Marvel Has A Major Disney+ Problem With the MCU

With Sacha Baron Cohen’s Mephisto making his live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe within Ironheart’s finale, a major new MCU character has once again been introduced through a Disney+ TV show. This has become a common phenomenon in the 2020s, though it hasn’t proved as impactful or creatively successful as the way new MCU characters were teased on the big screen in the 2010s. After all, few of these figures teased in new Disney+ shows have ever appeared again.

Mephisto is one of the most powerful villains in the entire Marvel Comics mythology. His entrance into live-action Marvel media should be a massive deal that gets people stoked for the future. Instead, the long-awaited appearance of this devilish figure encapsulates a problem the MCU has become entrenched in with its forays into streaming.

The Faulty Track Record of MCU Characters Debuting on Disney+

In Loki’s first season finale, He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) was revealed as the protector of the entire MCU timeline (and its various alternate universes). This Variant of Kang the Conqueror was a surprise appearance for even ardent MCU fans, who expected Kang to first appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Before that big-screen MCU feature even began shooting, though, The Multiverse Saga’s equivalent to Thanos had debuted on the small screen rather than in a movie theater. That indicated to audiences that the future of the MCU was in streaming, and to pay attention to everything the company produced for the medium.

Since then, the MCU’s Disney+ shows have introduced various major characters supposedly integral to the franchise’s future. Secret Invasion was rife with such characters, namely the provocative news host Chris Stearns (Christopher McDonald), who was once reported to be a major MCU fixture in the future. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s final episode, meanwhile, introduced The Hulk’s son Skaar in an awkward moment. If this was meant to satirize the MCU’s penchant for character teases, it needed infinitely better execution. Hawkeye, meanwhile, revealed that its titular lead was actually married to Mockingbird.

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The MCU’s Latest Major Villain Reveal May Also Be One of Its Biggest Mistakes

And now there’s Mephisto in Ironheart, an echo of Kang debuting in Loki. Like all these other major characters (save for He Who Remains) that debuted in the MCU streaming shows, there’s no indicator of where Mephisto will appear next. His only function in Ironheart is to tease upcoming Marvel properties, yet there’s no telling when audiences will see him again. When The Collector showed up in Thor: The Dark World’s mid-credit scene, it was to tease a blockbuster movie that was only nine months away from release. Mephisto and the other MCU Disney+ characters of his ilk, meanwhile, are teeing up projects that don’t and may never exist.

A Trail of Unrealized Potential Within The MCU’s Streaming History

Compare The Collector to, say, Skaar. Three years after his She-Hulk debut, there’s no word on when Skaar will appear again. That makes his clumsy intrusion into the She-Hulk finale even more bizarre. All of the He Who Remains appearances in Loki, meanwhile, are incongruous to the nth degree now that all of Kang the Conqueror’s plans have been abandoned. Secret Invasion and all its plotlines (including legislation outlawing all aliens on Earth) built to propel new MCU projects are gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.

Mephisto, meanwhile, is unlikely to appear anytime soon in the MCU just because he doesn’t seem to immediately fit into imminent Marvel Studios and Marvel Television projects focusing on either superhero movie nostalgia or grounded, cheaper small-screen entertainment. It’s all so weird, this barrage of new MCU characters teasing out futures that will never be realized. It’s not a problem for MCU TV shows to introduce new figures, of course. However, they have to work as standalone entertainment. Werewolf By Night, for instance, was a total hoot and worked perfectly on its terms.

It’d be cool to see Man-Thing again, but a re-appearance isn’t necessary to infuse entertainment or purpose to his inaugural appearance. Compare that to Mephisto or Skaar. Every second of their screen time is about teasing out future MCU projects that don’t and likely never will exist. Premiering so many characters in this medium is a relic of Marvel Studios believing the MCU’s future was exclusively in the world of streaming. Even though Marvel is course-correcting on that front, committing to this poor idea for so many years has left a grisly trail of unrealized potential and awkward sequel teases.

All episodes of Ironheart are now streaming.