Rumors of the demise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been greatly exaggerated. The massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine at the box office has shown that audiences are still interested in the MCU. However, that success only throws into sharper perspective some of the franchise’s recent struggles, including, perhaps above all else, The Marvels.
As the last big screen release in the MCU prior to Deadpool & Wolverine, The Marvels failed to find an audience in theaters, leading to one of the lowest box office totals of an MCU movie to date. While there are any number of potential explanations for why the movie flopped, Brie Larson tells The Playlist that she still appreciates the film because she loves her co-stars and believes in what the movie was trying to say. She also teased that perhaps, despite the movie’s failure, Captain Marvel and her friends might have more to do. Larson said…
I just loved being with those ladies so much. And I think that the sentiment of it is so right to me and is much more where I’m at in my life, which is, there’s no one superhero that can save us. It takes all kinds of people that have their own special skill sets and the ability to understand that the brink of disaster cannot be stopped by one. It’s all of us coming together. So that feels really right to me. And you know, as for the future, there’s things that I know, but I can’t tell you.
While Larson wouldn’t reveal any specifics, the fact that she knows something at least confirms that there’s something to know regarding herself and upcoming Marvel movies. If there were no plans for Captain Marvel in the MCU, she would likely have had a conversation to confirm that. If there was nothing to know, she wouldn’t know anything at all.
This is certainly good news for the fans of The Marvels out there. While we can’t overlook that the movie wasn’t the massive hit that the original Captain Marvel was, the film certainly has its fans who would love to see any or all of the film’s three leads again.
If there are plans to see Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau or Kamala Khan again, then it would seem Marvel Studios isn't putting too much stock in the movie's lack of success. It would be easy to assume that people just don't care about those characters, and with the MCU having so many to choose from, it could easily focus elsewhere. But Bob Iger blamed a lack of "supervision" for The Marvels' bad performance, which would seem to indicate the problem wasn't the characters or the actors, just that the movie they were in wasn't right.
If nothing else, the MCU needs to resolve The Marvels post-credits scene, which left Monica Rambeau in another universe. While the MCU recently confirmed its plans to pivot away from Jonathan Majors’ Kang, replacing him with Roberty Downey Jr.’s return to the MCU as Doctor Doom, we still expect the multiverse will play a major role in the franchise at least through the two currently planned Avengers movies.
