I am a ride or die fan of Marvel Studios, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No matter what story they choose to tell, I will anticipate it with the same kind of excitement as a child on Christmas Eve, ready to unwrap a new present. That’s why I’ve circled the (constantly changing) release dates for such upcoming Marvel movies as The Marvels, Deadpool 3, and Captain America: Brave New World. But even a rabid fan like me can tell that the studio is painting itself into a corner as it heads into Phase 5, and I’m not sure what it can do to right the ship as it moves forward.
Starting with Loki, and followed by the one-two punch of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel Studios opened the door to the concept of the multiverse – parallel existences that mirror our own, or differ significantly, but can offer similar versions of heroes and villains we’ve come to know. The animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse also used this as a plot device, and expanded on it in this year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
There are storytelling issues that come with the multiverse, as a concept. But then, on top of that, Marvel Studios started screening Secret Invasion for any audience member with a Disney+ subscription. And it raised yet another narrative complication that, just like the multiverse, raises a lot more questions than answers. Let’s discuss three troubling issues that are plaguing the MCU right now, that could continue to create problems moving forward.
The Multiverse Is Confusing for Casual Fans
It’s actually confusing to people who pay extremely close attention to all of this, as well. At the end of the first season of Loki, we met He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), who occupies the Citadel at the End of Times. He tells a complicated story about a massive Multiversal War, where he triumphed over variants of… himself. He prevailed, constructed the TVA, and used it to maintain what he calls The Sacred Timeline. Only, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) – herself a Variant of Loki – kills He Who Remains, and sends the Sacred Timeline into assumed disarray. We will see what’s to come of those actions when Loki Season 2 reaches Disney+ on October 6. (That’s just a few things that we know about the upcoming season.)
Still with me? Good, because we have only just scratched the surface on this character. “He Who Remains” is believed to be a Variant of the villainous Kang, and we meet a different Variant of the character in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This one (also played by Majors), is Kang the Conqueror, and he was banished to the Quantum Realm by his Variants, likely as part of that Multiversal War that was referenced in Loki. Hopefully, you remembered the finale of Loki when you absorbed all of the exposition in Quantumania, or else you might have been confused. Additionally, in the mid-credits scenes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we met even MORE Kang Variants. Like, hundreds of them.
Comic book readers will recognize this as the Council of Kangs, and may even get very excited when they see that the three Kangs who get speaking parts are Immortus, Rama-Tut, and Scarlet Centurion… all Kangs from alternate Earths. But there’s no possible way that casual MCU viewers – some of which might have skipped Loki altogether – would know what was happening in that end-credits sequence. They might know that there’s an Avengers movie on Marvel’s docket called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, so they could make the connection. But it’s asking a lot for audiences to keep up with the Multiverse, which really has only just begun.
The Multiverse Creates Character Confusion
The rules of the Multiverse mean that there are alternate versions of significant characters existing at all times. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, we saw that the Peter Parkers played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield actually existed in Marvel canon, and they were brought to Tom Holland’s Earth to fight alongside him. But in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we met versions of characters that were somewhat satisfying for fans who track every behind-the-scenes step of the MCU, but possibly turned off casual audiences who had no clue what was going on.
I’m speaking of The Illuminati, a band of heroes formed by the Ultimate Doctor Strange to solve problems the universes could not handle. As part of that group, we saw Hayley Atwell playing a live-action version of Captain Carter, Patrick Stewart back as Professor Charles Xavier, and John Krasinski paying off a longtime Internet wish to have the Office star play Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four.
“Excellent! So Krasinski will be in the Fantastic Four movie that was announced by Marvel?” you ask.
No, he won’t. Someone else will play Reed Richards. Possibly Adam Driver. And even though Stewart retired from playing Xavier in Logan, his return was probably a one-off appearance. Unless he shows up in Deadpool 3, though it’s unlikely that he’ll remain Professor X in an X-Men reboot. If that ever happens. These casting what ifs are confusing for rabid fans. They must drive casual Marvel movie watchers up a wall. And as it turns out, they are unsatisfying for the actors as well. Atwell recently called her brief appearance as Captain Carter “frustrating,” explaining:
The way that they edited it was like suddenly just very quick. And watching her, I get so much slack. I’m like, 'That wasn't my choice!' She’s like, 'I could do this all day' and then followed by she's immediately cut in half by a frisbee. And the audience being like, 'She can't do it all day. Apparently you can't, so yeah, egg on your face.' And I’m like, ‘Oh, that doesn't really serve Peggy very well.’
Not that her death matters, or carries much consequence. Because thanks to the Multiverse, her death – and the death of every member of The Illuminati – can easily be corrected by bringing in a Variant of that character from an alternate Earth. There isn’t one Reed Richards. There are endless Reed Richards. So don’t worry that one of them unraveled like spaghetti in front of the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). A new one will be leading Fantastic Four, in theaters on May 2, 2025. For now.
Anyone Can Be A Skrull
OK, so, the existence of a multiverse means that significant character deaths are less consequential, because anyone can be brought back at any time. I guarantee you there have been conversations at Marvel Studios about how soon is too soon to bring Robert Downey Jr. back as a Variant of Tony Stark, from an alternate Earth. There’s also literally a scene in Loki where the character watches his own death at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War… a scene that had real emotional heft, until Loki was just brought back through time travel antics and multiversal shenanigans.
That’s an issue. But now, thanks to Secret Invasion, we also learned another “out” that Marvel writers have given themselves.
Characters could be Skrulls.
This also was hinted at in Spider-Man: Far From Home, when the Nick Fury and Maria Hill we followed on Spidey’s European vacation turned out to be Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and a fellow Skrull. They were hiding in plain sight amongst us, on our planet. This notion was increased significantly in Secret Invasion, when we have learned that key characters in the MCU might have been Skrulls from the first time that we met them. (I’ll refrain from mentioning who, in case you made it this far down and still don’t want to be spoiled.)
Over the course of Secret Invasion, we have watched multiple key MCU characters get killed on screen. Some of them, however, were not the actual person. They were Skrulls in disguise. We also watched a Skrull character get shot and presumably killed. Except, the Skrulls seem to be using the Extremis Virus from Iron Man 3 to restore their wounds, making them near-invincible. So this character, who had been shot in the chest, woke up. And was fine.
Right now, the stakes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel very low. And it’s a combination of the introduction of the multiverse, and the threat that every character might now possibly be a Skrull in disguise. I personally have a harder time investing in the MCU characters the way that I did around the time of Infinity War and Endgame, when it really seemed like our heroes could lose. And even did lose. Admittedly, it’s tough to judge where the MCU is going until we see the master plan play out. And there IS a master plan, as two Avengers movies with massive subtitles have been announced. So we’ll see what the end result is.
But for the moment, it feels like the multiverse and Skrulls have made it far more difficult to emotionally invest in the drama and stakes of the MCU, because it all feels like bait that is about to be switched, right before our very eyes.
