Superheroes are coming to the big screen faster than a speeding bullet, and there’s no stopping them. Just how did it come to this?
Superheroes are coming to the big screen faster than a speeding bullet, and there’s no stopping them. Just how did it come to this?
If you feel like you can’t hit the cinema these days without seeing a superhero movie, you’re right. This year alone, we’re scheduled to have Deadpool, Batman V Superman, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, and Doctor Strange playing in the theaters — that’s six superhero movies in just one year!
And there are many more coming. The various studios involved have released timelines from now until 2020, and if everything works out, 27 more superhero movies will be coming in the next four years, which makes an average of six to seven movies a year. Not to mention all the spin-off superhero TV shows that are already on the air, or yet to come.
If you think this is all too much, you have one movie, and one post-credits cameo, to blame.
How a single post-credits scene changed everything
There have always been superhero movies and TV series. The list ranges from classic (if painful), like the campy Batman TV show from the 1960s, to forgettable (if beautiful), like Helen Slater as Supergirl in the 1984 movie, to landmark (if, well, Michael Keaton), like Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie.
And while movies in this century, like 2000’s X-Men, and 2005’s Batman Begins did well at the box office, it was really Iron Man that changed everything, in 2008. Until Iron Man, the movie studios had been content to take characters from comics, and run them as individual movies. While characters and cast might make a return in sequels, like in the X-Men movies, they never tied together across separate titles; Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins never even hinted at Superman’s existence, much less had him appear in a cameo.
Iron Man, though, introduced something that audiences take for granted today — the portentous post-credits ending scene. After the credits finish rolling on Iron Man, a mysterious Nick Fury suggestively asks Tony Stark if he thinks he’s the only hero in the world (hint), ominously tells Stark that he’s just became part of a bigger universe (hint, hint), then directly name-drops the “Avengers Initiative” on him (hint, hint, hint!).
Keep in mind that this is a full four years before the Avengers movie actually hits the screen. This years-long story arc is possible because of that universe Nick Fury talks about — specifically, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which is the brainchild of a select team at Marvel’s film division, but mostly of one man: Kevin Feige.
Who in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Kevin Feige?
Pre-Iron Man, Marvel had been content to partner with movie studios like Columbia Pictures and New Line Cinema to make movies based on their comic book characters. Circa 2004 though, Marvel wanted to bring production in-house, retaining control and profits of its movies. To do that, the comic company formed Marvel Studios, a movie company.
It also assembled a creative think tank, with Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, helming the group. Feige, who helped to produce the Spiderman and X-Men franchises prior, is also a big comics geek, which explains why the Marvel movies have stayed so true to their original sources.
Together with his tight creative team, which included people like Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesda, and acclaimed comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, Feige was — is — responsible for keeping the MCU on track and the movies on tone.
"While movies in this century, like 2000’s X-Men, and 2005’s Batman Begins did well at the box office, it was really Iron Man that changed everything, in 2008.”
WHY HASN’T THERE BEEN AN AVENGERS VERSUS X-MEN MOVIE?
The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Avengers and X-Men frequently meet, or clash, in the immense Marvel comics’ universe. Why aren’t they doing the same in the movies?
It all has to do with licensing. In the 1990s, Marvel licensed the film rights to many of their characters to various studios, which is why 20th Century Fox made X-Men, while Sony Pictures made Spider-man, and never the twain met.
While Marvel has retained or reclaimed more of their characters’ film rights since then, the key X-Men and Spider-man properties still belong to their respective studios. But rumors are that Spider-man will be appearing in Captain America: Civil War, and Sony is working with Marvel for a new Spider-man movie set in the MCU.
However the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool characters’ film rights are still sitting firmly in 20th Century Fox’s laps, so until that is resolved, don’t expect the Merc with a Mouth to be meeting up with everyone’s favorite genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, anytime soon.
Introducing a new universe of movies
Marvel’s plan was for the studio to release films for individual main characters, and then bring them together in one massive crossover film. The idea of creating a shared, fictional universe across multiple characters is par for the course in comic books, but not for movies.
Prior to Iron Man, it hadn’t been done before … well, maybe if you count Ben Affleck’s Daredevil and Jennifer Garner’s Elektra … and maybe if you count Halle Berry’s Catwoman. But nothing had been attempted at the same scale as the MCU, running across multiple planned movies and multiple years.
While these previous movie duds are best left forgotten, they’re also good reminders of what would have happened to the MCU had Iron Man bombed — it would have fizzled out and been forgotten. But Iron Man didn’t. The movie became an immense smash hit, both critically and commercially, grossing over US$585 million at the box office.
The success of Iron Man led to the release of Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America (2011), and eventually culminating in the crossover The Avengers (2012). The Avengers became the first Marvel movie ever to turn over US$1 billion in ticket sales, eventually grossing over US$1.5 billion worldwide.
A shared movie universe didn’t just work, it turned out that it could work spectacularly. And — you guessed it, now everybody else wanted in.
Everybody and their sidekick want a taste of that shared universe
With the massive success of Iron Man and the subsequent movies in the MCU, you could bet that Marvel’s long-standing competitor, DC Comics, wanted in on some of that shared universe action.
But while Marvel enjoyed hit after hit, DC Comics floundered with movies like 2009’s Watchmen and 2011’s Green Lantern. Christopher Nolan was doing amazing work with his Dark Knight trilogy, but his Batman was a singularly contained work, with none of the shared world-building essential for a multi-character franchise.
2013’s reboot of Superman, Man of Steel, changed all that. When General Zod, the villain of the movie, destroys a satellite, you can clearly see the words “Wayne Enterprises” written on it, signaling that this was a world Superman shared with Batman.
Even though it received mixed reviews, the movie became a box-office success, and that was enough for Warner Bros. Pictures to green-light the DC Extended Universe (EU), their answer to Marvel Studios’ MCU. The next movie to come in the DC EU is Batman V Superman in 2016, and a standalone Wonder Woman movie in 2017, with a Justice League movie in the same year.
But it’s not just superheroes that want a shared universe. After the Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm in 2012, they immediately started planning for more Star Wars movies. And not just sequels to Episodes I to VI, but an entire line-up of Star Wars movies — one every year — based in the Star Wars universe. The next Star Wars movie to come, Rogue One, is the first Star Wars movie that isn’t a sequel, but a spin-off starring an entirely new cast of characters.
Even Transformers is being turned into a cinematic universe. According to Deadline, Paramount Studios has created a writers’ room to pitch Transformers spin-offs, like individual movies (the sixth live-action Transformers movie is apparently a Bumblebee spin-off), animated movies, and possible G.I. Joe crossovers, in addition to sequels to the existing movies.
"A shared movie universe didn’t just work, it turned out that it could work spectacularly.”
Does this all crazy? Yeah, it kind of does
If all of this sounds a little crazy to you, it also sounds a little crazy to us. Imagine if the original Ghostbusters movie had been set-up as a ten-movie franchise, with three phases, spin-offs involving other characters and teams, a connected TV show and — you know what, with the new Ghostbusters movie coming out, that might actually be happening.
The problem with all these superhero and connected universe movies is that it can all start to seem too much. It’s not long after you see the last superhero movie that you’re now watching the new one — and how are they connected again? Wait, why is this guy saying this — is it supposed to be referencing that line in the second-last movie when — hold on, are these characters even in the same universe now?
But then again, everyone in the world still seems pretty excited about big superhero franchises. Last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron wasn’t even that good, but it made over US$1.4 billion worldwide. Two sequels are already in the plans, for 2018 and 2019.
And that’s the thing. As long as these connected universe movies make immense buck, the studios will keep on pressing them out. Think you can make a lot of money from a single hit movie? You can make a lot more with that movie, its sequels, spin-off movies, a giant crossover movie, associated TV shows, tie-in video games and books, and let’s not forget the comics.
The one light in this overwhelming onslaught is that some of these movies turn out surprisingly good. 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a movie nobody expected, starring a group of Marvel’s B-list characters. But it turned out to be a success, both critically and commercially, grossing US$773.3 million worldwide. 2015’s Ant-Man did the same, with a superhero nobody expected to like, actually becoming a really good show.
As long as movie studios keep making good superhero movies, then we’ll keep watching them. More Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and less X-Men: The Last Stand. They get our money, we get good entertainment, and everyone wins. So buckle up, because — wait, an Aquaman movie is coming? Seriously?
