It’s hard to deny that Marvel’s might is flagging a little. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania came out to middling reviews (from critics) and box office and The Marvels, well, the headline “sh*t the bed” was used on this website to describe the film’s opening weekend box office, and it scans.
Keep in mind, this is all in comparison to the halcyon days of pop culture and box office dominance when Avengers were assembling. Back before previous megastars (Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scar-Jo) left the building, but those days helped to justify Marvel and Disney’s super scale, with numerous stories spread across TV and film and bazillions of dollars committed to the cause. Without that same caliber of results, is Marvel due to tighten their belt?
While the calendar is looking a little light, with the freshly premiered Echo representing the only Marvel project in the first half of this year, that can be chalked up to the impact of the dual strikes that raged on while writers and actors were waiting on a fair deal. The absence of a second season of She-Hulk? It sounds like you can definitely hang that on budgetary issues, at least according to series star Tatiana Maslany, who said a second season is unlikely, telling the NerdIncorrect Twitch channel, “I think we blew our budget, and Disney was like, ‘No thanks.'”
Now, was She-Hulk extra expensive? Yes. Digitizing Maslany to take the form of the show’s title character and general production of the show reportedly cost $25 million per episode. Was it a success? Unfortunately not. Hang an asterisk the size of the moon on its Rotten Tomatoes numbers because of bad-faith review bombing and sexist nonsense (a pox on comic book shows and films that is going to forever limit their actual cultural reach, especially if it limits the vision of executives), but it also didn’t really register as must-see for viewers with unimpressive viewership numbers. Add all this together and the lack of a second season does begrudgingly make sense from a business standpoint. It’s just depressing, partially because the show’s anti-fans will claim victory, but primarily because She-Hulk was a lot of fun.
I loved what Maslany and company were doing and regard it as one of the best shows from 2022. It’s also the first Marvel show to really hold my attention (because I am the kind of fan who was both THERE for everything Marvel pumped out for more than a decade and BURNT OUT on all of it). Comic book shows and movies can be a vessel for rich stories about heroism, sacrifice, and human limits, but they too often lose the thread on joy and fun. She-Hulk was all-over the road narratively with not always the best CG, sure. But it was also unique and it didn’t take itself or its genre too seriously, a major plus in the midst of all the world building and spectacle in the genre.
While the show is probably (this isn’t an official death certificate, just an acknowledgement of what has seemed more and more likely) done, we do hope we get to see Maslanay in the MCU again. A Deadpool 3 cameo, an Avengers pop-in — something. The show didn’t have a big audience, but it had a dedicated one that deserves a nod.
How Marvel (and DC, with its soon to launch rebooted connected universe) choose to combat any diminished excitement in the marketplace is an open question. She-Hulk was a quirky lawyer sitcom that cost as much as a tentpole movie. Hubris should have gotten a producer credit with that in mind. Risks with that kind of price tag probably aren’t a part of the equation as audiences enter a new phase of interest and excitement with these kinds of projects, but that doesn’t mean people don’t want unique things or for Marvel to take risks. That’s probably exactly what people want.
Marvel Spotlight is, it seems, a golden opportunity toward a strategy that embraces variety. “Grounded” stories, like the just launched Echo that aren’t as wrapped up in continuity red tape. With those kinds of guardrails, creators can have a lot of fun. And so long as expectations match cost, so can the audience, for years to come.
Source: IGN
