The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a well-oiled machine over the years, consistently releasing movies in theaters and additional content for those with a Disney+ subscription. But despite this, there have been a few notable box office bombs lately, raising concerns about superhero fatigue. And that financial situation seemingly had an effect on upcoming Marvel movies, as a new MCU rumor claims that three different franchises aren't getting new sequels. This comes shortly after Bob Iger referenced killing unnamed projects.
The beloved shared universe had had trouble finding record-breaking success since the release of Avengers: Endgame, and there are a few prime examples of box office failure. Ant-Man: and The Wasp: Quantumania, Eternals, and The Marvels bombed at the box office. And according to a new report by scooper Daniel Richtman (via our sister site Tech Radar), those three titles will no longer be getting sequels.
This is still a rumor at this point, but the report definitely is going to turn heads among MCU fans. Richtman claims Eternals 2 is on indefinite hold, after it failed to perform critically and financially, despite Eternals' cast including celebs like Barry Keoghan and Angelina Jolie. And a sequel reportedly won't be part of the plans for Phases Five and Six.
The same report also indicated that Marvel isn't moving forward with plans for either Ant-Man 4 or Captain Marvel 3. This doesn't mean that Paul Rudd and Brie Larson won't appear in future projects like Avengers movies, but they're seemingly not getting any additional solo flicks anymore. Instead, the studio reportedly wants to focus on project that are less risky, and will definitely make money at the box office.
Ant-Man 3's box office failure definitely gave the fans reason to pause, and seemingly confirmed a negative trend for the shared universe as a whole. Because while Eternals introduced a new team of characters, the audience already loved Paul Rudd's Scott Lang. And when The Marvels became the MCU's worst performing movie ever, the public expected some response from the studio.
These rumors come after Bob Iger referenced killing upcoming projects during an investor conference Q&A. That quote read:
We’ve not been that public about it, but we’ve killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough.
This seemingly gives extra weight to the previously mentioned rumors about the studio killing sequels for Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and Eternals. This report is sure to inspire a strong reaction from Marvel fans, who might want to see those stories continued. Indeed, there's been chatter for years about how Eternals ending left a frozen Celestial sticking out of the planet.
Since this is still a rumor, we should probably wait until official word from Marvel and/or Disney comes to the public. But it definitely would make financial sense of the studio made these tough calls after so many box office disappointments.
The next Marvel movie hitting theaters is Deadpool 3 on July 26th. In the meantime, check out the 2024 movie release dates.
