleased at the greater move towards comic fidelity, with origin stories and costumes more directly drawn from the comics’ pages than in Fox or Sony‘s output.

This was because fans like Feige led at the executive level. Certainly, they drew heavily from the Ultimate Marvel universe in lieu of the main 616 (that is, Prime Universe) continuity, but this felt better for fans jaded by Galactus space clouds and the X-Men’s plain black leather costumes.

Marvel’s semi-independent status wouldn’t last long, though, as the Walt Disney Company acquired the entirety of Marvel in 2009 and took over Marvel Studios. Luckily, Disney gave plenty of slack to Feige and Marvel executives to continue running their show, but navigating the new relationship between Disney executives and Marvel ones would be a challenge in the years ahead.

While most of this era was about the birth and success of the MCU, Sony and Fox did have a few spare releases throughout this period. These were mostly embarrassments, stark contrasts between the generally high quality of Marvel’s self-produced works and the remnants of the early 2000s deals.

The Avengers‘ release, in combination with the terrible quality of most non-MCU films, had fans clamoring for all rights to return to Marvel. This would allow the MCU to flourish with its entire roster and truly replicate the comics’ shared universe on screen. The MCU’s success, though, further emboldened other studios to make money with the rights they had, setting up a soft war throughout the 2010s between the MCU and the other superhero entities on the block. Additionally, this era also featured a looming shadow from a non-Marvel character that redefined the superhero genre in its own right.

Iron Man (2008)

Just as Blade was an unlikely candidate to launch Marvel’s success at the box office, Iron Man probably wasn’t anyone’s first choice to kickstart a cinematic universe. Strange to think now that this character is a major part of pop culture, but before ’08, most people who weren’t dedicated comics fans didn’t know who he was.

Iron Man sold enough issues to maintain his own series throughout most of the 20th century, but he was never a big hit and lacked much of the spicy personality he would have after 2008. Indeed, during film development, Marvel conducted focus groups wherein they learned most thought Iron Man was a robot.

Not that his minor status prevented attempts to make a movie adaptation. Like most characters, there were many false starts. Iron Man’s rights flipped between multiple studios throughout the 90’s with a variety of scripts written and potential leading men sought after, including Nic Cage and Tom Cruise. Fox approached Quentin Tarantino to write and direct, but they eventually sold the rights to New Line due to having too many other superhero films in development.

New Line got the closest to actually making a movie before Marvel Studios. They commissioned their own script (which even featured a Nick Fury cameo to set up a solo film) and sought Joss Whedon to direct. Then New Line conceived a unique idea of gathering many writers in a room and filming them talking for hours to develop script ideas.

One of these writers, David Hayter, compiled these ideas with elements from prior scripts written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, removed Pepper Potts and the villain Mandarin from the latter. Production seemed imminent, and New Line hired Nick Cassavetes of all people to direct. Yet, this iteration eventually fell apart, and in 2005 Iron Man’s rights reverted to Marvel.

As alluded to in prior articles, Marvel Studios announced in late 2005 that Iron Man would be its first feature, alongside a lineup of six other heroes including Ant-Man and Nick Fury. Marvel felt Iron Man was their best headliner character and started development from scratch. But most screenwriters did not agree, with apparently around 30 passing on the project due to Iron Man’s obscurity and the fact that Marvel was self-producing. Many Hollywood creatives did not believe in working outside the traditional studio system and felt this was a doomed effort.

Kevin Feige was conscious from the start that Iron Man‘s success was monumental to their nascent efforts. To that end, Marvel took the results of the aforementioned focus groups and created animated shorts to raise public awareness of Iron Man. As development continued, Feige tried to kindle the cinematic universe idea and forge a connection with Spider-Man 2, whose original script directly referenced Tony Stark as the creator of Doc Ock’s robotic arms, though this was cut.

Despite cutting the direct reference, Marvel Studios was cautious in its early days and did look to the development of prior Marvel movies. They hired Jon Favreau to direct, who was ironically eager to work with Avi Arad again after Daredevil despite that film’s troubled production. This was also ironic because Arad left Marvel in 2006.

By this point, Marvel had hired two different teams to write scripts, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Because they refused to do many rewrites due to reluctance to work with Marvel, Favreau finished the writing process, combining scripts and frequently calling comic creatives like Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, and Axel Alonso for advice.

Next came casting and what became one of the most monumental casting choices of all-time. Funnily, Favreau originally wanted an unknown actor as he felt Tony Stark was the star, not the actor, and comic-book films were successful without being star-driven. Thus, Favreau initially looked at smaller performers like Jim Caviezel, Timothy Olyphant, and Sam Rockwell for Stark (Rockwell would eventually join the MCU as a different character).

Marvel Studios was taken with Clive Owen and actually offered him the part, though he declined. By this time, Favreau met with Robert Downey Jr. and decided he was perfect. Marvel strongly opposed casting Downey because of his very public history of substance abuse, including multiple stints in prison and rehab. While Downey was regaining some of his reputation throughout the mid-00s with several acclaimed performances, most studios were still afraid to cast him and Marvel didn’t want to gamble its already risky venture on a star that might dramatically blow up.

But Favreau was insistent, seeing the actor’s talent and feeling that Downey’s past made him even better for playing Tony Stark. He fought hard and worked with Downey to create an audition tape for Marvel executives showcasing how perfect Downey was. While Feige was on board, the tape wasn’t enough for the rest of the Marvel brass.

As a last resort, Favreau leaked Downey’s consideration for the part to the press. The overwhelming public acclaim at the possibility finally moved the needle. In September 2006, Marvel officially cast Downey. This wouldn’t be the last time a creative used press leaks to convince executives on Marvel projects.

The rest of the cast soon followed with Terrence Howard, another supporter of Downey, getting the role of James Rhodes over Don Cheadle, though Cheadle would be another that would join for the sequel. Gwyneth Paltrow won the role of Pepper Potts after Rachel McAdams turned it down, and Jeff Bridges won the part of Obadiah Stane.

Funnily, Stane was not the film’s original villain; at first he was a supporting character who might later become a villain. Instead, Iron Man’s archnemesis, the Mandarin, was to be the main villain. But given the desire for realism, Favreau felt Mandarin simply didn’t work yet, and instead decided to build up to the Mandarin with references, rewriting Stane into the main villain role. Bridges suddenly found himself the movie’s co-star.

Speaking of realism, the effects and production teams put extensive work into making the Iron Man armor feel tactile. Favreau dedicated lots of screentime to showcasing different stages of the armor and depicting Tony’s incremental improvements on the technology. With Howard Hughes as a direct inspiration for Stark’s character, there was no place better to film than Hughes’s former soundstages, and Favreau explicitly set the narrative in the West Coast to differentiate it from other superhero films. Favreau also threaded in references to Whiplash and even placed a Captain America shield in the background of a shot, though this was more a tease than any planned cinematic universe reference. Such was the nature of the early MCU.

A more concrete cinematic universe plan came when the crew conceived of a post-credits scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Fury’s “Ultimate Universe” iteration had used Jackson’s likeness years earlier in the comics, making him a natural casting choice. Funnily, despite all that has arisen since and Feige’s constant prior attempts to make a connected universe, the original intent with this scene wasn’t anything specific but just to see if fans would respond. Jackson hadn’t signed on to appear in any other films at this point. They even filmed an alternate version where Fury explicitly discussed mutants and radioactive bug bites, though this version was not ultimately used due to the rights issues.

In what would become a standard for the early MCU, Marvel leaned on San Diego Comic-Con appearances as further marketing as a lead-up to the May 2008 release date. Marvel Studios felt positive buzz but awaited the results with bated breath. Would their big gamble pay off?

It did!

Iron Man exploded to a $98.6 million opening weekend, one of the highest of all-time, kicking off the 2008 summer box-office season with a bang. By June, it passed the $300 million mark and wound up finishing with $585.8 million. Perhaps just as importantly, the critical response was stellar. While some derided the third act, Downey turned eyes with what was universally considered one of the best comic-book performances to date. Many praised the film’s deft balance of comedy, character development, and effects splendor. Roger Ebert gave it a perfect 4/4 and felt it breathed new life into the superhero genre. It was notable for being the first movie to use the Marvel Studios title card.

Marvel Studios was ready to capitalize on this success. After Iron Man‘s debut, Marvel extended David Maisel‘s contract through 2010 and named Feige president of Marvel Studios. With the Nick Fury movie sidelined, and difficulties on Ant-Man, Marvel finally committed to trying for a connected film narrative and rearranged its lineup. Marvel announced a revised slate of films including The Avengers and ceded greater creative control to the people ready to take Marvel Studios into the future.

Speaking of, fans were abuzz about the tease of the post-credits scene. While there had been a sprinkling of such scenes in prior Marvel films, none had paid off or pointed to any specific future story beat. With this one, many wondered: would there really be an Avengers film? Marvel Studios hinted at it in their first ever San Diego Comic Con panel in 2006, but this was more concrete. Could such a thing work? After the official announcement of The Avengers, that was the big question looming over the newly-born MCU.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

With Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom, speculation is abound as to what the in-universe explanation will be, but most think it will link back to Tony Stark in some manner. Which makes it likely we’ll get an alternate version of the events of this film as part of that backstory. Whether that will mean the return of Jeff Bridges or Terrence Howard is a lot more nebulous, but we fully expect Iron Man to receive direct references.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Perhaps the first answer to that question was The Incredible Hulk. As discussed in a prior article, Marvel initially planned to make a direct sequel to Ang Lee‘s Hulk and Marvel Studios prepared to help fund it with part of its 2006 loan. But Universal drug its feet and ended up selling its rights back to Marvel. Feige was happier with this outcome, ready to properly start Marvel Studio’s Hulk franchise.

They began by filling the director’s chair with Louis Leterrier, after passing on him to direct Iron Man. Leterrier was initially reluctant until he learned Marvel was not making a direct sequel and did not want to replicate Lee’s style. But Leterrier still wanted to pull deeply from the comics and replicate comic panels with his film shots. Zak Penn returned to pen the screenplay, including two scenes cut from his 90s Hulk script that finally made it into this work (Bruce falling from a helicopter and turning into the Hulk, and Bruce unable to have sex because he might “Hulk out.”)

One of the looming situations throughout production was whether the film would be a sequel. Marvel gave no consistent answers during production, or even after the movie’s release. Certainly, Leterrier and Penn included thematic continuations from Lee’s Hulk and because of the desire to redo Hulk’s origin, The Incredible Hulk‘s opening credits refer to Hulk in a certain sense. But Feige was adamant that this film was a reboot and later highlighted that the opening credits contradict Hulk.

One person clear on the idea that they were ignoring Hulk was the star: Edward Norton. Norton was also the source of most of the production drama on this film. A talented and revered actor by early 2006, Marvel was initially eager for him to star, especially having previously considered Norton for Marvel films. They managed to lure him in with a deal that allowed Norton to serve as a cowriter. But this deal wound up being a headache.

With his more artistic notions, Norton rewrote Penn’s screenplay prior to shooting. Then, he kept revising even after filming started. Norton wasn’t interested in Marvel’s burgeoning cinematic universe or in referring to Lee’s film. Thus, Norton made extensive changes include entirely removing Hulk-sidekick Rick Jones, toning down S.H.I.E.L.D. references (an organization introduced in Iron Man), and leaning into the Ultimate Universe’s take on Hulk’s origin, which is that the gamma experiments were an attempt to replicate a super-soldier serum. This later addition did end up gelling quite well with the direction Marvel was headed.

Ironically, Penn received sole writing credit as he argued Norton’s changes were superficial. He apparently took issue with Norton stating at ComicCon that Norton wrote the script. Apparently, Norton’s constant changes were just an hallucination.

This hallucination extended throughout the editing process as Norton allegedly fought Leterrier and Marvel over runtime and other aspects. Apparently poor test screenings played a role too, resulting in the origin material being confined to the opening credits as well as removal of an alternate introduction sequence where Hulk attempted suicide in the Artic (which also showcased a frozen Captain America). Rumors arose that Norton refused to do publicity unless he liked the final cut, though Norton publicly dismissed this as bad journalism. History speaks for itself on that front, with Norton in Africa during the film’s release, though he attended the premiere and Leterrier praised some of Norton’s script additions.

There were cameos aplenty in this one though, especially crucial in the wake of Iron Man‘s success a month earlier. Lou Ferrigno and Stan Lee cameoed as they did in Hulk, with Ferrigno again voicing Hulk. Michael K. Williams, meanwhile, was present as a bystander solely because Norton was a fan of The Wire. Martin Starr also makes his debut appearance as a character that would later appear in the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy.

But most important to the shared universe was Robert Downey Jr. The Incredible Hulk is one of the few MCU films not to feature a post-credits scene, but the ending scene more or less functioned as one. Because there were no definite story plans for the MCU at this point, aside from vague notions of building to an Avengers film, Bruce Banner’s ending was intentionally left ambiguous.

Thus, Downey reprised his role as Stark for the first time solely as a favor to help promote this movie and with only vague dialogue. Still, the scene does suggest a reappearance of the film’s villain, Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth, who had signed on for three more films. Of course, this would not happen for a long time.

The odd caveat of the rights situation was that Universal distributed this film despite Marvel’s deal with Paramount, making it unique in the MCU canon. This situation may be part of why the movie never received a direct sequel. That, and the fact that when The Incredible Hulk debuted in June 2008 it barely surpassed Hulk‘s box office, finishing with a mere $264.8 million. By 2008 this simply wasn’t enough for a big-budget blockbuster.

Reviews improved on the 2003 work though, and apparently Marvel and Universal already had lower box-office expectations. Plus, Marvel Studios was now less concerned about an individual film’s box-office success and more with how well it laid the groundwork for their biggest gamble, The Avengers.

Regardless, this is the only Phase One (as the MCU’s debut era came to be known) film without a direct follow-up. Universal was initially onboard for a sequel, as were the cast members, but as Feige started shaping more of a defined narrative for the MCU it was put on the backburner. A TV show was announced in 2010, but this too fell through. Instead, the Hulk’s next appearance came in 2012, when everything changed all the more.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Low

Throughout the years, rumors of a Hulk sequel murmured, but most interviews circle around to the fact that Universal’s distribution rights prevented it from happening. Those rights finally reverted to Marvel in 2023, so something could happen. However, since Bruce Banner was recast, items from this particular film are a bit iffy for reappearance in Doomsday.

Certain characters did finally reappear in Captain America: Brave New World, including Tim Blake Nelson and Liv Tyler specifically setting up Doomsday. But we doubt either will get screentime. William Hurt‘s General Ross had several reappearances in earlier MCU movies, though after Hurt’s passing, Harrison Ford took over the role. With Mark Ruffalo now the MCU’s primary Hulk, we doubt Norton will return, though there is a chance because of the multiverse. That said, given the way Norton’s relationship with Marvel ended, this still seems unlikely. Roth’s Abomination has had several small reappearances, so perhaps he’ll make it.

Punisher: War Zone (2008)

As July 2008 approached, Marvel’s first two self-produced films were a success. While The Incredible Hulk had its flaws, both made money and seemed to redeem the Marvel brand after a rough few years. With two stinger scenes at the end of these movies, hype was building that this interconnected movie universe could work. Throughout the rest of 2008, Marvel Studios secured further distribution deals and filming locations for the next four films on its slate, as well as expanding its office space. It seemed Marvel’s gamble was paying off and they were becoming king of the culture hill.

Then, The Dark Knight released.

Christopher Nolan‘s highly-anticipated sequel to Batman Begins debuted after an impressive marketing campaign and as an emergent counterbalance to Marvel’s lighter tone. While the ’00s had been somewhat of a downturn for DC movies, The Dark Knight laughed at the notion of Marvel superiority by finishing its original run with a monstrous $1.003 billion gross.

Just as importantly, critics absolutely raved, with initial reactions deeming it the best superhero film ever made, and maybe even an all-time action picture. While this article series follows Marvel’s history, The Dark Knight is now regarded as forever changing the expectations for superhero movies, and it remains a contender for the best film of the genre. All that, with much less supposedly-important comic-book authenticity. The Dark Knight‘s success would eventually set the box office stage for a more direct Marvel vs. DC conversation as DC launched its own cinematic universe with Nolan’s aesthetic as a guidepost.

Needless to say, Marvel knew it had to step its game up. Its creatives had their work cut out for them, but luckily, they had their own gritty superhero crime drama “sequel” coming in December 2008. Perhaps it could be the return punch?

As we discussed in our coverage on The Punisher, Lions Gate was initially interested in proceeding with a sequel, and by late November 2004 they had gathered funding. They formally announced the project in March 2005 with Thomas Jane and director Jonathan Hensleigh attached. The initial plan was to start filming in late 2006, and the script was revised throughout 2005.

Yet as 2006 arrived, matters complicated. The script faced continual rewrites, and then Hurricane Katrina delayed plans to film in New Orleans. Hensleigh eventually quit due to frustration over the rewrites, as he had with Hulk. By December, Stuart Beattie started a complete rewrite along with The Shield writer Kurt Sutter. Eventually, in May 2007, Jane had enough of rewrites and dropped out. Even Sutter dropped his name from involvement as rewrites continued into 2008.

With all the main creatives gone, Marvel was forced to rehire new people. The shoddy script kept many away, but eventually Lexi Alexander signed on to direct after Lions Gate assured her that she could make story changes and cast the new Punisher. She went after Ray Stevenson, who had been in talks to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk. Her aggressive pitch that they would pay homage to ’80s action movies must have won him over. Stevenson poured himself into the role, reading tons of comics and training himself in martial arts and weapons.

In a strange bit of further serendipity with The Incredible Hulk, the movie was retooled into a semi-sequel/semi-reboot as the final product eschews any direct references to the first film while still sort of acting like a sequel. It was titled Punisher: War Zone to distinguish it.

The main villain, Jigsaw, remained the lead antagonist through all of the rewrites. Alexander was impressed by Freddie Prinze Jr.’s audition, but Lions Gate adamantly refused to cast him. Paddy Considine was also considered, but ultimately Dominic West won the part.

With Lions Gate keeping a tight leash on the budget, they shifted filming from New Orleans to the cheaper Canada. To replicate the comics, Alexander used highly-saturated colored set lightning and intensively color-graded during post. Shots were framed to emulate comic panels as well.

Despite studio promises, Alexander reportedly clashed with Lions Gate throughout filming and speculation was abound that she had been fired after not appearing at San Diego ComicCon to promote the film. As she would state in a series of interviews in following years, she was never fired and felt the final product had enough of her vision. But despite Marvel Studios being supportive, Alexander claimed Marvel would let Lions Gate be the tiebreaker in every creative conflict. She expressed regret over this, feeling that Marvel itself provided better notes than other studios and wishing she could have worked with Marvel without Lions Gate.

The final product was indicative of these creative battles. It bombed upon its December 2008 release, making a mere $10.2 million against its $35 million budget. This was lower-grossing than even prior major failures like Howard the Duck and Elektra. Critics were highly negative as well, giving it a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Our users don’t care for it either, as it currently has a mere 62 Flickscore. That said, the performance for Punisher was singled out for praise again, with many feeling Stevenson did a strong job. Ebert was semi-positive with his 2/4.

This film has the distinction of being the first of only two movies to use a “Marvel Knights” banner. Based on the comics imprint of the same name, Marvel developed this label as a means to market more mature, adult-focused films. Because of the failure of this movie and the later one to use the banner, it was quickly retired.

“Marvel Knights” was certainly not Marvel’s desired answer to The Dark Knight. As 2008 closed, audiences anticipated where Marvel Studios was heading, mostly fueled by Iron Man. With an exciting slate ahead, maybe fans could finally get movies that accurately reflected the shared continuity of the comics. But the roadkill that was Punisher: War Zone and the game-changing The Dark Knight meant that Marvel could no longer pansy around. They needed to take things to the next level.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Low

We mostly discussed this when analyzing The Punisher. After Marvel got the rights back, they eventually proceeded with their own MCU version of Punisher. Given the total failure here, we think it fairly unlikely anything from this movie will return. While Feige might have been interested in bringing back prior versions of the Punisher for Doomsday, Stevenson’s sad passing in 2023 means this version will not return.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

As 2009 began, Marvel Studios went into overdrive. Between the competition of The Dark Knight and their own success, they were ready to take everything up a notch. Producer Stephen Broussard started a writing program for the studio to start developing scripts for lesser-known characters and explore creative possibilities. Many of these scripts eventually became future films, but that is a story for future articles.

Marvel was slowly but surely consolidating all of its rights back home, but two major players remained: Fox and Sony. With Raimi gone, Sony focused on retooling its approach to Spider-Man, its last major property. In early 2009, Sony reworked its film rights by returning animated TV rights to Marvel.

Then there was Fox. Despite X-Men: The Last Stand‘s lukewarm response, they were in no hurry to get out of the superhero business. Indeed, many films were on the burners even while the main trilogy was being produced.

The prospect of a Wolverine origin film was first explored in 2004 by none other than Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff. At this point, he was a relative unknown nepo-baby who started drafting screenplays in the early ’00s. Fox was interested in his Wolverine take, as was Hugh Jackman, who started collaborating with Benioff to finish the script. Writer-director David Ayer also made writing contributions.

We won’t belabor this point, as Deadpool eventually had his own film, but the simultaneous development of a Deadpool solo effort in the early ’00s was important to this movie’s story. Ryan Reynolds was pursuing this with David S. Goyer before it fell apart, leading Benioff to write Deadpool into this film. Benioff also included Gambit, who had similar problems of false starts and failed solo projects, and quickly marked this Wolverine origin movie as a bin for Fox’s misfit toys.

Benioff finished his script in October 2006. As usual in the pre-Dark Knight days, Fox shied away from anything too dark and gritty and hired Skip Woods to tone the script down to a PG-13 rating. The Last Stand had released, causing Fox to reconsider its approach to future X-Men movies. A prequel movie focused on the most popular character would be the perfect palate cleanser, and Fox announced it as their next release.

While Fox initially considered Brett Ratner to direct, perhaps they weren’t happy with The Last Stand and thus sought someone else. They again pursued Zack Snyder, who again turned them down, this time to direct Watchmen.

They eventually hired Gavin Hood, who had built a reputation in the early ’00s as a talented action director. Hood soon suggested making the blood relation of Wolverine and Sabretooth into a major part of the film and worked with Jackman to develop mature themes for the movie to explore.

Speaking of Sabretooth, despite Tyler Mane playing the role in the original X-Men, Liev Schreiber was slotted into the part, perhaps due to his friendship with Jackman. Funnily, Schreiber was originally under consideration to play William Stryker after another original actor, Brian Cox, was also shoved aside. In one of the funnier instances of terrible executive interference, David Harbour was rejected as being too overweight to play The Blob, a character known for being inhumanly fat. Finally, Taylor Kitsch was cast as Gambit despite Channing Tatum‘s prior attempts to play the character. Unfortunately for Tatum, he was never seriously in the running for the role this time, with the studio initially casting Josh Holloway and then considering Chris Hemsworth as well.

Filming began in 2007, continuing into 2008. In a story quickly becoming all too familiar, Fox rushed production and creative conflicts erupted. For one, Hood claimed the screenplay was still incomplete as shooting started, with pages being delivered throughout the shoot, sometimes just the night before the scene was to be shot. For another, Hood wanted to depict Wolverine as suffering from PTSD due to his years of being a soldier, which Fox executives refused to do, feeling that audiences wouldn’t want such weighty matters to be explored in a comic-book film.

Further, Reynolds was upset about the direction of Deadpool. While Deadpool was originally more of a cameo, after Reynolds joined the character expanded into a central antagonist. But this version was vastly altered from the comics, much to Reynolds’ dismay.

Compounding all of this were Jackman and Reynolds’s busy shooting schedules. Both were due on other productions, causing Fox to further rush things along. Yet the shoot was inevitably broken up, dragging into early 2009 and delaying the release further. This was also the first Marvel film in a while not to feature a Stan Lee cameo, since the shooting occurred in Australia.

As shooting and editing finally wrapped, Fox prepared X-Men Origins: Wolverine for release. They hoped to remind which studio started this whole superhero craze and stand alongside Marvel and DC. In an unfortunate occurrence, a full-length quality workprint leaked to the internet in March 2009. Fox and the creative team were upset for obvious reasons, including the fact that the workprint had unfinished effects, and alternate sound effects and titles. As the internet was taking off, the danger of online leaks continued to grow for superhero franchises that were often dependent on keeping characters and plot points secret. Fox estimated there were roughly 4.5 million downloads of the film before release.

This became a convenient scapegoat for a somewhat underperforming box office. Upon the May 2009 official release, Origins pulled a decent $158.1 million opening weekend. This was nothing to shrug at, but it was less impressive than The Last Stand and X2, and Fox blamed the leaks. That said, Origins went on to finish with worldwide grosses of $373 million, which Fox couldn’t be entirely displeased with and was enough to spur them to continue making more films.

Critical reception was a different matter. Most critics were highly negative, with many giving it around 2/4 stars, including Ebert. The Flickscore is only 64. The consensus was that though Jackman and some other performances were good, the flawed production was apparent. Common criticisms included rushed storytelling, poor special effects, a lack of real stakes, and inconsistencies with prior entries despite allegedly being a prequel.

The most angering point for many fans was the butchering of Deadpool. Marvel Studios had shown in 2008 that greater comic book authenticity was possible, and this likely compounded the feeling that Fox didn’t respect the property and treated it like a money-milking operation rather than an artistic endeavor. Jackman would later admit he was unhappy with the final result, and Reynolds remained desperate to do a proper take on the Deadpool character.

While Marvel likely would have preferred their rights back regardless of this film’s quality, the failure certainly increased chants for everything to go back to Marvel Studios. The X-Men deserved better. This didn’t happen though, and the stage was set for the 2010s to see the ultimate superhero film war as different studios tried to craft comparable movies.

Despite a decent box office, the critical response was enough for Fox to retool their plans for the franchise. While they initially planned to make a series of Origins films, with the next focused on Magneto, this script was retooled and combined with others. Fox took inspiration from what other studios were doing and looked to do a soft reboot of the franchise. Fox had to rethink how they did things or be left in the dust.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Low

We’ve previously commented that we feel highly confident Jackman’s Wolverine will reappear in Doomsday, as well as Reynolds as Deadpool, though not in Origins‘s particular iteration. But as for anything else, we think it pretty unlikely. Mane took back the role of Sabretooth in Deadpool & Wolverine but won’t make the cut for Doomsday. Any other character in this is simply too unimportant to get a cameo. The Deadpool movies all openly mocked this film, including specifically the Deadpool appearance.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Despite Marvel’s only 2009 release being a blemish, marking two duds in a row, excitement still existed for the burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe, a term Feige first used in 2010 after initially calling it the Marvel Cinema Universe the prior year. But the major shakeup for Marvel came at the end of 2009, when the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment outright for a whopping $4 billion. How far things had come since the bankruptcy days just a decade earlier.

Disney announced it would take over all distribution moving forward once present deals expired. Now that Mickey Mouse money backed Marvel, the MCU was no longer a fledgling indie project with hopes of obtaining further financing. That said, Marvel would now have to answer to Disney executives.

But at least for 2010, despite Maisel stepping down while his vision from years earlier was coming true, Disney seemed willing to give Marvel’s creative team free reign. Marvel capitalized by creating a TV division in June 2010 to start actively developing live-action shows as well as control over their animated works.

But before that came Iron Man II. Development on the sequel started immediately after the first film’s release. While initial pre-production conceived of it as a traditional sequel, Marvel’s box office success caused it to be treated as a piece of a larger cinematic narrative. As Marvel shifted release dates around, this was when Feige coined the informal term “Phase One” as a descriptive term to delineate parts of the narrative that weren’t limited to the particular sub-franchises.

With success came demands, and an intense negotiating process with Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. For a moment, despite Favreau having aspirations of a trilogy, it seemed Favreau wouldn’t return. But finally they struck a deal and soon signed none other than actor and sometimes-screenwriter Justin Theroux to pen the script, an unorthodox choice to say the least. Downey had recommended him because Theroux wrote Tropic Thunder.

Another sticky negotiation was with Samuel L. Jackson. Difficulty likely centered on needing Nick Fury in smaller roles in many films, while Jackson wanted pay that matched his prestige as an actor. Finally, Marvel and Jackson agreed to a nine-film deal, locking Jackson into the MCU’s future.

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell signed on to play the film’s villains after Rockwell missed out on playing Iron Man in the first film. Emily Blunt was initially going to play Black Widow but couldn’t work out her scheduling problems, and the part instead went to Scarlet Johannsson, who signed a multi-film deal as well. Initial online response to this wasn’t favorable, surprisingly. And of course, Clark Gregg returned as early MCU glue character, Agent Phil Coulson.

Not every negotiation worked out. In the MCU’s first major recasting, Don Cheadle took over the part of James Rhodes from Terrence Howard, after Marvel’s earlier consideration of Cheadle in the first film. While financial reasons were part of it, Favreau also reportedly did not enjoy working with Howard. Howard commented that he felt that Downey essentially took the salary meant for him and pushed him out.

With a creative team set, now came the creating. In addition to more traditional comic-book villains, Downey and others wanted to explore what many jokingly call Stark’s true archenemy in the comics: alcoholism. One of the famous Iron Man storylines is “Demon in the Bottle,” which is all about Stark’s issues with substance abuse. This would make it into the film, but Marvel executives downplayed and changed the storyline’s nature, linking Stark’s erratic behavior to poisoning from the device keeping him alive, instead of booze. None other than future Iron Man 3 director Shane Black made story suggestions during this time, recommending they base the portrayal on J. Robert Oppenheimer’s behavior after creating the atom bomb. Talk about serendipity on multiple fronts.

Filming took place throughout the middle of 2009. Production constructed massive sets and continued to use military assets, including Edwards Air Force Base. Marvel was initially granted permission to film at the Monaco Grand Prix for the first major action sequence, though this was later retracted.

Reportedly, there was major ad-libbing during filming, especially from Downey, which caused Theroux stress that left him bedridden as he had to constantly rewrite to account for Downey’s changes. In what was quickly becoming the MCU tradition, Kenneth Branagh was enlisted to film the post-credits scene to lead into his own movie: Thor. Other scenes were replete with set-up, including Captain America’s shield, maps referencing Wakanda and New Mexico, and other references. This constant interference from Marvel to set up future movies eventually soured Favreau on returning to the director’s chair, and possibly helped inspire his next film, Chef.

The marketing campaign began, and Marvel debuted footage at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con that was well-received. Paramount continued to handle marketing despite the Disney purchase, because it remained the distributor for this movie. This led to a successful May 2010 general release, as the movie took an opening-weekend $51 million and finished its worldwide run with $623.6 million.

While the jury was still out on whether an entire MCU could work at the box office, Iron Man movies were clearly successful. That said, critical response was slightly more tepid this time. Many felt the movie had overstuffed its narrative with set-up for future films, falling into some of the same traps as prior Fox films. Plenty of optimism remained, yet warning signs glared about what could happen if the artistic integrity of each movie was lacking.

The MCU’s next big test was to come the next year. A post-credit scene teased the upcoming Thor, the most fantastical and out-of-this-world character in a comic-book film yet, and the question was whether such a story could connect to general audiences. After all, Thor spoke in the comics with ye olde English. This might be silly on the big screen.

Disney wasn’t worried though, and was happy with the fruits of its purchase. In late 2010 it jumped the gun and bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 (already in the works by now) from Paramount, while allowing Paramount’s logo to remain in those films. The House of the Mouse bet big on the success of The Avengers.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

All of the same connections discussed with Iron Man are applicable here. Downey is definitely back, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Paltrow’s Pepper and Favreau’s Happy also come back. But it doesn’t seem likely that Mickey Rourke reprises the role of Whiplash or Justin Hammer returns. Maybe there’s a small chance John Slattery‘s Howard appears somehow in Doctor Doom’s backstory, as he reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame.

Thor (2011)

The Avengers succeeding likely depended on audiences being excited about all of the team’s members, with the hardest sell being Thor. Though Thor ostensibly is the character with the biggest built-in recognition, as he is based on real-life Nordic mythology, his comics exist in a storytelling archetype that is harder for people to buy in to because of his lack of relatability. He is a god, and his adventures usually occur in alternate realms to bring true stakes, which distances readers. His comics have never been the biggest sellers in Marvel’s roster.

That may explain why it took a couple of decades to get a Thor film. Sam Raimi was interested in making a Thor movie back in the ’90s after he finished Darkman. Raimi met with Stan Lee, and the pair made a pitch to Fox, but this was the early 90s where faith in Marvel properties was still quite low. Fox passed.

As with many of Marvel’s characters, interest swelled after Blade and X-Men‘s successes. Initial discussions focused on making a TV show, perhaps due to worry that Thor wasn’t a big enough box-office draw. UPN was highly interested and approached Tyler Mane to star. Marvel Studios managed to get Artisan Entertainment to co-finance, but even with comic book films picking up, studios were reluctant to do the big-time financing necessary for a Thor adaptation.

Things finally seemed to change after Spider-Man took off, with Sony ready to capitalize and develop more Marvel properties. It bought the rights and sought David S. Goyer to write and direct. Yet after the Blade: Trinity fiasco, Goyer lost interest in working on more Marvel properties.Christopher Nolan approached Gover to co-write Batman Begins, and Goyer thought it was a more worthy venture.

As Goyer’s interest died, so did Sony’s, and it sold the rights to Paramount in 2006. Though Paramount initially hired Mark Protosevich to pen a script, this was around the time it struck the distribution deal with Marvel Studios. Marvel reclaimed its rights and Thor became an MCU film. Protosevich envisioned an epic story with Thor banished to Earth in the Middle Ages and a story about “a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god.”

Grandiose ambitions require grandiose budgets, and Marvel had to divide its loan amongst all its prospects. Marvel hired Matthew Vaughn to direct in August 2007, after he famously left production on X-Men: The Last Stand due to his aggravation with Fox executives. Vaughn conducted a major rewrite of the script to half its needed budget. Yet once again development stagnated, and Vaughn left a comic book project for a second time.

Marvel Studios searched for a director who could bring a voice to Thor, having Protosevich rewrite the script in the meantime, and hiring comics writer J. Michael Straczynski to assist in this process. Marvel next approached Guillermo del Toro to direct, a natural fit based on his aesthetics and comic book movie experience. While Del Toro was initially interested, he eventually turned it down to direct The Hobbit, though that sadly did not work out either.

Finally, Marvel landed on Kenneth Branagh, an unconventional choice to say the least. While no stranger to franchises via his acting career, Branagh was still primarily known as a man of the stage, and most of his directing credits were Shakespeare adaptations. Yet, as it turned out, Branagh had been a fan of Thor comics since childhood, when he was drawn to its Shakespearean qualities. He immediately offered the lead role to Daniel Craig, who turned it down because he was still tied up in the Bond franchise.

Marvel looked to speed up development to capitalize on their momentum. They hired TV writers to speed up the refinement of the script and, with Craig out, launched their search for a lead actor. Marvel cast a wide net, considering actors including Alexander Skarsgard (son of eventual cast member Stellan Skarsgard), Charlie Hunnam, Josh Hartnett, Triple H, Channing Tatum, and Liam Hemsworth, the brother of the man who eventually landed the role, Chris Hemsworth. With Hemsworth’s casting, Marvel signaled a willingness to not lean on superstars for box-office draw, as Downey hadn’t been a guaranteed success when cast. No one had considered Edward Norton a Hollywood A-lister, either. Hemsworth’s casting was a narrow thing, as Marvel initially passed on him when he was reluctant to sign a six-picture deal. Chris Pratt auditioned for an unknown part, though his MCU debut was yet to come.

Still, with Thor cast, the rest of the troupe soon followed. Branagh was perhaps the most influential Marvel director yet when it came to casting, as much of the cast credited him for their decision to join the movie. Prior Branagh collaborator Tom Hiddleston was cast as Loki, after initially being considered for Thor. Branagh was also crucial in casting Natalie Portman, as he had noted her intelligence as a performer. For her part, she was drawn to Thor because Branagh was directing. Ray Stevenson returned to a Marvel movie after the disastrous Punisher: War Zone, playing Volstagg of the Warriors Three.

Branagh was also the sole reason for other cast members joining, including Anthony Hopkins as Odin (after Mel Gibson reportedly turned it down), Idris Elba as Heimdall (whose casting caused a minor stir as a black man playing a Norse deity), and Stellan Skarsgard. Colm Feore, who played central antagonist Laufey, commented that filming was aided because of the Shakespearean shorthand they all shared.

Tadanobu Asano, now known for Shogun, also played a minor role as another Warriors Three member. Maximiliano Hernandez, known for The Americans, also made his debut appearance as Jasper Sitwell, a SHIELD agent that reappeared multiple times in the early MCU.

Thor‘s release date moved up after news that Spider-Man 4 had fallen apart. The year 2010 came, and Branagh and company headed out to L.A. and New Mexico. Branagh was excited by the challenge of rendering a grounded human world as well as the fantastical Asgard, which had to be both futuristic and classical at the same time.

But Thor was not just Thor, as it also built towards The Avengers. Clark Gregg joined the cast shortly after filming began, and Marvel decided to lean into him as the link for the early MCU, in addition to Jackson’s Nick Fury. Likewise Jeremy Renner, who had been cast as Hawkeye for The Avengers, provided a cameo appearance to introduce him to audiences since he wouldn’t get a solo film. This required onset rewrites from Joss Whedon, as well as rising stars in the aforementioned Marvel writing program, Christopher Yost and Nicole Perlman. Whedon was on set to film the post-credits scene where Nick Fury talks with Stellan Skarsgard’s character, who wound up being added to The Avengers during development of that film’s story.

On the technical side, Marvel continued to work with diverse effects studios. Branagh initially cringed at this part of the process, but he sought to make his influence on the visual style, aiming for classical aesthetics. He used his frequent composer Patrick Doyle to score the film and create Thor’s theme.

As with all early MCU films, extensive marketing was a big part of the apparatus to make the films successful. The 2010 San Diego Comic Con featured a Thor panel, including clips that mostly were well-received. There were plenty of promotional opportunities, including collective Slurpee cups at 7-Eleven, a common marketing tactic for Phase One films. The post-credits scene from Iron Man 2 was its own form of commercial as well. With Thor being the biggest risk yet, Marvel needed to do all it could to make it work.

Eventually, May 2011 arrived. Marvel held its breath, hopeful. While by no means a slam dunk success, Thor debuted to an impressive weekend gross of $65.7 million and finished its worldwide run with $449.3 million. This wasn’t Iron Man money, but it was far more successful than The Incredible Hulk, perhaps the first sign that Marvel was building a brand at the box office. Critical reviews were fairly similar to The Incredible Hulk. Sitting at a 77% Rotten Tomatoes score and 78 Flickchart score, critics felt it was a decent if not great movie. Many enjoyed Hemsworth’s performance and the odes to a Shakespearean style, though they found its storytelling inconsistent. Ebert was fairly negative.

Regardless of reviews, Thor did its part. It proved the viability of the MCU brand was growing, and it was a satisfying step towards The Avengers. Plus, there was the post-credits scene featuring a fun comics reference: the Cosmic Cube, a super-powerful space weapon! This scene provided the first concrete story details for the anticipated superhero mashup, with the Cube at play and Loki as a lead villain, as he was in the first ever Avengers comic. It heightened anticipation for the summer’s upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.

But this wasn’t the only universe-building going on. The home release of Thor debuted the Marvel One-Shot, a series of short films that appeared across several MCU home releases and filled the story gaps between movies. The one that came with Thor, The Consultant, sought to explain why Tony Stark was the one approaching Thunderbolt Ross at the end of The Incredible Hulk. It also conveniently served as a retcon of sorts about how the Avengers Initiative was being conducted, with Whedon finishing out the story details. It wasn’t anything special, but it showed the MCU’s willingness to get creative with its storytelling mediums.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

Thor and Loki are already confirmed to be reappearing in Doomsday. Portman’s Jane Foster could be a possibility, though her character’s status as of Thor: Love and Thunder lowers that chance. As for the rest of the cast, their characters are all either dead or have long stopped appearing in the MCU and don’t seem likely to join.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Before the MCU continued, Fox had its own 2011 summer superhero release. We last left Fox in shambles, with egg on its face following the X-Men franchise’s worst release yet, seemingly unprepared to compete with the newborn MCU or the prestige of The Dark Knight. General audience sentiment felt Fox should release the X-Men rights and let Marvel create comic-accurate X-Men movies.

Fox wasn’t letting go of its money-making potential, but Fox recognized it needed a different approach. In 2009, the studio was developing multiple prequel films including a Magneto film, a Charles Xavier film, and a First Class film, albeit a very different one than the final product. They also considered plans for a fourth mainline movie. Yet with Origins‘s failure, Fox shifted everything to First Class.

Original discussions of a young X-Men movie started in 2003 during production of X2. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, intrigued at the idea, pushed preproduction forward, hiring Zak Penn to write and direct. As Penn worked on the script, Fox started developing the Magneto origin film, hiring Sheldon Turner to write.

Donner’s project eventually fell apart, and in 2007, Fox hired David S. Goyer to direct the Magneto movie. Goyer’s reputation grew via his involvement with Christopher Nolan. The Magneto film neared production, with Ian McKellan onboard to appear as the elder Magneto as a framing device. Yet the 2007-08 Writer’s Strike sidetracked this film for a time.

Meanwhile, producer Simon Kinberg, intrigued by the then-current X-Men: First Class comics, pushed for Fox to adapt it. Kinberg and Donner soon came together to revive the Young X-Men pitch, convincing Fox to green-light development. They hired Josh Schwartz to write the screenplay, with thoughts of Bryan Singer returning to direct. Singer was open to the idea, but didn’t care for Schwartz’s script and wrote his own with Jamie Moss‘s help.

Fox initially conditioned full production of First Class on the Magneto’s film success, and after the latter faltered, on Origins‘s success. By early 2009 Donner felt First Class was unlikely to happen, as it was on the far back-burner for Fox and McKellan backed out.

Ironically, despite Fox’s earlier conditions, it was Wolverine‘s failure that calcified all current productions into First Class, with Fox feeling it needed to put primary focus on one film to succeed. Elements of the Magneto movie were combined into First Class‘s script. Though Singer denied using any of Turner’s ideas, the Writer’s Guild credited him for the story and left out Moss and Schwartz. Still, Singer is credited for coming up with the Cuban Missile Crisis setting, while Donner landed on the Hellfire Club as primary villains.

In early 2010, Fox put everything on First Class and hired Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz for further rewrites. Fox considered treating First Class as a reboot of the franchise. Yet drama struck when Singer backed out of directing. Without Singer, Fox was uncertain of who they wanted to direct. They initially dismissed turning to Matthew Vaughn, assuming he wouldn’t be interested because Vaughn had left The Last Stand.

Yet after Kinberg saw Kick-Ass and was impressed, he decided it was worth gauging Vaughn’s interest, and sold Vaughn on the idea that First Class would be a ’60s-set reboot that Vaughn could put his stamp on. Vaughn initially thought it was a joke, but seeing Fox was serious, he leaped at the opportunity. He set to make the film a combination of multiple dream projects, including “an X-Men movie, and a Bond thing, and a Frankenheimer political thriller at the same time.” At long last, Vaughn would direct a Marvel film. He felt he had unfinished business after the two prior misses.

Fox gave Vaughn free rein to rewrite the script, which let him add certain characters and remove other elements he didn’t care for. Vaughn focused on centering the Magneto and Xavier friendship and making it believable, while also convincingly showing Magneto’s transition to outright villain. Nolan, meanwhile, continued to influence comics films even when he wasn’t making one, as Vaughn scrapped a dream sequence from the script after Inception‘s release and turned to Batman Begins with the prequel/soft reboot approach. Fox didn’t want to completely disregard prior canon, but continuity was not the primary concern, as the final product certainly indicated.

In that vein, Fox gave special care to casting the younger versions of Xavier and Magneto, seeking to recreate the dynamic of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan while carving a new path. This led to James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender landing the parts, neither of whom were comic readers. Vaughn told them to take inspiration from the original trilogy, but not to mirror it.

As for the rest, Vaughn cast Kevin Bacon as lead villain Sebastian Shaw after Mark Strong turned it down. Despite rumors of Alice Eve playing co-villain Emma Frost, January Jones won the part; she was looking for a drastic change from Mad Men. On the younger side, Zoe Kravitz made her first comic-book film appearance, as did rising stars Nicholas Hoult and Caleb Landry Jones. But most notable was Jennifer Lawrence, who was cast as Mystique on the strength of her Winter’s Bone performance — the The Hunger Games didn’t release until 2012. Lawrence was announced as Katniss in the middle of filming First Class.

As filming began in 2010, Vaughn leaned heavily into a period aesthetic and drew on the Connery Bond movies for tonality, including the era’s misogyny. He mirrored ’60s camera movements, transitions, and used an anamorphic format. Vaughn even paid homage to Bond with his titles sequences. Seeing the desire for more comics authenticity, the movie based its costumes on those from the original X-Men comic.

Despite trying to be a sort-of reboot, Fox and Vaughn still included some cameos and references (perhaps inspired by the MCU). William Stryker’s father is named as a character, and Rebecca Romijn gets a brief cameo as an older Mystique. Most entertainingly is Hugh Jackman’s brief appearance dropping an F-bomb to Xavier and Magneto, as well as to continuity. Sadly, Stan Lee could not make his usual cameo due to filming internationally.

Finally, June 2011 arrived. Just a month after Thor, Fox tested whether it could remain competitive in the comic-book sphere. Its opening weekend finished with $55.1 million, much lower than Wolverine‘s $85 million. Still, Fox was reportedly pleased, meeting their goal of matching the original X-Men‘s box office. First Class finished with $353 million overall.

Finishing behind Thor, formerly a C-list character, indicated a diminished power for the once-premier franchise; it even finished behind the hated Wolverine. Yet Fox felt it did well enough to keep making X-Men movies. Maybe the critical response that truly emboldened them. First Class was the most critically-lauded in the franchise since X2, with some calling it the best X-Men movie yet.

Critics found Vaughn’s stylish direction refreshing and felt the cast was overall fantastic. The movie is credited for helping launch McAvoy and Fassbender to wider mainstream success. As for Vaughn, Fox greenlit a big-budget adaptation of his own comics series, Kingsmen. Some criticism was directed at aspects of the story and cheaper-looking special effects, but much of the stink of Origins was washed away. Few considered it on the level of The Dark Knight or Spider-Man 2, yet it was a reminder that older studios could make something just as good if not better than the new MCU works.

Despite the calls for the X-Men to return home, Fox continued making X-Men movies. Competition continued in the Marvel movie sphere, and dreams of a fully-integrated MCU remained on hold. Setting the stage for what the box-office would look like for the next decade, July 2011 was to be the third month in a row to feature a comic-book movie.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

While multiple original-trilogy X-Men characters are confirmed for Doomsday, no one from the prequel continuity has been discussed. It’s possible Doomsday includes none of them to avoid confusion, since adding multiple timeline versions of characters on top of multiversal variants may ask a lot from general audiences. On the other hand, these versions are well-liked, especially because McAvoy and Fassbender’s reputations have only grown in the years since. We think there is some chance those two will appear.

A different actor reprised Azazel in Deadpool & Wolverine, but we think that none of the other side characters in this movie have any chance of appearing.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

One building block remained before The Avengers: the aptly titled Captain America: The First Avenger. Captain America was a true B-List character at this time. While never as popular as Spider-Man or the X-Men, he had slightly more fame than Iron Man or Thor. His all-American theming is a natural draw for many, and he led the Avengers in the comics when other founding members were off-roster. Indeed, he was the only other Avengers member outside of Hulk to get his own feature-film before the MCU (and was the first ever Marvel character to appear in film, in the original serials.)

That film was an outright disaster (see our first article in this series for more details). By the late ’90s, though, Marvel tried again as its film development surged. They turned to partner Artisan Entertainment to help with financing. Yet legal disputes between Marvel and Joe Simon, co-creator of the character, over rights ownership paused any further development.

Eventually, the suit was settled in 2003 as the superhero film craze heated up. Marvel initially found an easy partner in Warner Bros., but before selling the rights David Maisel made his self-financing pitch to Marvel executives. Thus, Captain America became part of the Merrill Lynch deal, and Marvel Studios was free to produce the film themselves.

Though Kevin Feige pushed an interconnected universe, Captain America was originally going to stand alone with half of it taking place during WW2 and half in the present. Avi Arad was still with Marvel at the time and reportedly had a director and star in mind by 2006. Favreau was interested in directing before the idea of directing Iron Man swayed him. But in 2007 Arad’s pick, Joe Johnston, started discussions with Marvel.

The Writer’s Strike put development on hold, perhaps for the better. After the Strike resolved in 2008, and shortly following Iron Man‘s successful debut weekend, Marvel officially announced the film with the title The First Avenger: Captain America. If anything signaled that the film was no longer stand-alone, certainly it was this title. While Louis Leterrier wanted a shot at his second MCU film and asked to direct, Marvel turned him down and finally penned a deal with Johnston after years of discussions, despite Arad having left Marvel. Feige felt Johnston’s work on The Rocketeer made him a perfect match for the period piece they were going for.

Because of the character’s overtly patriotic American theming, early press asked if such a character could work globally. Anti-American sentiment was running high in the later Bush years. Marvel executives responded optimistically but likely did have internal discussions on how best to frame the story. They intentionally de-emphasized Nazi Party elements of the WW2-set story to get towards a comic-book feel, though Feige did want to replicate the iconic comic-book cover of Cap punching Hitler.

Marvel hired screenwriting-duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to write the screenplay. The pair earned a decent reputation in Hollywood after penning all three Narnia movies, leading Marvel to eye them for this film. This started a fruitful partnership between Marvel Studios and Markus and McFeely, who went on to pen some of the most iconic films in the MCU. For now, their earliest decisions as writers included bringing in a young Howard Stark to build up MCU canon and making the Cosmic Cube, teased in Thor, the movie’s primary MacGuffin.

With the creative team hired, late 2009 brought pre-production and Johnston visualizing all he wanted to do. One of his earliest and more eye-raising announcements was stating that the Invaders would appear in the second half of the film. The Invaders are a WW2-era superhero team that featured Namor, a character Marvel had long attempted to put into a movie. Johnston later (and disappointingly for some) clarified that he simply meant the Howling Commandos. Namor remained off-screen for now.

As Johnston continued to hone a visual design incorporating authentic ’40s visuals and sets with futuristic technology, casting announcements started. The role of Steve Rogers was an undoubtedly important one and lists of actors were considered including notable names like Channing Tatum, Glen Powell, Jensen Ackles, Wyatt Russell, John Krasinski, and Chris Pratt. But Chris Evans landed the role, not longer after James Cameron rejected him for Avatar, as Cameron didn’t find Evans believable as a soldier. The irony is thick.

Steve Rogers was a very different role from Evans’s last comics character, the Human Torch, but the record speaks for itself on the strength of Evans’s casting. Evans turned the role down three times before signing a deal, as he was afraid his reputation would tank if the movie bombed. Once again, Marvel leaned into non A-list talent, despite a loud public rumor mill that actors such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Will Smith were in consideration.

Regarding the remaining cast, Marvel announced beloved genre actor Hugo Weaving as the primary antagonist, Red Skull. Sebastian Stan, another failed Captain America audition, was cast as Bucky Barnes and interestingly penned a multi-film deal. Speculation abounded about what this meant, though Feige commented in 2025 that Stan was cast precisely because Feige felt he would be excellent as Winter Soldier in future films, meaning this was always the plan. Hayley Atwell, meanwhile, beat out Emily Blunt, Keira Knightley, and Alice Eve for the role of Peggy Carter. Once again, Blunt and Eve missed on Marvel roles.

Marvel cast Tommy Lee Jones as the main military officer character, leaning into his strengths. Jeff Goldblum came up for a minor role, though Marvel went a different direction. Stan Lee cameoed again, and two Game of Thrones cast members, David Bradley and Natalie Dormer, also appeared in small roles.

As filming started in mid-2010, Joss Whedon leapt in for minor script rewrites to better gel with The Avengers. It seemed Whedon did much of the work to make Phase One a coherent narrative, though undoubtedly with Feige’s involvement. Johnston, for his part, included a nod to the original Human Torch, an android superhero from the ’40s, made all the more ironic by Evans’s prior role. Finally, as production concluded, Marvel announced a title change to Captain America: The First Avenger. A slightly better title?

After filming wrapped, post-production started. As the 2010 era of moviemaking opened, visual effects became more and more prominent. This film reportedly had close to 1600 visual effects shots, requiring thirteen different companies to pitch in. The film used plenty of practical effects too. The team built multiple prop Captain America shields in different materials depending on the needs of a scene, and notably made Red Skull’s mask from latex, giving it a more authentic look than CGI.

This movie was Marvel’s other major promo at the 2010 San Diego ComicCon, with the marketing campaign rolling throughout the end of 2010 and into 2011. Then finally, July 2011 arrived. With Thor already a success, optimism thundered that First Avenger would also knock it out of the ballpark and give Marvel the momentum it needed heading into The Avengers.

That optimism immediately paid off, as Captain America: The First Avenger made $4 million from midnight showings alone. As the opening weekend came to a close, it sat at $65.1 million, a strong number though perhaps surprisingly less than Thor. Still, it kept momentum going and finished its run with $370.6 million worldwide, fairly lower than Thor‘s run, though still plenty strong.

This was all the more surprising given it had generally better reviews than Thor. While some criticized the poor second half that didn’t integrate the sci-fi elements as well as it could have, many felt the period elements of the first half were fantastic. Critics also universally praised Evans’s casting. Ebert commented that this and Iron Man should be Marvel’s blueprint moving forward. Indeed, it sits at an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score and 84 Flickchart score.

As with Thor, the home release brought another Marvel One-Shot, this time providing a funny little interlude of what Phil Coulson was doing between leaving Iron Man 2 and arriving in Thor. It was nothing special and played only for laughs, but it was another small piece of a growing MCU picture.

Yet what surprisingly didn’t build any direct narrative blocks was The First Avenger‘s post-credits scene. Rather than a traditional narrative sting, it instead featured the first teaser trailer for The Avengers. While perhaps disappointing to some, there was little doubt that audiences left the theater hyped for next summer’s release.

After three years and five films of build-up, the MCU’s first event film was coming. It was Marvel’s biggest test yet. They had all the positive hype, vibes, and momentum they could want. People were eager to see if this cinematic universe experiment worked. If it did, it would be a fulfillment of all the creative principles Marvel stood for when it obtained its loan six years earlier. Now there was nothing left to do but wait.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

Chris Evans’s Captain America is already confirmed to return for Doomsday, though with the caveat that it may be a different version than the one we know, depending on the multiversal plot turns. Sebastian Stan will also be back as Bucky, a character that has had quite a journey since this film. As for anyone else, we think it is pretty unlikely, though Hayley Atwell may get a cameo appearance given we last left Captain America with her in Endgame.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

Well, actually, one other superhero movie came out before The Avengers. A Ghost Rider sequel! Everyone was clamoring for this, right?

Despite critical response not being great, Ghost Rider made enough money for Sony to push a sequel forward. It was also their last non-Spider-Man property and with the Marvel craze only picking up in the late 00’s, plus The Dark Knight bolstering desire for all superhero movies, Sony wanted to capitalize on what they had left.

Even with bad critical reception, Avi Arad immediately announced the sequel in February 2007 with most of the cast onboard to return, including Peter Fonda and Nic Cage. Cage discussed a desire for a darker story befitting the character. By late 2008, Columbia Pictures held story meetings planning to put Johnny Blaze in Europe to chase story elements “very much in the zeitgeist, like Da Vinci Code.”

Eventually, Columbia greenlit the film and hired David S. Goyer in late 2009 to pen the script, whose reputation was bolstered by The Dark Knight at this point. Perhaps Sony hoped to use Goyer’s prestige to create a Ghost Rider movie that might prove equally game-changing. But Sony clamped its purse, nearly halving the budget from the first film, hardly a sign of confidence.

They hired directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, known for their high-intensity Crank movies. Perhaps they could provide the needed creative spark to light the property up and set it on fire. They were known for some wild filming techniques including hopping on rollerblades and chasing after their shots.

Cage was confirmed to return, but he was the only one. It seemed with the new creative direction and planned time jump that Sony didn’t even bother asking Eva Mendes or Fonda to come back. Taking a page from other comic book soft-reboot sequels, they chucked out everything aside from the star.

Instead, demon Mephisto was reworked into Roarke and was now played by Ciaran Hinds. Child actor Fergus Riordan joined as another long-time Ghost Rider in the comics, Danny Ketch. Johnny Whitworth was ostensibly cast as Blackout, though a very modified version, continuing a trend of non-MCU films showing a disregard for comics authenticity. Idris Elba signed on to play a completely original character, marking his second comic-book film appearance in two years.

Perhaps as part of shooting the film cheaply, filming finally started over in Romania and Turkey in late 2010. As part of a post-Avatar trend at the time, it was converted in post-production to 3D, as were most of the films in this article. Sony spent the remaining budget on a small marketing campaign that made little splash, seeming to indicate they already lacked confidence.

Unsurprisingly, the February 2012 release came and went without much aplomb. Spirit of Vengeance had an opening weekend of $22.1 million, the worst Marvel debut since Punisher: War Zone. It made more money than that film, with a final box office around $132.6-$149.4 million. Not a total bomb, but still a failure that probably barely broke even. Not so ironically, this movie was the second and last to bear the Marvel Knights branding, sharing it only with War Zone. Given it was host to two bombs, Marvel Knights was quietly retired.

Critical reviews absolutely trashed Spirit of Vengeance, stating it made the first movie look good by comparison. While some did enjoy the insanity brought by Neveldine/Taylor to some of the shots or concepts, they derided Spirit of Vengeance as horribly written with terrible acting. Cage earned a Golden Raspberry nomination for an unhinged performance.

Sony got the message. Despite Cage and the directors possibly wanting to do a third film, the lack of enthusiasm and critical drubbing made it clear this franchise was over. Cage commented in 2013 that he was done with the character, and Sony let the film rights expire the same year. And with that, Marvel Studios would be left with only two major franchises and studios to compete with.

Luckily, to the MCU’s probable relief, this movie’s overall lack of presence didn’t seem to effect anyone’s predictions about The Avengers. It really could be said this film was entirely unnoticed and forgotten by May. If anything, it was a final reminder that the MCU’s approach just seemed better. The difference in joy and enthusiasm in making the movies was clear.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As we said with the first Ghost Rider, we think there is a decent chance Cage reprises his role for Doomsday. Despite both films being failures, Cage is the one big piece of early Marvel history that Feige will likely want to rope back in. Nothing else in this terrible movie will be referenced.

There could be a reference to the only other actor that played Ghost Rider since Cage though, Gabriel Luna. Marvel has yet to make a Ghost Rider movie since getting the rights back, but they did put the fourth version of the Rider, Robbie Reyes, on TV. He was even set to get his spin-off series until Marvel TV was consolidated under Marvel Studios in 2020 and all current Marvel shows were scrapped. It has yet to be seen when any version of the Rider will roll again.

The Avengers (2012)

With that bump in the road out of the way, we arrive to the end of this era. In a way, The Avengers felt like a culmination of all Marvel movie history thus far. From the rough beginnings, to the birth of the superhero blockbuster in the 00’s, it was a long and winding path.

While many individual hero films were successful by this point, no movie attempted to do an entire team of them — and certainly not as a sequel to an interconnected set of films. Certainly, the Universal Monsters, Godzilla, and James Bond films predated Marvel as cinematic narrative franchises by many decades. But their storytelling was far more simplistic and not as focused on establishing true continuity or progressing narrative.

The Avengers was the test case for the entire MCU. If it succeeded, it validated the creation of Marvel Studios. If it failed, it might mean a premature end to the MCU and Marvel sticking to individual franchises from here on.

This movie didn’t start out as the culmination of multiple other movies. The first serious plans for an Avengers film arose in 2003. That iteration went by the wayside after David Maisel’s self-financing proposal took off and Feige saw the potential of self-production to make the interconnected universe happen after his failed attempts to do it as an assistant producer on the early Fox and Sony films.

Marvel Studios officially attached Zak Penn as screenwriter to The Avengers in 2006 and tasked him with keeping an eye on all of the movies being made in order to create a universe bible. Feige later noted the risk of this production style, because it required investing in a sequel to movies that might not succeed. The ’07-08 Writer’s Strike put a serious damper on all of this because of the need to develop so many films at once, so Marvel worked out special deals with the WGA outside of the major studios.

By its crossover nature, casting for The Avengers essentially began when Iron Man started casting. Most of the major heroes from the individual franchises signed on to this film as part of signing for the other projects, though they excised Don Cheadle to avoid overstuffing the narrative. After Iron Man succeeded, Jon Favreau joined as an executive producer, though he felt no desire to direct. He did comment on the difficulty of melding a tech-based hero like Iron Man with a supernatural one like Thor on the big screen; this required a thoughtful approach to aesthetic. Feige commented in 2010 that he didn’t see the issue, because the MCU treated magic like advanced technology rather than something supernatural.

As 2009-2010 passed and the first MCU films released, Penn started work on his first script. He initially kept Thor to a small role until seeing the strength of Hemsworth’s performance. Marvel also discussed bringing back Red Skull as the main villain, though Loki was always the primary choice.

In early 2010, Marvel’s biggest remaining consideration was filling the director’s chair. Conversations eventually solidified on Joss Whedon, whom Feige worked with all the way back on X-Men. Whedon had been considered to direct several earlier Marvel movies, but as he was officially announced in July 2010 at San Diego ComicCon, his time to shine finally came. Feige described Whedon as perfect and “gung-ho” to bring the team to life.

With Whedon came Whedon’s personality. He immediately wanted to toss Penn’s script and start over. Feige agreed and gave Whedon free rein to write what he wanted, only stipulating that Loki be the main villain, the Avengers have a mid-film clash, and that there be an epic final battle. Whedon later commented he went through many “insane [script] iterations” including one where The Wasp became a primary character. The Wasp’s partner Ant-Man was the other main Avenger with substantial film development at this point, though that troubled production story is for another time. Point being: Ant-Man and the Wasp were sidelined for now.

Eventually, Whedon finalized his script, figuring out how to make the Avengers dynamic of very disparate characters uniting function by reference to The Dirty Dozen, His Girl Friday, and Dr. Strangelove. He then fought Penn to take sole credit for the script, though Penn managed to retain shared credit, noting he wished Whedon was more collaborative.

After Whedon concluded writing, he and Feige visited the films currently in production and made small changes to their scripts to line everything up for the coming event picture. They soon made other major decisions, including passing on Ed Norton whom they felt lacked the collaborative spirit needed for an ensemble film. Norton later claimed he quit.

With Norton gone, Whedon made the second major recasting and hired Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Ruffalo was Norton’s friend and commented that he regretted how the process played out, but that he was excited. Ruffalo also became the first actor to play Hulk via motion capture. In another change, Hulk’s voice was now a combination of Ruffalo and longtime Hulk voice actor Lou Ferrigno.

Whedon also brought on longtime collaborator Alexis Denisof (Pryce on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to play The Other, and Cobie Smulders, whom he seriously considered for his unmade Wonder Woman movie. Stan Lee, of course, provided his standard cameo (and one of his funniest), and Harry Dean Stanton got his own semi-cameo. Downey, meanwhile, pushed for the inclusion of Gwyneth Paltrow, which expanded Whedon’s mindset on bringing some other support characters from each character’s individual films.

Finally, with a script set, casting complete, and pre-production wrapping up, filming began. It was a truly national shoot, occurring throughout most of 2011 all across the country. While the famous ending scene, the Battle of New York, shot in NYC, Cleveland served as a stand-in for some scenes. This was a truly massive production with extensive sets built, and over 2200 visual effects shots provided by 14 different companies including industry titans like ILM and Weta. Whedon worked with ILM to create the best-looking Hulk yet, aiming for a desaturated naturalistic look that became a guidepost for MCU CGI characters moving forward.

Another fun production detail comes from the team who rendered NYC’s skyline. Realizing the MCU’s potential, Sony reached an agreement with Disney to include Oscorp in the New York skyline as Sony was nearing completion and release of its Spider-Man reboot. This little nod might set potential for the MCU to encompass non-Disney works. This fell through mostly because the effects team was already done by the time the deal was forged. Another example of a cinematic universe what-if.

The team labored to create iconic visuals, including the now famed circular pan team-up shot. The creatives wanted a motivating reason for each shot. There was no phoning-in The Avengers. Whedon and Feige positively described the dynamic of working together, with Feige maintaining a certain “house” style and ensuring the film felt like a comic book, but giving Whedon relative creative freedom to design action sequences how he wanted.

Impressed with his work on The First Avenger, Marvel tagged Alan Silvestri to compose the score and he created the now iconic Avengers theme. Silvestri commented on the challenge of balancing the overall score across multiple characters with subthemes. As previously described, Disney leapt into handling distribution and, by late 2011, was the studio announcing news for the film, including that The Avengers would also do post-production conversion to 3D.

Marketing was highly ambitious. In addition to five feature films of build-up, Marvel rolled out footage for the movie over multiple years of convention panels, teaser trailers, and cast announcements. With this film, Disney cemented its control over Marvel by dismissing most of Marvel’s marketing department in August 2011. Disney also planned for the future and forged deals for Iron Man 3‘s distribution during the lead-up to The Avengers. Ruthless perhaps, but when Disney saw an opportunity, it struck. Plainly, Disney believed in Marvel.

Then, at long last, May 2012 arrived. A positive world premiere in April left people buzzing, pushing anticipation to peak levels. After six years of development, it was time to see if Marvel’s big gamble paid off.

To call it successful would be an understatement. After Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man opened and blew the doors open for superhero box-office success, The Avengers brought the house down. It set the record for the highest opening weekend of all time at $207.4 million, and records kept falling from there. Audiences loved the movie, generating a sustained box office run and allowing it to cross over $1 billion in just nineteen days. The Avengers finished its run with $1.519 billion, leaving it as the highest-grossing 2012 release, highest-grossing superhero film, Disney’s highest-grossing work, and third highest-grossing movie ever made, beat only by a pair of James Cameron movies.

Just as importantly, critics raved over it as well. Many felt it was the epitome of blockbuster filmmaking, perfectly combining spectacle with an exhilarating team dynamic and finding true humanity in the strange, diverse cast of characters. Mark Ruffalo’s performance was singled out for praise in bringing Bruce Banner to life in a new way. There were a few detractors that found it formulaic in respects, and some criticized Whedon’s visual style as too-TV like for the big screen.

But deriders were few and far between. The movie was massively entertaining and connected people with superheroes in a fundamentally different way. The Avengers became a cultural force upon release and elevated all of the characters in the film to a new status of fame and recognition. Spider-Man and the X-Men were no longer the only recognizable Marvel characters. A generation of children would grow up wearing Avengers clothing, taking their lunchboxes to school, playing their video games, and having Halloween costumes and toys with their logos.

The Avengers started another MCU trend of two post-credits sequences, with one being more of a joke. Inspired by the aftermath of an exhausting day of filming for the TV show Angel, Whedon shot a scene of the Avengers team eating shawarma after the Battle of New York. It was actually shot after the film’s official premiere. Such was the power of the film that shawarma sales skyrocketed across the country afterwards.

Regardless, Feige and company breathed a sigh of relief. They put it all on red, tripled their bet, and won. One of the greatest creative gambles of all-time paid off. The Marvel Cinematic Universe worked.

There was one last Marvel One Shot in Phase One, included on the movie’s home release. Titled Item 47, it was the most in-depth One Shot yet. Featuring a couple who finds leftover alien tech from the Battle of New York to commit bank robberies, this short film further expanded on the aftermath of the film’s events and helped set up the forthcoming TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. More on that in the next article.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

To say the Avengers are going to appear in Avengers: Doomsday feels redundant. Most of this cast seems likely to return, with the exception of a few perished characters. We even think Thanos might manage to steal a cameo appearance despite his death. Speaking of which…

To say things changed after The Avengers released feels strange to comment on fourteen years later. The MCU and superhero cinema have gone through many more changes since. But none of it would have happened without The Avengers working. Were this a hypothetical box office bomb, or critically average, it’s likely the MCU wouldn’t have moved forward in the same way.

But Feige and company planned on success. They took the time in this first era to do things right. Certainly, there were bumps in the road and creative struggles, but now Marvel Studios had shown up all of the other studios.

That is, with the exception of The Dark Knight. Though the box-office crown was decisively stolen from DC, a common critique was that The Avengers failed to match the maturity and majesty of Nolan’s masterpiece. Many would argue The Avengers is a better comic-book movie, but already there was an undercurrent of feeling that Marvel took too flippant and light a tone.

Indeed, since Whedon’s writing had paid off so well, there was arguably a change in writing approach for many MCU films moving forward, and accusations of a “sameness” became pervasive. Quippy dialogue, undercutting emotional moments with humor, and abundant pop culture references was a winning formula, but as the next era came, fighting the criticisms of that trend became a priority for Feige. A new running discussion emerged about whether the MCU could allow filmmakers to leave an individual mark, or whether the auteur for the MCU was Feige himself.

Debates over comic authenticity did seem to die down around this time. While the MCU was forging its own path, melding together 616 and Ultimate continuities, the MCU’s creatives clearly cared. This largely satisfied fans, especially when contrasted against non-MCU Marvel movies. The shadow of The Dark Knight still loomed as well when it came to tone and aesthetic.

Thus, the MCU turned to the one clear trump card it had over The Dark Knight: the interconnected narrative. With Phase One complete and the team formed, where did that leave the future? The first of The Avengers‘s two post-credit scenes answered that, kind of.

As credits concluded, the film revealed who was in charge of Loki and the Other. None other than comics titan Thanos. The purple semi space-god was the center of multiple iconic Marvel crossover storylines, most notably the Infinity Saga, which featured Thanos gathering Infinity Gems to attain ultimate power and wipe out half of all life in the universe. Was Marvel really teasing this as the endgame for the MCU?

Fans buzzed with speculation and excitement for the MCU’s future, despite Marvel not yet setting an actual path. It was Whedon who conceived including Thanos as the man behind the curtain. Feige and company had no definite idea for the future, so Whedon suggested it as a long-shot and was excited when Marvel executives agreed. But with Thanos on the board, just how would the MCU plan to use him? Would he be the main villain of the assumed Avengers sequel? Or something more?

With the MCU now the clear box-office king, anything was possible.

Ranking Era Four

The fourth era is potentially the best era yet. To be fair, the second era does have some of the best Marvel films to date. But the arrival of the MCU raised the average quality substantially, making for an overall strong era.

#10: Punisher: War Zone (Flickscore 62)

War Zone is the worst of that era though. Despite attempting something neat with the visual style, and Stevenson’s performance being admittedly decent, War Zone‘s script is an absolute mess. The story beats are all over and West is wasted on a bizarre take on Jigsaw.

Lexi Alexander also struggled to deliver a consistent tone, vacillating between extreme violence and silliness. While contrasting gore and comedy can be done successfully, Alexander was lost on how to do it. Though perhaps she shouldn’t be blamed given the studio interference. Either way, War Zone is a loser.

#9: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Flickscore 14)

Some might say Spirit of Vengeance is a worse movie than War Zone. Indeed, the script probably is, with poor characterization, weak motives for most story beats, and mostly meandering about until it reaches a trope-laden conclusion. The attempted redemption arc for Ghost Rider is completely rushed.

Yet there are qualities that set it above War Zone in entertainment. Cage brings a performance so strange and unhinged that it’s almost worth watching for that alone. As usual, Cage is terrible and yet defies conventional ideas of what makes bad or good acting. Neveldine/Taylor fit right alongside him in that regard, letting loose with some bizarre visuals and choices, attempting to thread in Crank-style unchained action. There are flickers of something interesting here.

Plus, we think this does have the best special effects for Ghost Rider’s look in any media so far. The burnt skull and jacket match the character’s aesthetic perfectly and the skull face is animated in a cleaner manner.

#8: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Flickscore 64)

Origins: Wolverine is not without redeemable qualities. Jackman provides a solid performance, as does Liev Schreiber. Their brotherly relationship in the movie is a highlight The early team dynamics of Weapon X are also fun with Reynolds showcasing hints of the potential of the Deadpool performance.

But these qualities do not make up for everything the film does wrong. The rushed sloppy script provides an unsatisfying story. The movie never sells the romantic relationship Wolverine has as his moral center. And the second act turns into cameoing multiple mutant characters in a rush, with no respect for their source material.

Speaking of no respect for source material, Deadpool is truly as awful as reputation suggests. Sewing the mouth shut of the Merc with a Mouth feels a direct insult to the fans and is completely unsatisfying as a final battle for the movie. The multitude of cheap special effects including Wolverine’s claws looking like a cartoon, and the de-aged Patrick Stewart, are horrendous.

That opening montage of Logan and Sabretooth fighting in multiple wars still slaps though.

#7: Iron Man 2 (Flickscore 74)

Iron Man 2 shares a problem with Origins, rendering it the worst of Phase One MCU. That is, a second act that sidelines the action to set things up for other movies. Iron Man 2 is even worse in that regard. The primary villains, Whiplash and Justin Hummer, literally are confined to a room so Tony Stark can be free to talk to Nick Fury, introduce Black Widow, resolve his poisoning subplot, and help bring about Rhodey obtaining armor and becoming War Machine. Plus, they plug Agent Coulson heading to New Mexico to deal with Thor.

This bad writing really weighs an otherwise solid film down. Despite Rourke’s quirky take, Whiplash is a fairly intimidating villain in his first battle with Iron Man at Monaco. Sadly, the final act reduces him to another robot armor but there was early promise. Rockwell is massively entertaining as Hammer, and Cheadle accommodates to the role of Rhodey well (though this reviewer is in a minority of liking Howard better).

Downey is even more settled in the role, and the bones of the alcoholism subplot hint at where Downey might have taken things. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t let these stronger aspects breathe or integrate them better with the Whiplash plot or MCU set-up. Unfortunately, Iron Man 2 is the worst entry of its trilogy.

#6: The Incredible Hulk (Flickscore 71)

Missed opportunities also defines the disappointment with this movie. The Incredible Hulk is fairly entertaining in many respects. Ed Norton is really solid as Bruce Banner, and supporting cast members like Tim Blake Nelson and Roth bring a quirkiness somewhat lost as the MCU progressed. William Hurt also impresses as General Ross.

While not yet reaching the level of effects in The Avengers, this Hulk is still an improvement on the 2003 version. Letterier wisely hides him in the shadows early in the movie to build hype and unveils him like a horror monsters, which the Hulk is in a way. Liv Tyler and Norton sell their pining relationship well too.

But the story is just too bland overall. Banner mostly runs around from act to act with little aplomb or motivation. The movie builds up to a Hulk vs Abomination fight that lacks imagination and becomes two muscular CGI monsters swinging into each other in a boring manner, though we do get the thunder clap. The Incredible Hulk is hardly the worst movie, especially in view of the worst Marvel projects. It’s just bland.

#5: Thor (Flickscore 78)

Thor is a very solid movie. While Marvel somewhat struggled to figure Thor out for his first view outings, Hemsworth’s casting shined immediately, as did Hiddleston’s Loki. Branagh’s Shakespeare sensibilities honed in on highlighting the tragedy of the jealous brotherly relationship and Asgard takes on a stately nature. Especially with Anthony Hopkins’s natural grandiose nature.

While some of the fish out of water humor works with Thor on Earth, it is the Earth aspects where the story feels indeed earthbound. The arc of Thor being humbled by his morality and learning to respect human life is quite rushed, with his change of heart quite literally occurring over a single night. Portman and Skarsgard bring enough of a wry yet emotive sensibility to stand as solid supporting characters, but it doesn’t quite make up for this script deficiency.

Thor’s theme soars though and the film’s overall look works, despite Branagh’s strange obsession with Dutch angles. This feels the closest to original era Thor comics out of any MCU work, for better and worse.

#4: Captain America: The First Avenger (Flickscore 84)

The First Avenger is truly a tale of two halves. Not that the second half is entirely bad, but a clear step down from the first part. The movie’s opening half is an excellent WW2 period movie, setting up Steve Rogers as the ideal everyman, determined to make a difference despite the odds against him. Evans nails the role out of the gate, aided by well-penned scenes between he and Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erksine.

The romantic dynamic between Steve and Atwell’s Peggy Carter is also well-written and acted, serving as a core for Captain America’s character throughout the MCU to come. The film’s final scene really sells the melancholy of Rogers’s loss too and is one of the best endings in an MCU movie. On the campier yet stills strong side, Tommy Lee Jones nails his general role as does Weaving as Red Skull. Seeing Captain America use his shield for the first time is pure Marvel magic.

All of that said, the second half struggles with scripting issues. It montages most of Captain America’s missions because the movie ran out of story. The laser weapons also don’t quite integrate with the tone set, though are crucial for bringing the more comic-book element and setting up The Avengers. The film just struggles to keep momentum and tension after Captain America’s first rescue. It feels as though Marvel intentionally left things open for a future flashback movie, though that never came.

There is enough here to clearly stand about Thor and Iron Man 2. Yet it doesn’t quite match the best Phase One films. Though the Captain America theme is another highlight, one of the best themes in the MCU outside The Avengers‘s theme.

#3: X-Men: First Class (Flickscore 85)

While this era is mostly defined by the successful Phase One films, Vaughn managed to bring one of the best X-Men movies. His 60’s aesthetic is quite a blast and there is a spritely snarky energy throughout the entire film. It feels like an X-Men work with a real voice again, after the franchise fell into a rut post-X2.

The new cast nail their roles, especially McAvoy and Fassbender, who arguably improve the Xavier/Magneto dynamic beyond Stewart and McKellan. Bacon is appropriately hammy and Lawrence is strong here when she’s really trying as Mystique. The only dud role is Jones’s Emma, who has some flat line delivery and seems a bit lost in her character.

The movie does become overly cheesy at moments and the plot stops in the second act for a training sequence, though the training scenes themselves are sufficiently entertaining. The other minor X-Men introduced feel a tad shallow as characters, despite the strong cast. Yet even with these flaws, First Class still does so much right. It is just plain fun.

#2: Iron Man (Flickscore 91)

The MCU’s debut flick bore so much weight, and luckily, Favreau rose to the challenge. Iron Man holds up nearly twenty years later and remains one of the best MCU and superhero movies overall. Downey’s magnetism as Tony Stark pops from his first scene, paired with a pitch perfect AC/DC soundtrack.

The story really sells Tony’s change from selfish playboy to someone realizing he has greater responsibilities and care for the world. While none of the supporting characters are ground-breaking, Paltrow, Favreau, Howard, and Bridges are more than up to the task. Bridges seems to have plenty of fun chewing scenery.

Above all, Iron Man sells the tactile nature of its world. Watching Tony develop his armor and use it for the first time is fascinating, and the effects team makes it feel realistic. This movie still bears the best-looking version of the Iron Man suit. While the third act is a bit weak, descending into a bland hero mirror fight (if trying to be clever with the icing issue), Iron Man does so well beforehand that it is easy to forgive.

#1: The Avengers (Flickscore 93)

The Avengers remains a blast to watch. A movie like this had so many different ways it could have wrong, but Whedon’s strong script and deft direction keep matters in hand and deliver top-tier entertainment. For a film having to balance six main characters, it keeps a surprisingly even allocation of time even if the powers and performances of Stark and Rogers steal the show more often than not. Ruffalo effortlessly transitions into the role of Bruce Banner, providing his best performance in the MCU to date here.

There may be a slightly cheap look to some of it as Whedon’s TV origins seem to get in the way in certain set design and framing choices. Yet the movie is so replete with cinematic moments that it is easy to ignore. Rogers and Stark trading barbs, “I’m always angry,” Mjolnir slamming Cap’s shield, Hulk sucker-punching Thor, “Puny god,” “We have a Hulk,” and the list goes on and on. While the criticism that the MCU aped this formula a bit too much at times moving forward is probably fair, Whedon’s MCU debut remains the best instance of this style and showed how well Whedon understood adapting comics.

Above all, the movie communicates the idea of heroic sacrifice and the arc of the team learning to set aside their differences to save a city. And Hiddleston’s Loki rises to the occasion of being the main villain for an event movie, bringing a nuance that naturally developed fans. Of course, Whedon’s eye for visuals helped create the now-iconic team-up shot that has been referenced many times since.

It may not be a perfect movie in every respect but it was perfect for what Marvel and superhero cinema needed at that time. It was the anthesis of The Dark Knight, and the example of what excellence on the flip side of the superhero coin should be.

Marvel Chart

1. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
2. The Avengers (2012)
3. Iron Man (2008)
4. X2: X-Men United (2003)
5. X-Men: First Class (2011)
6. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
7. Spider-Man (2002)
8. X-Men (2000)
9. Thor (2011)
10. Blade (1998)
11. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
12. Iron Man 2 (2010)
13. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
14. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
15. The Punisher (2004)
16. Hulk (2003)
17. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
18. Blade II (2002)
19. Daredevil (2003)
20. Blade: Trinity (2004)
21. Fantastic Four (1994)
22. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
23. Fantastic Four (2005)
24. The Punisher (1989)
25. Ghost Rider (2007)
26. Howard the Duck (1986)
27. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
28. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
29. Captain America (1990)
30. Elektra (2005)

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is unfortunately the complete opposite of Miranda Priestly. Lacking bite or edge, it plays it safe with mushy kindness between the characters and leans heavily into nostalgia rather than telling a story of real substance. Unlike a cerulean sweater, The Devil Wars Prada 2 does not feel the product of years of investment and decision-making.

The original, The Devil Wears Prada, was no masterpiece. It played in the same space that many early-00’s chick flicks did with characters engaged in lofty dream jobs oblivious to economic realities. They were a good bit of fantasy, and this one was no different.

That said, The Devil Wears Prada did manage to be a cut above with talented performances and a somewhat uncompromising look at the fashion industry. For every praise about the art of fashion, there were many scenes putting the shallowness and cut-throat nature on full display. Priestly was an antagonist elevated by the nuance of Meryl Streep‘s fantastic performance.

But The Devil Wears Prada 2 enters 2026 in a different world than 2006. It’s as though the screenwriter decided the escapism and bite of the original was not what modern audiences wanted, and rather embarrassingly devotes many a line of dialogue to making Anne Hathway‘s Andy into a spout of the assumed collective frustration towards capitalism, fashion’s excesses, and any other “virtuous values.” Everything from gentrification of old apartment buildings, to corporate downsizing, and the shrinking field of journalism are all throw into the film’s sauce. Andy even makes sure to apologize for complaining about losing her job when so many others have it harder, a line that felt meant to be spoon-fed right to the audience.

Were a more talented chef stirring the pot, perhaps The Devil Wears Prada 2 could have taken these various elements and melded them into a satisfying medley of flavor with both surface flair and deeper appeal. The ideas were all there to make this movie a real commentary on where fashion stands in 2026 and how professionals had to navigate a different economic market than twenty years ago. But instead, they allowed that drug nostalgia to spill into the stew and utterly ravage it.

One of the bigger crimes comes in the characterization of Miranda overall. The first film ended with Miranda making a vicious move to assert the thesis that no matter what Andy did to earn Miranda’s respect, the industry and its head honchos were inherently never going to do so and would betray whoever they needed to get ahead. Thus, Andy exists working for Runaway with her morality intact, if her doe-eyed innocence reduced.

Indeed, it seems director David Frankel decides to make the primary purpose of the editing beats to leap from one nostalgic moment to another without regard to any other narrative flow or telling a cogent storyline. The editing is so all over the place that it feels like three different versions of a movie mashed together. It treats every instance of Andy and Stanley Tucci‘s Nigel interacting with a doe-eyed fondness, hoping to reinvoke the spritely friendship from the first film. And while there is some amusement in seeing Miranda to attempt to navigate a business meeting in 2026 where the workplace tolerates far less verbal thrashing than Miranda dealt out in 2006, these moments too are more played as callbacks than new moments in their own right.

While the ending of this film attempts to have some dialogue vaguely enforce the same principle, it’s a complete kid-gloves version of the scene. Instead, Miranda is lacking the same forceful vigor here and too much of the movie is having Andy and Miranda make nice with each other. By the end, it hardly feels like the same character anymore, though Streep continues to do well. The ending also feels like a betrayal of Andy’s character and not at all what her character would dream of doing.

Emily Blunt‘s Emily, meanwhile, feels added to the film as an afterthought. She’s thrown in haphazardly in the first two acts in ways that feel the product of multiple rewrites with little narrative cogency. This is compounded in a very sloppy final act that attempts to take the idea of Miranda’s corporate espionage from the first movie and put it on overdrive. As part of the theme of everything needing to end with happiness and harmony, Emily’s rather massive betrayal of Miranda and Andy is brushed over.

The movie has its merits, to be fair. There are some funny moments and amusing performances from Justin Theroux and Blunt acting as a dating couple. B.J. Novak always seems at home playing cartoonish corporate executive jerks. The ideas it hints at seem intriguing.

One just wishes something more than 00’s nostalgia was driving this recent wave of movies. Between this and Freakier Friday, it seems only a matter of time until things like 13 Going on 30, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Failure to Launch get sequels. Hopefully, they can make films that don’t feel like they were edited to be split into Tik Tok reels.

Hopefully, they can have something to say.

Tell us your thoughts on The Devil Wears Prada 2 below and rank it on the new Flickchart now!!!

“Is this all there is? Is there nothing more?”

The self-aware robotic probe V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture has evolved to the point where it is can ask what may be the quintessential human question. The question is rhetorical, addressed to no one, but even so, it may be the fundamental question of art.

So it makes sense that filmmakers would put the question in the mouths of their heroes. Art is, after all, (according to Ionesco) the process of an artist trying to show us what it is like to be them. And all artists, by definition, ask this question.

The question is so powerful that it can spark the beginning of a hero’s journey. In this article, we examine films which in some way explicitly ask the question “Is there nothing more?”. It is not the framing of the question per se we’re interested in; what is interesting are the answers we get.

The question is, technically, a yes or no question. So we can sort such films into two basic classes: those that answer “Yes, there is more to life than what you see”, and those that answer “No, actually, this is it”.

Neither answer is wholly correct, of course, and neither is wholly positive or negative. It is the aim of each film to make some sort of case for whether the hero finds their destiny “out there”, or whether their ultimate path leads much closer to home.

I would like to book a flight to Fiji

“Biggs is right. I’m never gonna get out of here.”

Thus speaks Luke Skywalker in act one of Star Wars. He has just learned that his best friend intends to join the Rebel Alliance, an almost unimaginable leap beyond the horizon of adventure for a young, orphaned farm worker. Every day Luke thrusts against his traces, firm in the belief that there is more to the galaxy than his uncle’s moisture farm.

So too with Rabbit from 8 Mile, Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber, the young Flynn in TRON: Legacy, and poor, poor Truman Burbank.

Remy in Ratatouille, Ariel in her underwater cave with trophies of the promised world beyond, Belle bashing the ordinary world of the hard-working villagers right to their faces. In fact, most modern Disney films start off like this, with our hero proclaiming how small their world seems to be, and how much bigger it ought to be.

This whole article is about characters which incite us in the first act towards a sense of cosmic antsyness, the feeling that the confines of their world are too small for their sense of their own potential. We touched on this obliquely a few years ago in our article about characters who find their own adventure – what distinguishes our discussion today is how the film itself chooses to address these plot-inciting frustrations. Does it sympathize and validate? Or does it ultimately deny the character a world any larger than their present one?

For the characters just mentioned (Luke, Rabbit, Remy, etc), the story of the film winds up supporting their claim. It justifies these feelings by unlocking the characters’ cages and showing them that, yes, you’re right, there is so much more to the world than you know, and your destiny is to live “out there” not “in here”.

The personification of this trope is surely Truman Burbank, the orphan who at birth was unknowingly co-opted into a grand project of corporate-media gaslighting, a sentient soul destroyed through archonic manipulation of his free will, all for the purpose of ratings.

Truman’s fable does not, crucially, end in a Men In Black-style reaffirmation of cosmic limits, but rather in their destruction. Truman’s lifelong sense of wanderlust and unbelief in the apparent limits of his world is triumphantly, catastrophically ratified by having him literally find a door in the sky.

The “Truman” class of films takes an “affirmative” stance on the main character’s existential unease. The filmmaker agrees with the hero and, by implication, wants us to as well: The narrow circumstances of one’s current context and cultural situation are not “real” permanent limits but are, at worst, temporary and permeable. At best, they are illusory.

And furthermore, it is laudable (say these filmmakers) for each of us, the main characters in our own films, to question these limits constantly, and to search unceasingly for that door in the sky.

I’ll Never Look Farther Than My Own Backyard

On the flipside from Luke Skywalker, we have another orphan with kind but unimaginative guardians, trying to find joy in a dust bowl. Dorothy Gale is beset with a multitude of persistent, banal problems, but none as persistent as the nagging sensation that there is some other place which embodies her image of how good and beautiful the world could be.

From the same era we must also consider George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life – a lifelong dreamer and inner-adventurer for whom circumstances seem to keep him stapled to his sleepy little American town. And there is also Josh Baskin from Big, a child chafing against the gates of an adult’s world.

And perhaps most painfully, Jack Skellington, who having reached the top of Halloweentown’s cultural hierarchy, realizes there are no more pumpkins left to conquer, and he plummets to the deepest, darkest depths of despair ever captured in a children’s film.

Heroes in this class of films start off the same as Luke and Ariel and Belle: they are convinced that their misery is due to the limitations of their current world, or at the very least its failure to be some other greater world that they can imagine. They are given the opportunity to actually genchi genbutsu, to stop imagining and “go and see”, to actually go try and find the adventure that they’re so sure is waiting for them.

But something different happens for them by the third act.

In the “Dorothy” class of films, the denouement is characterized by the hero realizing that their misery was not the result of their world by itself but rather their perception of it. Sometimes the heroes actually regret the journey they felt compelled to make, the time and effort spent representing a kind of rock bottom to their essential spiritual error.

For Jack Skellington, his attempt to break new creative ground by co-opting Christmas was an unmitigated disaster. Within the course of three acts he has gone from crying “empty tears” because of the “empty place in my bones that calls out for something unknown”, to realizing that he now feels like his “old bony self again”.

Jack reclaims his crown as Pumpkin King and returns to where he started in Act 1, now educated and invigorated by his full-circle journey. On the outside nothing has changed, certainly not the world that caused his breakdown. But on the inside Jack has returned to Halloweentown a different person….somehow.

Josh Baskin’s main conclusion from being forced into adulthood is that the grass is not greener – adulting is way harder and way more full of bullshit than being a kid. (Oh and also his mom is still at home grieving the fact that her son has been “kidnapped” for several months and maybe yeah feel a little bad about that.)

George Bailey keeps his dreams of travelling the world alive his whole life. Just like Truman Burbank, his dreams of Fiji and other exotic locales are symbolic of a life filled with the adventure, pleasure, and sublimity that are painfully absent from his current life as a half-deaf townie banker.

It is only through the efforts of an agent of the Christian god that George Baily becomes convinced that all that he thought he was lacking in his life can in fact be found in the gripping adventure of husbandhood, fatherhood, and municipal fiduciary activism. It is his current life that is wonderful, not some other imaginary life out there waiting for him.

And as for Dorothy Gale, her brush with traumatic brain injury taught her that a wonderous world of fantasy and adventure can in fact be quite terrifying. She had never realized how much her peace of mind depended on living in a world she understands.

Dorothy discovers that a world in which the “dreams you dare to dream really do come true”, is a world which is alien to anything resembling real life. It is devoid of the simple, comfortable pleasures of family and familiarity. Such a world, it turns out, is not the world that Dorothy prefers to live in.

The dichotomy between these two types of stories have existed since the birth of storytelling. Both of them fit cleanly into Campbell’s Hero’s Journey framework (each interprets the “Return” stage differently but all the phases are there).

In both cases the hero spends the first act in some sort of torment about their present situation. By the last act they have arrived at a new level of alignment and peace with their situation and thus is “victory” defined for them.

For Truman (and his brethren), the first-act torment is what sews the seeds of their eventual liberation.

But what about for Dorothy, and Josh Baskin, and George Bailey, et al, who all wind up, at least physically, back where they started? What purpose did all that fretting serve? Was it “just” character development?

This is a question we must ask of own lives. Is the value of thinking about some aspect of the world you want to change, measured solely by whether it leads you closer to the world that you desire? When we sit around and dream about things that never come true, and worry about things that we cannot change, are we just wasting time?

What these movies teach us is that the answer is almost certainly no. The hero must start from a place of dissatisfaction, because it is their journey from there, in the first act, to the realization of the third act that allows them to undergo their requisite change. This is simply not possible without them exhibiting some form of frustration or conflict or sense of incompleteness at the start of their story.

And so it is with us: Frequently those chapters of life so characterized by growth and change started with us feeling dissatisfied, some grit in the oyster shell, the sense that something wasn’t right about how we fit into the world.

Maybe we complained to those around us; maybe we started to push back against walls that seemed to others to be immovable. The net result may or may not have been some outwardly visible change our world, but our story did nevertheless move forward.

There is one other point to be made about “Dorothy”-class films, and it’s a hypothesis that is actually made by The Truman Show:

TV: And there’ll be another episode of I Love Lucy same time tomorrow, but right now, it’s time for Film Classics. Tonight we present the endearing, much-loved classic, Show Me the Way to Go Home. A hymn of praise to small town life where we learn that you don’t have to leave home to discover what the world’s all about. And that no one’s poor who has friends. Full of laughter and love, pain and sadness, but ultimately redemption.

In the film, the director of the involuntary-reality-show The Truman Show is engaged in a long-term psy-op against its star. Using the educational system, the media, and carefully choreographed traumas, Christof spends his day psychologically undermining Truman’s urge to explore beyond the bounds of his prison. This is the price of maintaining a televisable status quo.

Even stripped of its gnostic-conspiracy-theory vibes, we must still consider the implication that the screenwriter is making here: Are “Dorothy”-class films (of which the fictional Show Me the Way to Go Home is clearly a stand-in) “bad” in some way? Do stories that punish (or at least argue against) those who choose to peek through their bars serve as a braking force against the human soul?

Is it “spiritually harmful” to consider there may be no place like home? Is it “regressive” to applaud George Bailey’s acceptance of the missionary-position American Dream rather than to insist on embracing his lifelong dreams of a transformative, adventurous life?

What is a child to think when they see that the end result of Jack Skellington’s brave new creative experiment is him crying in a graveyard, and then returning to the safety of his original lane?

A conspiracy-minded, 80s-punk-adjacent viewer would see the sinister hand of conformity propaganda in these films. Seen through that narrow lens, they are “obviously” a concerted effort to subliminally inculcate and reinforce obedience to a Western middle-class cultural norm.

But (as always) the truth is much more subtle and much more kind. Let us reframe the actual difference here in a more judgement-neutral form:

“Truman”-class films nourish the side of ourselves which can see the unseen potential of the world. “Dorothy”-class films help us see the world and live in it.

Neither is correct; both are essential. This hidden dialectic lies beneath some of the most important films ever made. Realizing its existence allows the viewer to pull these films off the screen and into our lives.

Because we live this dialectic every day. Life seems designed to be full of obstacles, but one cannot live in a state of perpetual revolution, constantly at war and never at peace. Nor can one abdicate the responsibility to exert one’s will upon the world. In each moment we must make a choice.

Fortunately, we have been training for this. All these films are “game tape”, thousands of simulations of this choice, both realistically and in metaphor. We can use the examples of these heroes to find our own path, sometimes like Dorothy, sometimes like Truman, sometimes in some third way which strikes a balance between acceptance and escape.

The horror-comedy seems to be in vogue in 2026. Over Your Dead Body is at least the third release in the subgenre in the last two months. Perhaps studios are seeing an appetite for facing darkness with laughter. Or that’s what these creatives need to do in times such as these.

This film comes courtesy of The Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone, his first movie since co-directing Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. This trio has had quite a career since SNL launched them into the spotlight, writing and directing some of the better comedies of the last ten years, if also some duds.

Over Your Dead Body lands right between gem and dud. Starring Jason Segel and newly-minted scream queen Samara Weaving as a married couple on the outs, who travel to a cabin for a weekend getaway while each has a secret plan to murder the other. If you’re thinking this type of darker comedy premise doesn’t seem in line with typical American comedies, you’d be right. This is a remake of the Norwegian film The Trip, and certainly comes across as an Americanized version of a quirky European comedy.

Because Taccone directs, the movie has plenty of merit. The gory and more morose aspects of the humor play better than they would have had a more typical studio director been at the helm. The film’s careening sensibilities and madcap energy often serve it well. Segel and Weaving strike the right tone in their performances, as do Timothy Olyphant and Juliette Lewis. And Paul Guilfoyle provides one of the best cameo-like roles in a movie like this in awhile.

But American films like this often struggle to dedicate screentime to this type of tonality while also writing consistent characters and a satisfying narrative. It often feels like the script more wants to pay lip service to the central emotional arc of the couple learning to resolve their differences than actually spending time with it. Perhaps it is due to a lack of trust in their audience or simply a laziness. To be fair, creating solid, well-crafted character arcs is easier said than done. Yet so many great movies demonstrate that comedy and good characterization do not have to work independently of each other.

Over Your Dead Body manages to be an enjoyable experience overall. There are several instances of clever comedic set-ups and pay-offs indicative of the filmmakers doing more than phoning it in. Which is perhaps why it’s a shame that this doesn’t quite fully live up to its potential. With a little more in editing, this could have been a new cult comedy classic.

Tell us your thoughts on Over Your Dead Body and rank it on the new Flickchart now!!

Flickchart’s Countdown to Doomsday returns! We’re reviewing every era of Marvel cinema each as we head towards Avengers: Doomsday and the biggest multiverse mashup of Marvel movies. We track the history, the heroes, the thrills, and more, and see who might make the cut to join against Doctor Doom! The latest Doctor Doom, anyway.

We left off Marvel’s story in a great place. After decades of faltering efforts, the late ’90s and early ’00s brought Marvel to the big time. Marvel Studios was founded and money was raining in as they tapped the potential of their best properties, with successful Spider-Man and X-Men franchises leading the way. Even their sole failure made some cash. Looking to the future, key figures like David Maisel and Kevin Feige saw the potential to go further than simply licensing characters to self-contained franchises. They wanted to get bigger and bolder.

Yet, while the seeds were being planted for Marvel Studios to step up, the other studios were in a feeding frenzy. Eager to keep the money train rolling and cash in on the rights they obtained, a flurry of films were rushed into development.

Would Marvel keep the cultural cache they had built, or were things about to get troubled? Join as we tackle the middle 2000s, a time where seven Marvel movies came out in four years.

Era Three: Milking the Marvel Cow

By the summer of 2004, Marvel was starting to look unstoppable. Spider-Man 2 was busting box-office records and competing against the strongest pop-culture franchises. Marvel’s deals had separated many of its characters to different studios, but it was making more money and strong relationships were being built. Stan Lee was turning his cameos into an expected re-occurrence, and even B- and C-list characters like Elektra had movies in development.

Yet with success comes pride. And with pride comes the fall. While there was plenty of money to be made, and indeed box-office grosses continued to burn bright throughout this era, the middle ’00s saw critical success take a nosedive. The reasons for this are varied and something we’ll examine throughout this article, but there’s no denying this batch of movies is lacking by comparison. The highest Rotten Tomatoes score of these seven movies is 62%, with four of them below 30%. Say what you will about whether this score matters, but it does reflect some kind of marked change in what was going on.

Flickchart’s new Flickscore system is even harsher on this era, with Flickscores ranging from 69 to 7!

Either way, the end of 2007 left Marvel feeling shakier. There was a growing feeling among fans that authenticity to source material was being disregarded to the detriment of overall quality. Whether this would spur a turn in a different direction is something future eras will have to answer, and indeed, this era ends on a major change. But we’ll get to that soon.

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Just six years earlier, Blade kicked off the modern superhero blockbuster. While it walked so the X-Men and Spider-Man could run and web-swing, it still served an essential role in the fabric of Marvel’s success by building confidence in superhero films. Blade II raked in even more money, solidifying the Blade franchise alongside the big boys.

Then, Blade: Trinity happened.

As mentioned in the last article, writer and producer David S. Goyer shepherded this trilogy into existence with Wesley Snipes and planned it as a trilogy early on. Before Blade II even released, New Line gave the go-ahead for a third film with Goyer again writing and producing. Despite Guillermo del Toro doing well with the second entry, he declined the director’s chair to pursue the Hellboy franchise. Goyer and New Line next turned to Oliver Hirschbiegel of all people to direct, but he turned it down to make Downfall.

Struggling to find a director, Goyer sought advice from Stephen Norrington and Del Toro. With their encouragement, he forged a deal with New Line to direct himself after making his directorial debut in 2002. It made sense to maintain a singular vision and ensure continuity.

But not everyone was happy. By now, the stories of this movie’s troubled production are widespread and largely center on the star: Wesley Snipes. Snipes disputes others’ accounts of the production, claiming complaints arose from friction that occurred after he became an executive producer and exerted his rightful authority. But most other accounts seem aligned on Snipes causing problems.

Snipes’s conflicts mostly centered on two people: Goyer and Ryan Reynolds. Despite Goyer and Snipes working together since the beginning, Snipes was apparently not happy with him taking the director’s chair. Nor did he like Goyer’s script.

Reynolds, meanwhile, had been cast as Hannibal King, the most comedic character in the franchise to date. Reynolds brought his typical brand of humor, which rubbed Snipes the wrong way. Their falling out during production was widely known and lasted until Deadpool & Wolverine.

Without diving too deep into rumors and hearsay, Snipes’s behavior was reportedly quite outlandish. He allegedly attempted to choke Goyer, spat slurs at Reynolds, smoked weed every day while refusing to leave his trailer, and would only communicate with the use of assistants. Regardless of how much of it is true, Goyer stated the production was “the most personally and professionally difficult and painful thing I’ve ever been through.”

To be fair, the final product may justify Snipes’s anger, if not behavior. Studio interference resulted in a notable mood shift for the third movie. Goyer’s original script was supposed to be a darker, dystopian work before New Line allegedly forced Dracula into the film and fought against the more somber tone. Considering they originally wanted the first film to be a spoof, it seems they finally got their way. One would think greater success would give more freedom to the filmmakers, but the potential of greater profit often raises the stakes for studios and causes them to start sticking their fingers in the sauce. Snipes eventually sued the studio for decreasing his screen time in favor of Reynolds and Jessica Biel.

While production was often described as a miserable experience for most, there were a few positive notes. The film notably cast wrestler Triple H, making him the first WWE wrestler to be featured in a comic-book film, the start of a trend. (X-Men‘s Tyler Mane was a professional wrestler in Canada.) Goyer was resistant at first but wound up expanding his role after enjoying his comic timing. Blade: Trinity also sported a rather notable cast in retrospect with actors like Parker Posey, John Michael Higgins, Patton Oswalt, and James Remar filling out the ranks.

But Blade: Trinity eventually released in December 2004 to a critical thrashing. Even Roger Ebert, who had been positive on the first two, lambasted its failure and descent into terrible action and bad comedy. Goyer himself looked back with regret on the final product.

This didn’t stop it from grossing $132 million worldwide. Certainly not a phenomenal figure, and a drop-off from Blade II, but not a failure. Still, it was enough to kill momentum on further movies in this sub-franchise. The production had burnt out most of the team, and the creative partnership died. A single season of a TV show was produced, not starring Snipes, before being cancelled. There were inklings of desire to do a spinoff series following Deacon Frost, as well as an Underworld crossover, but both sputtered out and the rights reverted to Marvel in 2012. By this point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was taking off.

Marvel has been trying since 2013 to get a new Blade film off the ground. Perhaps it’s the curse of Snipes and this production, as that attempt has been a production hell of its own. Despite starting it all, the character has been stuck in limbo.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Small

Of course, as previously discussed, Snipes’s Blade did finally return in Deadpool & Wolverine. Seemingly past his feud with Reynolds, they worked together and got along fine when there was a clear pecking order on tonal priorities. As stated before, we think Snipes’s Blade has a decent chance of coming back again. As for anyone else in this movie, Reynolds is probably going to be playing Deadpool in Doomsday, so he won’t be playing Hannibal King again. No one else has a remote chance of showing up.

Elektra (2005)

As 2005 opened up, Marvel Studios was spending most of the year wheeling and dealing. With the studio convinced of president David Maisel’s vision to self-finance, Marvel was hard at work trying to make a deal. Though Blade: Trinity wasn’t burning it up at the box-office, perhaps having Elektra out at the same time would chum the waters.

Unfortunately, Elektra was another troubled production. While not as dramatic as Blade: Trinity‘s, it had its own problem. Namely: no one involved wanted to make it.

There was an attempt to make an Elektra film prior to the ’00s with none other than New Line buying the rights in the late ’80s. Frank Miller, Elektra’s creator, was hired to pen a script directed by Oliver Stone and starring Gabrielle Reece. As intriguing as this creative team was, production fell through and the rights were sold to Fox.

After Daredevil‘s financial success, Elektra was forced into quick production and became the epitome of what happens when money is prioritized over art. Director Rob Bowman was hired on the fly and knew he was going to be working on a crunch as production had to finish before Jennifer Garner returned to filming Alias. Garner didn’t even want to do the movie as she, like most, seemed soured after Daredevil‘s production problems. But she was contractually obligated.

To be fair to Bowman, he at least seemed motivated to give it his best shot. He envisioned a smaller, character-focused film given his small budget, and he tried to craft a darker, more mature work. But Fox wanted a PG-13 rating, which Bowman claimed required him to chop the movie apart from his original cut, staking the claim that only twelve frames of film remained after editing. This should be taken with a grain of salt, as his Director’s Cut on the home release only added three minutes of runtime and nobody credits it as a significant improvement on the theatrical version.

The lack of passion translated to audience response. Elektra opened up in January 2005, and everyone quickly caught on to how bad it was. Critics ravaged it, with even Garner reportedly calling it “awful.” It fell off 69% in its second weekend and finished with a mere $56.6 million worldwide gross, the lowest since Howard the Duck.

While Marvel’s ’00s failures to date were just bumps in the road, there was no silver lining to this one. Even Marvel had to cop to its failure, with Avi Arad telling investors in March 2005 that rushing the movie to release was a big mistake that they wouldn’t repeat. Many blame the movie’s failure, alongside that of Catwoman, for setting back female-led superhero films, as another one wouldn’t be made for over a decade. This isn’t hypothetical either, as an email in the infamous Sony leak from Ike Perlmutter cited the movie’s failure as a reason not to make female-led superhero films.

Strangely, the female part got blamed rather than the rushed production and money-seeking behavior.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Small

Despite the infamous failure, Garner returned as Elektra in Deadpool & Wolverine. Indeed, that movie’s cameos seemed focused on redeeming the unfortunate legacy of certain Marvel characters. That said, we think Garner’s appearance there likely decreases her chance of a Doomsday appearance. That film gave her the proper sendoff and this Elektra isn’t popular enough to take a place in the big leagues.

Fantastic Four (2005)

The light of Spider-Man 2‘s triumph was starting to feel dim by mid 2005. Despite the box-office records, two critical failures and now Marvel’s first unmitigated bomb since Howard the Duck clouded the sun of their success. As Marvel Studios attempted to get favorable terms for self-financing, this certainly didn’t help.

But Marvel’s flagship characters had been their greatest successes, and now at long last, a big-budget film for their first ever superhero team was arriving. Surely, this would turn things back around?

When we last left the First Family, Avi Arad had bought the film negative for the 1994 version from Roger Corman to ensure the brand wasn’t damaged. Well, despite it taking eleven years, Marvel hadn’t let sleeping dogs lie.

In 1995, Marvel sold the rights to Fox and hired Chris Columbus to write and direct; he is someone Marvel kept coming back to as a possible director, though he has not directed a Marvel film to date. Columbus began working with frequent Marvel screenwriter Michael France, but Columbus was fired after he insisted that the film’s visual design pull directly from Jack Kirby’s art. Once again, the studios rejected comic accuracy for what they thought would sell.

Fox cycled through a few directors and writers in the late ’90s, but none of these pairings worked out. Because of this, Fox and producer Bernd Eichinger, who still maintained his portion of the rights, negotiated a rights extension with Marvel. Following the extension, they hired Raja Gosnell to direct, but Gosnell soon dropped out to direct Scooby-Doo (with a script by another big name to come in Marvel).

Then, Peyton Reed signed on and seemed poised to strike onto the superhero scene. Yet after cycling through multiple sets of writers, Reed dropped out due to Fox not meshing with his vision. Of course, Reed would eventually get to direct some superhero movies down the road and bring in planned elements for this film.

Sean Astin of all people was considered to direct next, and Astin went as far as to start approaching potential actors, but Fox ultimately passed on him, finally turning to Tim Story based on the strength of his original cut of Taxi. Story was a comics fan and worked with Mark Frost (who Reed had brought on) to refine France’s earlier screenplay. However, following the successful release of The Incredibles, Story had further rewrites done by Simon Kinberg, apparently due to massive similarities in both film’s stories.

For casting, an extensive auditioning process was done to find the right actors. Mads Mikkelsen auditioned for Mr. Fantastic, but the part went to Ioan Gruffudd. Mikkelsen later described the process as humiliating, though would appear in a Marvel movie down the line. Andrew Walker auditioned for Human Torch, though Chris Evans won the role, starting what would become an extensive career in the Marvel world.

Several women were considered for Invisible Woman such as Christina Aguilera and Cameron Diaz, though Jessica Alba wound up landing the role. As for Doctor Doom, none other than Robert Downey Jr. was initially considered. While Julian McMahon beat him, Downey is now set to play the part in Doomsday. For The Thing, though, Michael Chiklis seemed to be everyone’s first choice. It was Chiklis who insisted on playing the character entirely practically, resulting in a detailed bodysuit being made.

With a cast, filming was underway and finally a big-screen version of Marvel’s seminal team would arrive. During filming, another attempt to spark the idea of an interconnected universe was made. In a scene with Mr. Fantastic, an effects shot was made where Reed’s face morphed into Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine. This wound up cut for unknown reasons, and the dream of a Marvel cinematic universe remained elusive.

Perhaps this is for the best. If Fox had made the connected universe first, it might not have turned out as well. At least Fantastic Four didn’t, from a critical standpoint. Critics ripped it apart after its July 2005 release, with many finding it a tonal mess, lacking in plot, and featuring subpar performances. With Spider-Man 2, as well as Batman Begins and even The Incredibles, critics noted the bar had been raised for superhero films and this clearly failed to cross it. That said, the movie still made plenty at the box-office, finishing with a $330.6 million gross and garnering a sequel.

By this time, despite Elektra‘s bump in the road, Marvel Studios was nearing the endgame of its legacy-shifting deal. Finding a partner in Merrill-Lynch, Marvel worked out a $525-million loan to produce ten films over eight years, collateralized by the rights to ten of its characters. Its dream of self-producing was nearing, though it came with risk, as failure meant losing the rights to even more of its characters which would likely mean the end of any connected universe dream.

The last sticking point was finding a distributor. Despite trying to work with Universal, negotiations were stalling, leaving Marvel to turn to Paramount Studios. This long delay also led to Merrill trying to back out on the deal.

But shrewd business negotiations (and maybe Fantastic Four‘s box office numbers) let everything work out. In September 2005, Marvel publicly announced its financing agreement with Merrill, with Paramount onboard as a marketer and distributor. The industry raised eyebrows over a company like this self-financing and making its own movies. Could it work?

Marvel thought so, and promoted David Maisel to CEO of the newly-named Marvel Entertainment, the owner company of Marvel Studios. Michael A. Helfant would serve as the new president and COO. With the deals made, the question was which movie to make first? Interestingly, that same month, Marvel got the rights back to the character that would start it all. But more on that later.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Small-Medium

This universe actually had an MCU connection already with Evans reprising his role as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine. Because of this, we don’t see it as super likely to get further connections, especially with Evans already returning as Captain America. McMahon’s recent passing also means his Doctor Doom probably won’t be coming around. That said, we think there is a small chance Gruffudd’s Mr. Fantastic could feature, due to this character already having a history of multiversal appearances in the comics.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

As 2006 opened, Marvel was enduring two critical duds back-to-back, though it still made money thanks to Fantastic Four. Perhaps the funk could be shook off with the only movie on the calendar for the year: a third X-Men movie. After the success of X2, it seemed inevitable that there would be a trilogy.

Yet production was not all sunshine and rainbows. Bryan Singer, director of the first two films, left to go work on Superman Returns and took his X2 writers and editor with him. With the cast only signed for two movies, everyone’s deals had to be renegotiated as well. The result? Chaos, and James Marsden also essentially leaving the film to go work on Superman Returns. While he is in the early part of the movie, Fox killed his character off, thanks to Marsden’s decision and his frustrations about a lack of screentime in prior movies.

Because Hugh Jackman was the franchise’s face, he managed to get director approval into his contract and pushed for Darren Aronofsky to direct. Aronofsky turned it down, the first of many who would, mostly due to scheduling issues. Big names such as Joss Whedon, Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro, and Peter Berg were all among those unsuccessfully pursued. Undeterred, Fox set a release date and a filming schedule with plans to incorporate a recent Whedon X-Men storyline into the script despite Whedon not directing.

Matthew Vaughn initially won the job and hired notable cast members such as Kelsey Grammer as Hank “The Beast” McCoy and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. But he too eventually had to leave the project, though he would get to direct an X-Men film down the line. While initially citing family issues, he later revealed in 2023 that he had quit because Fox executives were putting unrealistic deadlines on production and had apparently lured Halle Berry in with a fake script, continuing a streak of mistreating her in this franchise. Vaughn’s lasting casting touch, though, might have been Channing Tatum as Gambit. The character was cut from the film, starting a series of failed attempts by Tatum to play the character that would eventually pay off in 2023.

After all of this mess, Fox finally hired Brett Ratner after he missed on the opportunity to direct the first film. Ratner had no knowledge of the comics and thus relied on his writers to tell an accurate story. Speaking of, the writers in question were Simon Kinberg (fresh off of writing the last two Marvel films) and Zak Penn. Kinberg was keen on adapting the Phoenix Saga, something Singer had wanted to do in the prior movie, and sought a way to combine that story arc with Whedon’s “Gifted” plot. Early results were reportedly poor, leading to Vaughn doing vast uncredited rewrites.

Even after these rewrites, Fox fought hard to remove the Phoenix storyline as they felt it would take the series away from the political metaphors it had used previously. For once, studio executives might have been right, and the final compromised results left Jean Grey with little to do in the film’s second half.

This harried writing and production process had other consequences. Ratner was apparently forced to start post-production simultaneous with filming due to the tight deadlines. Ratner also eventually interfered in the writing process, resulting in the Golden Gate Bridge scene getting shuffled to the end of the movie.

Even while Marvel Studios was in the beginning stages of producing its own film universe, Fox was already seeing the value of expanding their sub-franchise through spin-offs. This put limitations on the writers for which mutants they could use. Additionally, Alan Cumming‘s Nightcrawler was so minimized that the writers ended up cutting the character entirely due to the complicated makeup process.

With all of this mess swirling, X-Men: The Last Stand finally escaped to theaters in May 2006. From a monetary standpoint, Marvel breathed a sigh of relief. It finished its box-office run as the highest-grossing of the franchise with $460 million worldwide, but it fared the poorest critically of the trilogy. Many praised the small aspects of the Phoenix Saga it captured, and Ebert gave the film a thumbs up. Yet it was widely derided as a narrative mess and a step down from the intelligence of the prior movies. Many felt the sloppy way it killed off certain characters ill served their legacies and meant the loss of the heart of the series.

Since then, the writers and Ratner have all admitted regret about the final product. Kinberg would attempt to adapt the Phoenix Saga over a decade later, Singer would eventually direct another X-Men film that retconned many of this film’s choices, and Vaughn commented that the film he storyboarded was completely lost. Though not necessarily planned as a trilogy-ender, the critical reception was enough that a direct sequel never occurred. The box office was enough that Fox kept producing X-Men movies, but their direction with the IP changed after this movie.

While the third X-Men movie was arguably a muted success for Marvel, it didn’t slow down where things were heading. With Marvel Studios having its financing in hand, it started gathering its IP back. It couldn’t get the mega-franchises, but characters like Hulk, Thor, and Black Widow all returned under their control throughout 2006. With enough of their rights back, Marvel Studios now had a real shot of doing something that could stand alongside the X-Men and Spider-Man.

Just what would that be? A series of successful films? Or something larger?

The fight over how many movies they would do, how often they came out, and what the future of Marvel Studios would look like wound up changing the face of Marvel leadership. With executives taking various sides, a seismic change occurred when co-founder Avi Arad left after decades with the company, while Ike Perlmutter backed David Maisel’s vision. As 2007 rolled in, Helfant was also forced out, leading to Maisel being named chairman of Marvel and Kevin Feige being named president of production. With Feige in charge, his long-brewing vision could at last start to take shape.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

We already spoke at length in our last article about the returning Fox X-Men characters. But one specific to this film is Grammer’s Beast, who already returned in the post-credits of The Marvels. He is set to reprise his role in Doomsday, so some small part of what originated in this film will live on.

Ghost Rider (2007)

Before Feige’s vision could be enacted, there were a few more films that would release throughout 2007, perhaps cementing that something needed to change. Ghost Rider rolled out in February 2007, though it is perhaps the one film of this era that cannot be described as a quick cash grab. Marvel started trying to develop a Ghost Rider movie as early as the ’90s, though as was the case throughout that era, most of these projects struggled to get off the ground. Jonathan Hensleigh, a name that has popped up more than a few times by now, was attached to do a treatment.

David S. Goyer wrote a script and production was set to proceed in 2001 with Jon Voight producing and Johnny Depp in the lead role. That version stalled over funding issues. Dimension Films eventually stepped up to co-finance, and with more money on the table, Stephen Norrington was set to direct. Avi Arad pulled in Eric Bana to play Ghost Rider, though as described in the last article, he lost the part and would play Hulk instead. Nicolas Cage eventually found out about the movie, and as a big fan of the character he pushed to play the lead, but further delays resulted in him walking out as well as Norrington.

It seemed like the Ghost Rider might never ride until Columbia Pictures got dollar signs in their eyes after Spider-Man‘s success. They leapt onto the rights and had Shane Salerno rewrite Goyer’s script. Despite the stink of Daredevil and Elektra, Columbia hired Mark Steven Johnson based on his experience in superhero films, as well as his apparent passion for the character. He had originally approached Arad about directing a Ghost Rider movie when he was hired for Daredevil. Johnson promptly did his own rewrites and reeled Cage back in as the lead. Cage envisioned an R-Rated film, and jockeying over content continued to delay production.

Finally a workable script was finished, but only after Columbia interfered plenty. Johnson originally wanted Scarecrow as the lead villain, but the studio feared audiences would be confused with the DC character and forced him to change it to Blackheart. He also acquiesced to Columbia’s desire to get the content set at PG-13. Johnson cast Wes Bentley as Blackheart due to Bentley’s friendship with Colin Farrell, whom Johnson had worked with on Daredevil.

Filming started in Australia and Peter Fonda was cast as Mephisto, one of Marvel’s Devil-like characters and a key part of Ghost Rider’s origin, a month after filming started. Cage sought to make a deep mark on the character, though his eccentrics as an actor left something different than depth in the performance. This was a movie that required extensive post-production and effects work due to the lead superhero constantly having a flaming skull and other elaborate transformations.

Despite the years of work and Columbia trying to give time for the movie to be done right, Ghost Rider‘s release was met with universal derision. Many found it silly, over-wrought, and too conventional in its origin story. Cage’s performance was ridiculous enough to earn him a Razzie nomination. Still, it did pretty well at the box office, setting a record for the highest President’s Day-weekend release. It was also Cage’s highest-grossing release at the time. It finished with a $228 million worldwide gross, enough to earn a sequel despite the negative response.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

While neither this film nor the sequel (spoilers!) were well-received, we think there is a decent shot Nic Cage’s Ghost Rider makes a comeback for Doomsday. He was potentially in line to return for Deadpool & Wolverine, but that didn’t come through. With Feige looking to create the ultimate send-off, Cage’s take on the character is an important part of Marvel history, for better or worse.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

While Columbia’s other attempt to get into the superhero world turned out less than spectacularly, they still had a third Spidey film lined up to hopefully save the day. The writing process had started almost immediately after the second movie released with Alvin Sargent hired as screenwriter as well as Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan working on the story. The Raimis conceived of the theme that Peter was an imperfect hero, seeking to introduce Sandman as the lead villain and the true killer of Uncle Ben to push Peter’s moral compass and challenge his ability to forgive.

Then Avi Arad came knocking. He hadn’t yet been ousted from Marvel at the time of the writing, and he started complaining that Raimi was inserting his favorite villains in the movies over what the fans preferred. The last major Spidey villain that was yet to be used was Venom, whom Raimi didn’t care for as a character lacking humanity. But Arad pressured Raimi and eventually convinced him to use the character. Then another producer pushed to include Gwen Stacy. Raimi had also already planned to include the Vulture and was looking to wrap up the arc of Harry Osborn (James Franco) as the New Goblin.

As one can guess, this was creating such a jam-packed film that Sargent initially wanted to split the script into two movies. But he couldn’t figure out a way to do it and instead they had to jettison Vulture to get the movie down to a somewhat more reasonable number of characters. Still, it made for a crazy shoot with Raimi shuffling between seven sets and the cinematographer having to shoot a multitude of night scenes with three different dark-colored characters. Extensive effects work also required shooting the major FX scenes early in production to allow sufficient time for the work to be done right. This was part of a growing trend in Hollywood where almost every blockbuster was starting to be an effects-laden superhero film.

Still, Raimi noted that production was eased by the familiarity everyone had with each other. As the third film with most of the same crew and cast, there was a working camaraderie that aided the shoot. Raimi and his brother were pushing Peter into some darker (and goofier) places that required pushing Tobey Maguire out of his comfort zone, which they were able to work through.

After all of this extensive work, Spider-Man 3 eventually released in May 2007. On the one hand, the film was a smash success at the box-office. It was the third-highest grossing film of 2007, the highest-grossing of the trilogy, and set multiple weekend records and other sub-records. It finished with $890.9 million worldwide, continuing to show the juggernaut power the genre had accumulated throughout the 2000s.

On the other hand, it had the most mixed critical reaction of the trilogy. While some critics were still quite positive, most derided it as an over-stuffed mess that lost the humanity of the first two films. Ebert shared in the criticism of it having too many villains and subplots, with pacing another common critique across reviews. As Raimi would later admit, he found the production process “very painful” and wasn’t happy with the way the movie had gotten away from him. Arad later apologized for pushing Raimi to include Venom and agreed that trying to jam in too many characters was the wrong approach.

While many awards societies nominated the movie, Raimi saw the fourth film as an opportunity to redeem himself and go out on a high note. Its financial success immediately put a fourth movie into production, and Raimi sought to bring different writers and approaches to the creative process. Sony also started planning a Venom spin-off. During this process, there were even talks of doing an entire new trilogy. Early reports suggested the villains would be Dylan Baker‘s Curt Connors finally becoming the Lizard after two films of development, and the Vulture coming back in as well, with Anne Hathaway potentially playing Black Cat (an ironic casting given who she would end up playing in a Batman movie).

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. While Raimi was given more creative freedom, Sony was still enforcing strict deadlines and demanded a 2011 release. Eventually, Raimi felt he was being rushed and falling into a repeat of the Spider-Man 3 process. Without creative integrity, it wasn’t worth it to him, and he dropped out.

Sony ended up cancelling the project, and so ended the Raimi trilogy. Despite all of the financial success, Sony decided to reboot the property. At this point, Marvel Studios was having success of their own and Sony needed to find a way to compete in the 2010s. Raimi’s old-fashioned goofiness wasn’t what they wanted. They needed something more sleek and modern and moody. More on that in a future article.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As already discussed last article, we think Tobey Maguire is a strong candidate to return for Doomsday. But as for the rest of the cast, we continue to believe none of them will be pulled back. Thomas Haden Church did reprise Sandman in Spider-Man: No Way Home, though only as a voice performance.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

As has been the running theme for most of this article, financial success will usually overcome critical failure. With Fantastic Four making plenty of money, Fox rehired Tim Story and Mark Frost to make the sequel as well as bringing on additional screenwriter Don Payne. They planned the ambitious goal of adapting “The Galactus Saga” and including the Silver Surfer, which would conveniently let Fox set up a spin-off movie as long ago planned.

Yet with the desire to strike while the iron was hot, production was rushed, and they were still working on Galactus’s design as late as March 2007. Story had brought in an entirely new production team to create a more “mature” look, perhaps feeling the heat of the criticism that the first film looked too cartoonish. But this redesign only further slowed the process.

Fox was doing all it could to build hype for the film. Lawrence Fishburne was cast to voice The Silver Surfer, which made instant headlines, and Fox also let it be known Andre Braugher was part of the cast. As it turned out, Fox wanted Braugher to play none other than Nick Fury, but they didn’t own the rights and by this point, Marvel Studios wasn’t leasing out any other characters, especially not one they had big plans for. Doug Jones was shocked to learn about Fishburne’s casting as the physical actor playing the Surfer, as it meant he would be dubbed over a second time in a comic book film.

Arad was reportedly very hands-on during filming despite no longer being an upper-level executive at Marvel. He apparently had a special fondness for the Fantastic Four, which perhaps explains why he canned the 1994 version twenty years earlier. The effects team tried to create cutting-edge special effects with the time they had to bring iconic looks like the Silver Surfer and Fantasticar to life. Weta did most of the effects work, having become one of the leading names in the industry by this point.

Despite no news of major production strife, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer perhaps just suffered from the confined schedule and lack of talent. It released in June 2007 to a critical drubbing. Most felt it was confusing and lacked fun, with one critic stating it made Spider-Man 3 look good by comparison. The closest thing to a positive review was that it improved on the first movie. Comic fans lambasted its approach to Galactus, saying that turning the giant purple space god into a cloud felt like a complete deviation from what the character should be.

The movie had a moderately successful opening weekend, but it took major drops in its second and third weekend. At last, the chickens had come home to roost. It finished with a decent $301.9 million worldwide, but this was enough to shake Fox’s confidence about continuing the franchise. While Story and others were fine with going forward, Fox put the brakes on doing more in the immediate future and stayed focused on expanding its X-Men property. And thus, another franchise came to an end.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Small

As we discussed above, we think these versions are mostly left in the past. As to this incarnation of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, since the latest Fantastic Four movie just did its own take on these characters, we think these will be left behind, especially with most hating this version of Galactus.

It had just been three short years since the slam-dunk success of Spider-Man 2 and seven movies had come out. While financial successes were still happening, the mystique of Marvel’s glorious burst onto the big-screen was fading. Seven straight movies and not a single one had received critical success or even close to it. Most were mixed at best with some downright stinkers in there.

This era of Marvel certainly represented a downturn. While it wasn’t as bad as the early decades of failed starts, after all there were now successes to build from, it left many wondering if perhaps Marvel superhero films were just a fad. Just as Marvel seemed to have a leg up, Batman Begins released reminding of the staying power of a superstar superhero like Batman. Perhaps Spider-Man and the X-Men were to be Marvel’s pinnacle. After all, there had been a Hulk, Elektra, Daredevil, and Punisher movie and not a single one was seen as an unmitigated success.

Additionally, the frustration over a lack of comic fidelity was increasing. While tolerable at first with the X-Men films, Rise of the Silver Surfer was demonstrative of just how far from the source material the movies were getting. A space cloud? Really? Plus, with all of the rights split apart at various studios and any push for a crossover being shut down, it seemed truly replicating the shared universe of the comics was never going to happen.

As 2008 arrived, perhaps Marvel fans would just have to resign themselves to the reality that the best they could get were some occasional high-quality comic-book films mixed in with plenty of mediocre material. True, Marvel Studios was now self-producing but their first announced title was Iron Man.

Some C-lister better known as part of The Avengers? It looked like Marvel Studios’s venture was doomed from the start.

Or was it?

Ranking Era Three

Back to the doldrums here. A few of these aren’t entirely bad, but this is not the best bunch of movies to rank. Let’s see how they stack up though!

#7: Elektra (Flickscore 12)

Elektra is unfortunately a truly horrendous film. One can feel the lack of enthusiasm dripping from every aspect of it. From Garner’s stale performance, the paltry paper-thin script, and vague facsimiles of the comic-book characters that made it into the movie, Elektra is an unmitigated failure. Nor does it even have the fun ’00s soundtrack that helped prop up Daredevil.

There are the vague outlines of something better here. Elektra finding humanity in mentoring a young hopeful girl, themes of revenge and generational pain, and some occasionally neat camera tricks and movements. But like many of the bad comic-book films, Elektra never resolved its tone issues. Both too self-serious and too goofy at the same time, especially with the Typhoid Mary character and the banal main villain, Elektra shambles about until its lame conclusion.

#6: Ghost Rider (Flickscore 13)

Speaking of tonal problems, Ghost Rider has the worst of this entire era. Coupled with some shockingly bad dialogue, Ghost Rider is one relentlessly cringey moment after the other. It often feels like watching a bad TV-movie. While the effects for Ghost Rider aren’t half bad, he’s written in such an awkward way that there is no menace attached to one of the darker superheroes in Marvel.

This also continues the villain problem from Elektra. Wes Bentley’s Blackheart is amazingly forgettable with no real motivations. Bentley’s main acting choice is scowling and speaking in a slightly deeper voice. His servants, fallen angels with elemental powers, are also super bland, and yet manage to have something more distinctive going for them The saving grace in this department is Peter Fonda as Mephisto, i.e. the Devil. He does bring a presence to his role, even if there is a major cheese-factor.

This movie does manage to have one or two decent moments. Ghost Rider riding alongside Carter Slade (notably played by Sam Elliott, the first actor to star in two Marvel movies that weren’t direct sequels) across the desert is a nice vibes-filled scene and the simple brutality with which Ghost Rider dispatches most of the thugs is something differentiating from other superhero films to date. The famed Penance Stare is also well-represented and the basic tragedy of Johnny Blaze’s backstory brings the faintest echoes of human emotion.

But the bad writing still ultimately dooms this movie. The editing and plotting is sloppy as can be with the film haphazardly vacillating between scenes and moments with little connective tissue. The lack of care overall is evident, a shame for a director who allegedly loved this character.

#5: Fantastic Four (Flickscore 7)

The cheeseball earnestness of this film does suit the source material in a certain sense. The Fantastic Four are a campy team in some respect and with fun larger-than-life performances from Chiklis, Evans, and Gruffudd, Fantastic Four has a certain fun camp factor. The movie remembers to have the team save people too, with the best action scene being the four learning to use their powers and work together to rescue pedestrians on a bridge.

If only that translated to a solid script. This is the third movie in a row with almost no plot, feeling more like a collection of scenes than a strong singular narrative. The film rushes through its opening third, quickly giving the team powers and then having little of consequence happen afterwards. McMahon is either miscast, or at least misplays Doom, another character reduced from his comic-book form into a bland corporate CEO-type villain with little of the gravitas required.

Likewise, Alba seems a bit lost in her role as the adhesive female force that holds the Fantastic Four together. She’s played more like a jilted lover than her own strong independent character, perhaps more a fault of the script than Alba. Once Doom blandly recreates the arc of Green Goblin in the first Spider-Man, the movie stumbles into a final battle with little pomp. While not as outright awful as the two proceeding works, Fantastic Four is still a dud overall.

#4: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Flickscore 12)

Rise of the Silver Surfer somewhat improves on the first film in the plot department. While struggling to put together three acts and scenes that feel like they matter, there are at least slightly better character arcs and moments in this. McMahon’s Doom feels included out of obligation sadly and doesn’t do much though.

The goofy comedy of the middle part of the movie still leaves it treading water narratively, if the hijinks of Human Torch constantly swapping powers with the rest of the team does lead to some good moments occasionally. But the humor of this is still more awkward than truly funny, with an especially dumb scene of Mr. Fantastic breakdancing at a club with his powers.

The biggest crime comes in the form of reducing Galactus to bland space dust. While perhaps they were concerned about being able to render a large purple man in a way that would be taken seriously (and fair point given the tonal problems in both movies), the better choice would have been to go with a different villain entirely. This way just feels anticlimactic, which is especially disappointing in context of a somewhat decent take on the Silver Surfer. The best scenes of this film come in Sue interacting with Norinn Radd and teaching him to find his humanity (of a kind) again.

Despite having one of the cuter Stan Lee cameos, and having Andre Braugher chomp it up in a fun role, Rise of the Silver Surfer is still a stilted mess of a movie.

#3: Blade: Trinity (Flickscore 58)

There’s a good argument for Blade: Trinity being worse than the Fantastic Four duo. It’s of kin with all four movies below it on this list with the tonal flaws. Awkward comedy combined with overly dramatic plotting is just a bad formula that ran throughout this set of movies. And the comedy here was often quite horrible, especially in context of a bloody horror action movie. Ryan Reynolds has a very particular schtick that can work if done right, but as used here, is super grating.

Plus, like the others, Blade: Trinity struggles to have a competent plot. There is a somewhat better three-act structure here, likely the product of Goyer being an at least decent screenwriter most of the time, but the beats and act turns are still rather thin. It bizarrely makes the choice of having Dracula be a reluctant villain, then with pivoting motivation, creating narrative whiplash. And while one can appreciate trying to do something different with an iconic movie character in his own right, this version of Dracula is simply lacking menace and feels quite bland. All the more so once he transforms to a giant CGI monster in the third act.

The redeeming grace of this besides better technical competency than the preceding movies is Snipes continuing to be standout as Blade. Regardless of how angry he was during production, he at least brings it on-camera. Granted, his role is indeed reduced and he feels sidelined in his own film at times. But Snipes just had an “it” factor that raises the quality of what is otherwise a pretty bad work.

#2: X-Men: The Last Stand (Flickscore 69)

The first of the only two passable movies from this era is the trilogy ender for the X-Men. The Last Stand bears all the signs of the production problems earlier described. It’s mishmash of plotting resulted in an overstuffed work that doesn’t give sufficient weight to anything happening. The Shakespearean tragedy that is the Phoenix Saga in the comics is reduced to a half-baked version with Jean Grey indeed simply standing around for half the movie and her vast psychic powers reduced to dissolving people into CGI dust (suck it Thanos!).

But with a cast three movies deep into the process, the acting at least brings it most of the time. For every goofy moment of Vinnie Jones shouting as the Juggernaut, there is Stewart and McKellan trading verbal blows or Famke Janssen tearfully asking Jackman’s Wolverine to end her life. While Anna Paquin’s Rogue was much reduced from the first movie, she still has a decent little arc in this and does her best. Ellen (now Elliott) Page is also a welcome new addition as beloved X-Woman Shadowcat. It’s also neat to finally see an iconic comics element like the Danger Room.

It lacks in the excellent action scenes like X2 and brings a shallower approach to its themes than before. It tries to do too much with too little. But there is enough to lift The Last Stand above most of this era, even if we all wish this era of X-Men had a better send-off. Indeed, they would get a better one to come, even if not a direct sequel, and Doomsday may well give this iteration of the property a true goodbye.

#1: Spider-Man 3 (Flickscore 63)

There is plenty to criticize about Spider-Man 3. Indeed, the choice to have three villains was a massive mistake with none of them given sufficient time to develop properly. And in order to resolve the narrative gluttony, the script’s solution is sidelining each villain with nothing to do for large chunks of screentime. Sandman simply disappears from the movie for awhile and Harry is given amnesia to delay resolution of his story. The final act occurs only because Sandman and Venom randomly find each other in an alley.

The aforementioned tonal problems also sneak into this movie. Topher Grace was not a strong choice for Eddie Brock/Venom, feeling more goofy than scary once he gets the symbiote. And speaking of goofy, Raimi’s much maligned and now memed choice to have Maguire’s Peter start wearing all black and dance speaks for itself. The jazz club scene is still uncomfortable to watch, even if that is somewhat part of the point.

Still, despite all of the problems, the core thematic ideas that Raimi had come through in many scenes. Seeing Peter truly hurt MJ, falling into self-obsession, anger, and revenge against Sandman as the true killer of Uncle Ben, bring some real emotional weight. Having the symbiote present to amplify those feelings wasn’t an entirely wrong narrative choice and Maguire is actually quite competent at bringing a malice to his performance of Peter Parker. As always, scenes between him and Rosemary Harris’s Aunt May are standout in exploring the thematic concepts of the movie.

And for a final time, Raimi brings an ending scene strong on the emotion and surprisingly melancholic. The movie ends on the hope that forgiveness of multiple kinds can be found and that Peter will be able to weather his way through his storms. But it doesn’t bring a contrived happy conclusion either, and the last shot of the trilogy winds up carrying some uncertainty, just as the second movie did.

That seems a perfect way to end things in this era. Both of the main Marvel trilogies to date came to an awkward conclusion with many bumps, if having elements of something better. There was hope for more, but could that hope be realized? Stay tuned for next time and find out!

Marvel Chart

1. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
2. X2: X-Men United (2003)
3. Spider-Man (2002)
4. X-Men (2000)
5. Blade (1998)
6. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
7. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
8. The Punisher (2004)
9. Hulk (2003)
10. Blade II (2002)
11. Daredevil (2003)
12. Blade: Trinity (2004)
13. Fantastic Four (1994)
14. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
15. Fantastic Four (2005)
16. The Punisher (1989)
17. Ghost Rider (2007)
18. Howard the Duck (1986)
19. Captain America (1990)
20. Elektra (2005)

The movie’s official title didn’t need to be Lee Cronin’s The Mummy to tell us it was from Cronin. This movie feels exactly like his breakout major feature, Evil Dead Rise. So much so that one wonders if this wasn’t simply a repurposed Evil Dead script, as it plays out much more like an entry to that franchise than a Mummy one.

It contains many of the strengths of Rise. It has gore that is not holding back or trying to comfort the audience as major studio horror is wont to do. There are some truly gross and unnerving scenes, all the more enhanced because they often involve children, which most of us find disquieting. The Mummy also has that dark Irish humor in its sensibilities. Rise had some darker jokes, as does this one, either involving gore or certain situational jokes.

Yet where this one completely falls flat compared to Rise is, in part, the tonal issues. This film feels much more like a compromised studio project, with Blumhouse or someone jamming in more conventional big budget storytelling, and tonal beats that mostly clash with the humor and more visceral approach to gore. It feels like Cronin’s vision is fighting through the weight of muck.

To that end, The Mummy can be frustratingly mummy-free. It feels like the Egyptian connections are entirely ancillary and this certainly has nothing to do with any of the story of prior Mummy films. Again, this feels more like a Deadite or demon possession movie; indeed, the script directly states it is a demon possessing the lead child. Aside from a flair or sand or some scarabs, it feels like the mummy flavor was tossed aside.

Worst of all, though, is the near lack of characterization or plot. The lead parents, played by Jack Reynor and Laia Costa, have little to them past being worried parents. There are the barest semblances of themes of marital conflict and guilt, but they seem left on the cutting room floor of this already overly-long 134-minute work. The coexisting Egyptian investigation side plot feels tacked on as well.

Once again, The Mummy franchise has been plagued with an unsuccessful reboot. Of course, the studio hardly seems to care, as they announced a continuation of the Brendan Fraser franchise months ago. Whatever happened behind the scenes, this mummy probably should have stayed buried.

Tell us your thoughts on Lee Cronin’s The Mummy and rank it on the new Flickchart now!!!

CRAWL (2019) is a horror/thriller written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, and directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D), with a simple premise: If battling a hurricane wasn’t enough, what if our movie’s heroes also had to deal with terrifying creatures of the natural world? THRASH (2026), written and directed by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow, Violent Night), rips off the exact same premise and makes a change that is ultimately just cosmetic, while sacrificing tension and character development for ramped-up action.

In Crawl, Kaya Scodelario stars as Haley, a competitive University of Florida swimmer who receives the call from her sister that she hasn’t heard from their estranged father (Barry Pepper), despite the Category 5 hurricane headed for their small home town. Haley makes the ill-advised trek into Coral Lake and discovers her father trapped in the crawl space of their former family home, and hunted by a pair of ill-tempered alligators. Together, the pair must find a way to escape the crawl space before the waters rise so they can hopefully signal for help.

Thrash follows Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor), who gets caught in the hurricane threatening Annieville, South Carolina after she is called into work. Eight and a half months pregnant and alone after the father has left her, Lisa fears losing her job if she doesn’t stay. Meanwhile, young Dakota (Whitney Peak) is alone in town because her growing agoraphobia in the wake of her mother’s death won’t allow her to leave, even as the situation worsens. Of course, these two ladies will wind up working together to survive the storm, but, to complicate things, as the waters rise the town is being overrun by a pack of bull sharks.

Extremely similar setups – waters rising, apex predators circling – but these films diverge in the execution. Aja keeps Crawl lean and scary, focusing on developing his two stars into full-fledged characters, and letting the tension of their situation breathe. A few other characters are briefly introduced into the film – a trio of looters, a pair of police officers – but as they quickly succumb to the gators, they serve just to underscore the peril facing Haley and her dad.

Meanwhile, while Thrash is a similarly lean length (both movies clock in under 90 minutes), Wirkola packs his film with a bevy of characters and perilous situations. There are three foster children (Alyla Browne, Stacy Clausen, Dante Ubaldi) under the “care” of abusive Mr. Olsen (Matt Nable), who has refused to leave town out of sheer stubbornness. And Djimon Hounsou stars as Dr. Dale Edwards, a marine biologist who has been tracking the unusual movement patterns of the sharks. He happens to be the uncle of orphaned Dakota, and takes up with an ambitious news reporter (Andrew Lees) so he can get into Annieville and rescue his niece.

With so many more characters comes the opportunity for Wirkola to craft more deadly scenarios, and the pacing of Thrash is frenetic. The film zips from one small-town shark encounter to the next, scarcely taking the time to breathe. The result is consistently entertaining, but not overly scary, particularly as the fates of most of Wirkola’s characters become pretty predictable.

Aja, meanwhile, consistently ramps up the tension in Crawl. There’s plenty of action, but also time taken to let the story breathe, and help the audience care about the characters at the center of it.

Both movies are brisk, don’t overstay their welcome, and should satisfy fans of gnarly creature action or tales of survival. But there’s no doubt that Crawl‘s alligators take a bigger bite of proper storytelling, while the sharks just kind of Thrash around, making noise.

Crawl is currently available to stream on Paramount+. Thrash is recently released on Netflix.

The Drama (2026)

With The Drama, Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli continues his fascination with the fragile absurdities of identity and relationships, following up his sleeper hit Dream Scenario (2023) with something both more romantic and more quietly unsettling.

The film centers on Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) in the days leading up to their wedding. It opens with a wonderful meet-cute as Charlie spots Emma reading alone in a coffee shop, but Borgli quickly fractures that familiarity. What follows is not a linear love story, but a mosaic: moments from the past, present, and imagined realities intercut and reframed, testing not just the relationship, but the characters’ ability to withstand the weight of intimacy itself.

Formally, The Drama is alive in a genre that often isn’t. The editing and cinematography inject a restless dynamism, constantly shifting perspective and tone. Scenes don’t just progress, they echo, contradict, and reinterpret each other, creating a feeling that love is not a story we move through, but one we rewrite as we negotiate one another.

Borgli cleverly stages the film within the recognizable framework of a romantic comedy, the aforementioned meet-cute, first date, eccentric friends, screwball beats, but plays every note slightly off-key. The humor is sharp, but tinged with melancholy; the absurdity lands, but leaves a bruise. It’s a film that indulges in the mechanics of the rom-com while toying with it.

Pattinson’s Charlie feels like a distant cousin of a Woody Allen protagonist—neurotic, self-conscious, and emotionally evasive, but freed from Allen’s incessant autobiography. His anxieties read less as performative quirk and more as genuine self-sabotage, giving the character a surprising emotional arc beneath the irony.

Zendaya, meanwhile, is the film’s emotional center. She gives Emma a layered interiority, balancing independence with vulnerability. This is a woman who does not need Charlie, but wants a connection with him, and fears what his absence might reveal about her. Zendaya communicates this tension with remarkable control, often through silence: a glance, a pause, a shift in posture.

What emerges is a fascinating tonal blend, rom-com structure, dark comedy sensibility, and the observational bite of a comedy of manners. The film is at once humane and ridiculous, grounded and hyperbolic, tender and cruel. It resists easy catharsis, instead lingering in the uncomfortable truth that love is as much about projection and fear as it is about connection. I don’t know what the future holds for Emma and Charlie. The Drama doesn’t resolve love it observes it, distorts it, and honors its complexity.