Credit: Marvel StudiosMarvel Studios dragged down the Walt Disney Company by getting into the TV business, says Disney CEO Bob Iger.
It is no secret that the Walt Disney Company has been struggling in recent years, with movies like Strange Worlds (2022) and Lightyear (2022) flopping hard at the box office and Disney Park attendance dwindling by the day. It can try to make up for it by quietly hiking prices, but the company is in trouble.
The Marvel Studios arm of the company has been in something of a spiral itself, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) disappointing fans and critics alike and viewership of Disney+ series like Secret Invasion (2023) and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) dropping hard.
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According to Bob Iger, there is a good reason for that: Marvel Studios made too many TV series too fast. Not only that, but the inexperience of Marvel Entertainment in TV basically watered down the quality of what audiences have come to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box (via Yahoo), Bob Iger said that “There have been some disappointments we would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better… It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.”
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While those words could apply to the whole of the Walt Disney Company at the moment, he was speaking specifically about Marvel Studios.
He continued: “Marvel’s a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.”
It barely takes any reading between the lines to see that Bob Iger is saying that Marvel Studios basically tanked its brand by going all-in on TV series, beginning with Wandavision (2021).
Bob Iger has a point: in the space of two years, Marvel Studios released eight different TV series on Disney+. While some, like Loki (2021) and What If…? (2021), thrilled fans, far more were viewed as confusing and unnecessary, like Hawkeye (2021) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021).
At a certain point, people began saying that watching Marvel shows had begun to feel like required homework in order to understand the theatrical releases, which basically kickstarted what we now call “Marvel fatigue.”
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There is a lot that has gone wrong with Disney in the last couple of years (a certain feud with a certain Florida governor hasn’t helped), but it is hard to argue with Bob Iger that Marvel Studios has shot itself in the foot with TV. Just don’t ask him how he feels about the writers and actors who create those shows and movies.
Do you think there are too many Marvel TV shows? Let us know in the comments below!