Spider-Man: No Way Home knocked down the doors in a big way for the big-screen multiverse, folding in previous versions of the webslinger all into one movie and making almost everything before the MCU canon. This trend is set to continue not only in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but at the Distinguished Competition as well, with 2022’s The Flash movie featuring multiple Batman characters (including Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s versions). Like Benedict Cumberbatch has said in many a Marvel trailer, “The Multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little,” and the trend could become a crutch for movie studios.
Speaking in a talk during the 2022 D.I.C.E. Summit, four-time Marvel Studios director Joe Russo was asked about the concept of repeating trends, specifically the multiverse concept that is permeating the MCU and others. Russo likened it to simply being the latest thing that studios were eager to exploit to appease their bottom line, noting that fans should expect for the corporations to do something interesting but the creatives in the room have the juice to push back and actually try something new.
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“The corporate agenda is: Do you like chocolate ice cream? Well here chocolate ice cream with sprinkles, here’s chocolate ice cream with fudge…It’s their job to turn the money printer on,” Russo said. “It’s the creative’s job to say, ‘Well sh-t, I don’t know if I want to watch that.’”
IGN reports that Russo said the creative persons working on such projects have the ability to “push back against the money printer,” and strive for something different.
“So yeah, too much of one thing is a bad thing, but I think there are enough creators and innovators in the space where you can expect to be surprised,” Russo added. “Just don’t expect corporations to surprise you.”
These quotes from Russo paint an interesting picture of the director’s place in the MCU moving forward as rumors continue to swirl about the brothers returning to Marvel Studios for a potential Secret Wars movie. Ironically if such a project were to come to fruition it would almost certainly open up the multiverse in even bigger and wilder ways.
When asked about these rumors previously, Russo told ComicBook.com: “One of these days. We’ll have to see how all this shakes out. I don’t know what they’re going to do with all these characters.”
(Cover Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images)
