With every studio hopping on the "universe building" trend that Marvel perfected for cinema -- too bad Pixar's early "all original concept / few sequels" success didn't translate to cross-studio trends -- cinema will be becoming a lot more like television. It already has, of course, with those annual editions of popular franchises playing like big budget TV miniseries with all their episodes smashed together for one bingewatch a year (think Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter). With the Star Wars universe now planning annual showings and Bond & Star Trek till and that planned resurrection of the entire original iconic movie monsters, one has to wonder if Original Content will finally be put down by the 2020s. Or will the bubble burst and audiences will grow tired of continuing stories with overly familiar characters and often padded multi-part stories with no resolutions. You know, the kind they can get at home on television for free?!
This comic panel has been slightly altered to better illustrate my argument.
All entertainment trends are cyclical. This is a fact, however much people valiantly argue year after year that whatever's hot right then will live on forever. But when exactly will the bubble burst?
I was initially very excited about the growing genre of superhero movies -- like many boys I spent countless hours in childhood and adolescence dreaming of seeing my favorite characters on the page in live action environments (X-Men, The Avengers, The Teen Titans, Cloak & Dagger, Green Lantern and Daredevil figured chief amongst my fantasies in this regard). But even though I wanted this, I'm already kinda bored of seeing it actualized especially since so much of it plays more like a nightmare (see the first film versions of Green Lantern and Daredevil - or better yet, DON'T, if you've managed to escape them).
Backstage blog handwringing and the superhero glut after the jump...
I'm exhausted by the way this genre dominates conversation and demands total subservient enthusiasm. Even the movies everyone agrees to hate immediately upon release or afterwards on reflection (like Green Lantern or, recently, Man of Steel) are seemingly forgotten as soon as the corporate overlords demand a do-over or order up a sequel. Why do these do-overs never come with cash back guarantees? (Since the audience will keep forgiving it actually makes more business sense to keep making the same horrible movie over and over again -- cheaper-- since the audience will flock to each and hope the next reboot is better.)
So I've begun to wring my hands together backstage here at TFE. How to handle it? I'd really like your feedback. Do I declare a moratorium on superhero coverage despite liking some pockets of the genre a lot in an effort to stay a unique site (even the more highbrow film sites seems to cover superhero rumors incessantly and it's just getting dull dull dull). Do I fight back against the tyranny of men in capes? Or do I continue, as we do periodically, enthusing about the good ones (I still think Captain America: Winter Soldier is one of 2014's best movies) but ignoring pre-production coverage of most everything on the grounds that it's an absurdly poor substitute for actual film coverage no matter how unbalanced the ratio of postings preferencing imaginary films over real films is on both fanboy websites and real film sites these days (I won't name names but I'm of the opinion that basically 90% of the famous blogs, even those that think themselves above it and have posted editorials about not doing it, are guilty of this)
In fact, I'm kind of desperate for someone to do a longterm study of all media study on all major film websites on, say, Doctor Strange for example and see if ANY of them print as many words on the movie after it opens as they've printed before it's even started let alone finished filming. My guess is that very few websites would pass this test -- yes, even the higher brow film sites -- and that is a some kind of damning statement about the health of online film culture.
So I'm undecided about how to survive in this new world where everyone cares more about imaginary movies than real ones (this recent tweet and this old article are 1000% true). But one thing I know for sure: nothing is exciting when it's all the time. If Meryl Streep had a movie out every month instead of twice a year, even the most wild and drooling Streep-maniacs would start to understand why other moviegoers sometimes wish they could see other great actresses of a certain age in big roles.
So about those superheroes...
In the next few months of superheroic television we'll learn whether Gotham (Fox), The Flash (CW), Agents of SHIELD (ABC), and Arrow (CW) will be returning next year. I watch the middle two and even though SHIELD is improving immeasurably in its second season, neither are particularly good though they both have fun moments. I wonder why my standards are so much lower for this genre than for, say, drama or comedy? I'm part of the problem since I only watch TV dramas and comedies that I think are actually great or the ones I can't help but watch because of fascinating actresses. Still even if all the superhero series on network air are cancelled this year, history shows us that they'll keep trying new ones.
Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch (aka DAREDEVIL) in the forthcoming Marvel/Netflix series
The next field of dominance for meta-humans/mutants/whatever you'd like to call them: possibly Netflix with Daredevil testing those waters in 2015.
Here is a list of what Hollywood has told us to expect. Despite all masturbatory online enthusiasm about every single project that's ever been announced in this genre (weird considering how many films have been outright bad -- particularly the non Marvel/Disney films), some of these films will never be made. Fact: development hell, complicated contracts, and executive musical chairs are showbiz traditions that are not cyclical. They endure.)
2015
Unknown, 2015 Daredevil (Netflix)
January 2015, 2015 Agent Carter (ABC)
May 1st, 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron (Marvel/Disney)
July 17th, 2015 Ant-Man (Marvel/Disney)
June 19th, 2015 Fantastic Four (Fox)
X-Men Apocalypse
2016
Feb 12th, 2016 Deadpool (Fox)
March 25th, 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (DC/Warner Bros)
May 6th, 2016 Captain America: Civil War (Marvel/Disney)
May 27th, 2016 X-Men Apocalypse (Fox)
Nov 4th, 2016 Doctor Strange (Marvel/Disney)
Nov 11th, 2016 The Sinister Six (Sony)
2017
This may be the year when we see how many men & women in capes & tights the culture can sustain. If we still have as much superhero television playing and we also get one big budget superhero film practically every month it seems like bubble-bursting time, or at least a dimished box office ceiling which will also diminish studio obsession. Naturally this is also when the female heroes start flying in and then they'll get blamed for it even though the glut (and possibly the lack of quality) is what will pop the bubble, not the super-vaginas.
It's also worth noting that this will be the second year in a row where there's a big superhero movie opening with a title that announces the end of the world: Apocalypse & Ragnarok. Read into that what you will.
Unknown, 2017 Wonder Woman (DC/Warner Bros)
Unknown, 2017 Justice League Part One (DC/Warner Bros)
Unknown, 2017 Female Led Spider-Man Related Film (Sony)
Unknown, 2017 Venom Carnage (Sony)
March 3rd, 2017 Untitled Wolverine Picture (Fox)
May 5th, 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (Marvel/Disney)
July 14th, 2017 Fantastic Four 2 (Fox)
July 28th, 2017 Thor: Ragnarok (Marvel/Disney)
Nov 3rd, 2017 Black Panther (Marvel/Disney)
2018
If things go well for the 2015 & 2016 crops 2018-2020 schedules will almost certainly explode into double digit releases per year
Unknown, 2018 The Flash (DC/Warner Bros)
Unknown, 2018 Aquaman (DC/Warner Bros)
May 4th, 2018 Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Marvel/Disney)
May TBA, 2018 The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (Sony)
July 6th, 2018 Captain Marvel (Marvel/Disney)
Nov 2nd, 2018 Inhumans (Marvel/Disney)
2019
Unknown, 2019 Shazam (DC/Warner Bros)
Unknown, 2018 Justice League Part 2 (DC/Warner Bros)
May 3rd, 2019 Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 (Marvel/Disney)
2020
Unknown, 2020 Cyborg (DC/Warner Bros)
Unknown, 2020 Green Lantern (DC/Warner Bros)
Also in Development OR Quietly Cancelled OR in Development Hell OR Just Heavily Rumored
Channing Tatum as Gambit for film (Fox)
X-Men TV series (Fox)
The Defenders (Netflix)
Jessica Jones (Netflix)
Luke Cage & Iron Fist (Marvel)
Painkiller Jane (Indie)
The Sandman (DC/Warner Bros)
Deathstroke (DC/Warner Bros)
Suicide Squad (DC/Warner Bros)
Hancock 2 (Sony/Columbia)