The Marvels Director Addresses “Superhero Fatigue” and The MCU

The Marvels director Nia DaCosta addressed the concept of “superhero fatigue” and how her movie stands apart from previous Marvel Studios entries. In an interview with Total Film, the filmmaker plainly said, “I think superhero fatigue absolutely exists.” But, she’s also betting that The Marvels will do enough to stand out from the wave of superhero content that has come out in the last 12 months. From the first reactions to the trailer, they’re on the right track. Most of Phase 4 Marvel was centered around grief and recovering from The Blip. But, The Marvels has turned the fun dial up in a big way to close out 2023. Here’s how DaCosta described her movie.

“The biggest difference from the other MCU movies to date is that it’s really wacky, and silly,” DaCosta told the outlet. “The worlds we go to in this movie are worlds unlike others you’ve seen in the MCU. Bright worlds that you haven’t seen before.”

James Gunn Addresses Superhero Fatigue

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn actually spoke about the concept of superhero fatigue with Rolling Stone. Because, as you can see from box office totals, not all superhero movies are failing. Titles like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse have cleaned up this summer. So, how do you explain the dissonance there? For Gunn, it seems like the emotional core of these movies needs to be stronger.

“I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue,” Gunn began. “I think it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes. It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character. We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they’re these incredible characters that we have in our hearts. And if it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring.” 

He added, “But I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not. If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.”

Kevin Feige Tangles With The Idea of Superhero Fatigue

Marvel Studios head man Kevin Feige has been hearing rumblings about superhero fatigue for 20 years now. He thinks that the stories need to connect with the hearts of fans and everything kind of works out. During an interview with The Movie Business Podcast, Feige talked about the early days of his tenure at Marvel and how it relates to right now.

“I’ve been at Marvel Studios for over 22 years, and most of us here at Marvel Studios have been around a decade or longer together,” Feige explained. “From probably my second year at Marvel, people were asking, ‘Well, how long is this going to last? Is this fad of comic book movies going to end?’ I didn’t really understand the question. Because to me, it was akin to saying after ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ‘Well, how many more movies can be made off of novels? Do you think the audience will sour on movies being adapted from books?’ You would never ask that because there’s an inherent understanding among most people that a book can be anything. A novel can have any type of story whatsoever. So it all depends on what story you’re translating.”

The Marvel Looks To Build On Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s Momentum

Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as “The Marvels.”

Do you believe Superhero Fatigue is real? Let us know down in the comments!