MCU News & Notes

The most interesting thing to me about Sutton's Marvel scoops were his takes on the X-Men and Wolverine (cf). In both cases he was talking about pretty faithful adaptations of classic stories, something that isn't reflected in Phase Four (which is why I've wondered about wish fulfillment). There are a few possibilities, given that I believe Mikey has sources at Marvel (never a question with Marvel Entertainment or Sony, but for awhile I was uncertain about Marvel Studios): 1) this is an idea that's been kicked around because of how iconic the characters are, but before the clowns running Phase Four got their hands on it (Victoria Alonso etc), 2) the surface details are true, but it's going to have the 'all different' angle like the limp version of Kingpin in Hawkeye, 3) the characters will be handing things off to 'better'/modern characters ala Echo, America Chavez, etc. As far as I know, no one has asked Sutton about this and he may not know. Given the approach in Phase Four, I think the lesson Feige will take away from No Way Home is that if you want to kill the past, you need it initially to get people to watch (even if not many people, ala Hawkeye, see below). Perhaps Feige will plug in some of the old Fox actors to get them to perform the handoff (Hugh Jackman to pass the torch to X-23 perhaps--that seems to be what he was trying to do in 2019 when he talked to both Jackman and Patrick Stewart). In some ways it doesn't matter what he's doing if the writing standards at Marvel remain low. For my part, the X-Men were my favourite and I don't want the MCU to tackle them until they've corrected course (if they ever do).

Nielsen ratings for streaming are out for the end of November and first two weeks of December:

1. True Story (Nov.24) 943 (2nd overall behind Red Notice)
2. Hawkeye (Nov.24) 853
3. The Wheel of Time (episodic) 663 (-43%; 6th overall)
4. Cowboy Bebop (Nov.19) 629 (+52%; cancelled before completion)
5. The Great British Baking Show (episodic) 584 (+14%)
6. Selling Sunset (Nov.24) 549
7. The Beatles: Get Back (Nov.25) 503
8. The Queen of Flow (episodic) 480
9. Tiger King (Nov.17) 479 (-30%)
10. Hanna (Nov.24) 372

Then:

1. Lost in Space (Dec.1) 1207 (1st overall; slightly bigger opening than WoT)
2. True Story (Nov.24) 607 (-35%)
3. Hawkeye (Nov.24) 560 (-34%; 6th overall)
4. The Wheel of Time (Nov.19) 537 (-19%; 8th overall)
5. Selling Sunset (Nov.24) 440 (-20%)
6. The Great British Baking Show (episodic) 426 (-27%)
7. The Beatles: Get Back (episodic) 408 (-19%)
8. The Queen of Flow (episodic) 377 (-21%)
9. School of Chocolate (Nov.26) 376
10. Money Heist (December 3) 374

Then:

1. Lost in Space 1,018 (-16%; 1st overall)
2. Hawkeye 527 (-6%; 6th overall)
3. The Wheel of Time 509 (-5%; 7th overall)
4. Money Heist 426 (+14%)
5. Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (Dec.3) 337
6. The Great British Baking Show 324 (-24%)
7. The Queen of Flow 324 (-14%)
8. Selling Sunset 278 (-37%)
9. True Story 255 (-58%)
10. Cowboy Bebop 218 (change unclear)

Things to note: more people tuned in for Kevin Hart's True Story than the premiere of Hawkeye; Hawkeye landed with 73% of the interest of Wheel of Time's premiere and then promptly lost a third of its audience (it's opener had the lowest rated MCU D+ opening); as for WoT, the clunky Amazon show tanked hard in its second week, proceeding to lose almost another fifth of its audience in its third week (so more than half the initial audience gave up on it). Funnily enough, Cowboy Bebop, which opened poorly, saw a significant increase in consumption in its second week, but along with cancellation tanked afterwards. It's important to point out that unlike the Netflix shows, which dump all their episodes at once, both Amazon and Disney+ are episodic--this means drops in viewership are not related to people having binged and moved on, but rather audiences failing to retain interest (you can make the Lost in Space-Wheel of Time comparison very easily, where the binged LiS barely lost its audience in the second week, while the episodic WoT lost almost half).

The reason relying on hard data like this is important is because of how disparate anecdotal evidence can be. Most of the people I know who watched Wheel of Time enjoyed it (despite its many, many issues)--think of how skewed that could make my perspective. It's the same case for Witcher season two, which has at least as many issues as the first--the people I know who watched it, enjoyed it, but it simply hasn't performed like it did previously (no massive spike in players on Steam, no hit song, no huge upswell in streaming numbers on Twitch, etc).

One of the strangest trends in the outrage sphere is claiming cultural Marxism is part of Hollywood decision making--what? Andre thinks subverting expectations is inherently Marxist--I don't know what to say to that, but if Wikipedia can be trusted, this idea seems derived from Jordan Peterson re-injecting it into popular discourse (eg). What's baffling about it is why they think mega corporations have these sympathies (they are, by definition, pro-Capitalist). Most of the outrage YTers are loosely Libertarian (as much as they have any political ideology), but I don't think this sudden by-rote sentiment emerged spontaneously. They are responding to a trend that plays well with their audience, but what is it? I think it reflects BreadTubers who identify as Marxists and Communists (not an identity they take seriously, just using it as a cudgel to attack opponents--Hasan Piker et al). I think because the influencers attack the audience for the outragers (broadly older white men), it's useful to attack in turn using the same terminology. This is admittedly trivial, but as someone who has paid attention to this collection of eccentrics and grifters for years, I was initially baffled to suddenly hear anti-communist and Marxism remarks.

While we are touching on the Orwellian madness of the current era, I'd be remise if I didn't mention current events. Let me preface it with something most people don't remember: Wil Wheaton nuking himself from Twitter when they refused to ban Alex Jones, then getting booted from the lefty alternative Mastodon (cf)--he just wasn't quite pure enough to stay. Why am I bringing up Wheaton, who continues happily posting on Facebook? Because he is one of many canaries in the coalmine--if you are going to play the cancel culture game, it's just a matter of time before the mob comes for you. Patton Oswald did not realize taking a picture with his friend Dave Chappelle would threaten his career, but his hilarious apology failed to stop the criticism. Lindsay Ellis, on the other hand, cancelled herself rather than deal with attacks. I'd normally have a lot of sympathy for both, but they have participated in witch hunts like this, so I see it as karma. For fans of either, both will be fine--it's extremely rare for 1%ers to get cancelled--Oswald's career won't be hurt and Ellis will re-emerge to make more long form video essays. All we can hope for is that, unlike Wheaton, perhaps one of them will learn from this experience and be less eager to join the next cancel mob. What's insufferable about these people (including the YT outragers above), is almost none of them actual do anything to push for fundamental change--they aren't out in the streets pushing an agenda--it's all just theater (profitable theater).

This article was written by Peter Levi