Credit: Inside The MagicWith Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man/Tony Stark and Chris Evans’ Captain America/Steve Rogers stepping down, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has embarked on a new era called the Multiverse Saga.
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Even with worries about “superhero fatigue” and the exit of Jonathan Majors, who formerly played Kang the Conqueror, Marvel Studios is set to reshape the Marvel movie landscape once more.
With Jonathan Majors departing from the studio and Marvel President Kevin Feige contemplating a transition from the Multiverse Saga to a new Mutant Saga featuring X-Men characters, Avengers 5, now Avengers: Doomsday (previously known as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty) is in development to lead into Avengers 6 AKA Avengers: Secrets Wars.
Disney Tries to Revive Dying Franchise With Star Trek Inspiration
It’s no secret that The Walt Disney Company’s acquired fantasy franchises, Star Wars and Marvel Comics, have been struggling lately—critically, financially, and in general public perception. Now, it appears that Disney is set to look toward a particular sci-fi “rival” franchise, Star Trek, to chart its new direction as the company navigates what could be the final frontier for this once-unequivocally beloved franchise.
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Paramount+’s (Paramount Plus) Star Trek: Picard Season 3, which premiered in 2023, continued the adventures of Admiral Jean Luc Picard, played by Sir Patrick Stewart. This final season brought a return of beloved characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, including William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Worf (Michael Dorn), and many others.
The season followed Picard as he confronted new threats and personal challenges, delving deeper into his past and his connections with old friends. The storyline integrated elements of nostalgia balanced with fresh narratives, exploring themes of legacy, identity, and the future of the Federation.
The third (and final) season was overall well-received for its character-driven storytelling and its tribute to the Next Generation era of the Star Trek franchise.
In fact, Kevin Feige himself is one of Star Trek‘s biggest fans, honoring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Astra Awards, as well as having guest starred on the Inglorious Treksperts Trekkie podcast about the oft-forgotten 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Inverse, in an interview with Feige on the new Vision series spinning off of WandaVision, shares how Feige’s fannishness led him to building the creative team behind Marvel Studios’ next big Marvel Television hit:
Feige has never been shy about his love of the Star Trek franchise. He’s cited the ending of The Next Generation as one of his favorite endings of a TV series ever, and openly pointed out how the Star Trek films shaped the structure of various MCU sequels.
Naturally, it seems Kevin Feige was dedicated to bringing on the mind behind this final season of Picard, Terry Matalas — finally confirming the creator Terry Matalas as the newest Marvel addition to helm the upcoming Disney+ (Disney Plus) Vision Quest (or just Vision now, as the interview states) for the MCU.
Continuing their new trend of choosing to hire dedicated showrunners for Marvel TV projects over simply relying on a large writer’s room and director to scramble to pull together some semblance of a coherent series, Matalas will bring this resurrected, rebooted, iteration of Vision into a “new storyline for the character, and a new vibe for the MCU.”
Will this undo the damage that less-than-stellar Marvel Television offerings of the past years did to Marvel Studios’ overall reputation of high quality? How much work will Matalas have to do to fix the stain of maligned shows like She Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) and Secret Invasion (2023), despite the early success of entries like WandaVision (2021) and Loki (2021)? Hopefully, only a feasible amount.
What do you think of Disney turning to Star Trek to fix the MCU? Are you excited for Vision? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!