Will you watch WandaVision?
Since the release of the first Iron man film in 2008, Marvel entertainment has brought countless superheroes to life. Needless to say, the success of the Ironman trilogy has brought Marvel back from the edge of bankruptcy. However, the concept of “Marvel fatigue” emerged online only months after the first Iron Man film’s successful debut. Over the course of 2009 to 2012, the concept has been heavily googled. Miraculously, “marvel fatigue” stopped prior to the release of the third iron man film.
Why do people discuss “Marvel Fatigue”?
Marvel Fatigue refers to the notion that audiences are sick and tired of the superhero genre.
Mainly because the plot of some productions is very predictable, this then gave birth to the concept of fatigue in the first place. Additionally, the audience grows weary after being exposed to long hours of CGI whilst experiencing zero emotion connection to the character or the plot. If Marvel’s scripts are really that predictable, why then does such fatigue disappear overnight after 2013?
In 2013, Marvel Studios released two major superhero films: Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. Crowned as the twentieth highest growth film worldwide of all time, Iron Man 3’s story plot has multiple interesting twists that differentiate itself from the formulaic superhero plots. The plot plays around with the idea of a terrorist group led by the enigmatic “Mandarin”. Following the unveiling of the story, audiences will find out that the so-called “mastermind” of the terrorist group in the film may not be the one they have expected, and our beloved Tony needs to piece out all the missing puzzles as eagerly and enthusiastically as the audience does.
After the success of the Iron Man 3 in 2013, Marvel Studio slowly released Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-man (2015), and Deadpool (2016). The concept of “Marvel Fatigue” reverberated on the Google Trend charts after 2014 but never skyrocketed. According to Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studio, the key to Marvel’s success is to keep innovating, “almost every film we make and every decision we make is to keep ourselves interested and to keep things fresh and to keep things unexpected.”
After being bought by Disney in 2009 for 4 billion USD, Marvel has earned Disney more than 18.2 billion USD from box office revenues over the latter half of the decade. 2020 has seen a drastic decline of box office sales due to the closure of cinemas during the pandemic, yet the innovation of online streaming really creates a fascinating content universe for audiences to enjoy. Since its launch last year, Disney plus has been creating great TV series such as the sensation “The Mandalorian”. It is said that there will be 10 more Marvel series to be launched on the platform.
So, can we suffer from Marvel’s content fatigue? The answer is maybe in the future but definitely not for the year 2021. Because there is so much to expect from Marvel and so many riddles to be revealed. With the long-expected TV series “WandaVision” on my watch list, I am just beyond happy that I still have one more show to binge post lockdown.
So, watch up!
