Marvel News & Notes

I've talked about the reshoots going on for the MCU right now and one thing that's not been made clear is how much of it is due to poor testing and how much is a matter of riding the wave of memberberries from Spider-Man 3 (the official reason is the latter, incidentally). I think it's a mix of both, since the reworking of America Chavez (whose scenes are believed to have been almost completely re-shot, cf) has no obvious parallel to the Spidey blockbuster. On the other hand, the number of cameos (likely intended to be high even before Spidey's success) has possibly been increased. What I'm most interested in is what the MCU decides to do with Doctor Strange, since thus far the whole thrust of Phase Four is to subvert and diminish the older heroes to make space for the new (something comics have tried and failed to do numerous times). On the surface, Wanda would be the presumed person to supersede him, but her story in WandaVision was botched so badly I'm not sure what you can do with her. Perhaps an even more brave and amazing spellcaster will emerge to save the multiverse--time will tell. I'm also curious how the reaction to the absurd Loki will impact whatever was intended (since it was the most obvious lead-in to the film thematically)--it's simply not clear unless we get an Eternals-style leak.

Sutton says Tom Cruise will be playing an alt-version of Iron Man in the film, which is an old Daniel rumour from the fall of 2020, and a pretty big 'win' for him if true.

The obvious save for the MCU--and not one we'll get, but what would save them from themselves--is that the entirety of Phase Four occurs in the multiverse and can be waved away in a better written Phase Five. This will never happen, because Kevin Feige and his executives would have to admit making mistakes (look at DC's inability to do the same, or Star Wars, or Star Trek, etc), but for fans this is one way out of this disaster.

I have no idea what audience Marvel thinks will show up for an Agatha Harkness show. At least Echo, who is equally uninteresting, can be carried by Daredevil (albeit, if it's done Hawkeye-style, that won't work--and Kingpin has already been ruined, so I haven idea which Daredevil villain she'll bravely defeat). While it may be too far along, Bob Chapek can still save us from Agatha, but there's no rescuing us from Echo.

I'm shocked that Sony cast Dakota Johnson as Madame Web. This project has been floating around for awhile, and given that Sony announces a lot of projects that don't happen, this one always had a better chance of happening because it was backed by Palak Patel, who seems to be the one actually in charge of Marvel Sony (he's behind both Venom films as well as Morbius). In 2019 it was said that Madame Web would spinoff from Morbius and writers were hired at that time. Both C. J. Clarkson and Roberto Orci are rumoured to have been hired for the project (both were hired for something for Marvel Sony), although the latter would run against Hollywood's current passion for having female directors for female-lead films. That background aside, I'm shocked the character hasn't been race-swapped and/or been an actress who doesn't conform to the usual beauty standards (MCU-style). The hiring smacks of Tom Rothman, who believes in stars (or at least names) and wants them to front his films. Johnson's hiring doesn't guarantee quality (the odds are that the film--if it happens--won't be anything to write home about), but I remain surprised how counter programming it is to the current norm.

Nielsen Ratings

Witcher 2734 (+20%; #1)

Emily in Paris 938 (#2)

Hawkeye 938 (+39%; #3)

Wheel of Time 638 (+27%; #7)

Lost in Space 490

Great British Baking Show 256

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous 211

Marvel's Daredevil 195

Jim Gaffigan: Comedy Monster 186

Money Heist 183

Cobra Kai 2423 (December 31st; #1)

Witcher 1827 (-34%; #4)

Emily in Paris 1110 (+16%; #5)

Wheel of Time 630 (-1%; #9)

Hawkeye 539 (-43%)

Queer Eye 466

Lost in Space 452

Book of Boba Fett 389 (December 29th)

Stay Close 349

Great British Baking Show 338

Cobra Kai 2153 (#1)

Witcher 1105 (#3)

Stay Close 988

Queer Eye 723

Book of Boba Fett 563 (#10)

Emily in Paris 553

Ozark 301

Wheel of Time 300

Lost in Space 291

Great British Baking Show 254

I think we can hitch the brief bump in Wheel of Time viewing to curious Witcher watchers hoping for more of the same (and, indeed, for bad writing that's exactly what they got--the Amazon show has lingered like a bad smell). The Witcher's numbers are plummeting, albeit less than half its audience is still enough to remain in the top-three. I think interest in the prequel will give the best indication of how invested casuals remain, as the hardcore fans have given up. How do we know the second season hasn't done as well? Besides the precipitous drop in viewing, we have indirect evidence for it: no hit song, no massive increase in playing the game on Steam, no big jump in streaming numbers, and no big increase in game or book sales. As for the bump for Hawkeye, it seems to be MCU fans (buoyed by Spider-Man 3, echoing what happened briefly to Daredevil) checking it out before it bottomed off the chart entirely. In terms of genre, The Book of Boba Fett landed like a wet fart, although Star Wars fans are so desperate for something to be good there's room for it to be a 'success' on the small scale of The Mandalorean.

About two years ago I thought the outrage YT sphere ('The Fandom Menace', which has remodeled itself as 'The Fellowship of the Fans') was in trouble because their cash cows, Star Wars and Star Trek, were failing and a declining audience would stimmy growth. This is egg on my face, because while those IP continue to decline, poor management and writing has spread to other genre IP, thus breathing more life into them. In honour of my erroneous prediction, let's look at how this bonanza has rewarded the YTers mentioned then:

• Mr. H Reviews 241k->289k (+48k)
• Nerdrodic 234k->400k (+166k)
• Geeks + Gamers 224k->324k (+100k)
• Midnight's Edge 168k->208k (+40k)
• Overlord DVD 151k->273k (+122k)

The two least effected channels were the two least devoted to the content trap (Mr. H and Midnight's Edge). The 'let's get/stay angry' channels have done far better while diversifying their content. I think Gary (Nerdrodic) has pulled ahead because he's more savvy in picking his guests (people like Chrissie Mayr, MauLer, etc). Midnight's Edge continues to be the most 'serious' channel, but their odd panels don't help views in the same way and they seem to have been frozen out by Nerdrotic--whether this is related to the drama last year I don't know. For some who read my content this is all trivial, but I find popular tastes interesting and there's no denying these creators are popular, beginning to approach the gaudy numbers of corporate friendly Emergency Awesome. In terms of news only Midnight's Edge and (to a much lesser extent) Overlord DVD break stories, with the rest being commentary channels, meaning that for general audiences it's how news is discussed more than the news itself that matters.

This article was written by Peter Levi