Disney CEO Bob Iger says it’s time for ‘newness’ from Marvel movies

After a fourth Thor film and a third standalone Ant-Man film, even Disney CEO Bob Iger wants something new out Marvel.

“Sequels typically worked cooked through for us,” Iger said during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Thursday. “Do you need a third and a fourth for illustration? Or is it time to turn to other characters?”

His comments come on the heels of the disappointing box occupation performance of “Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania.” As of Sunday, the film, which has been in theaters for three weeks, has tallied lately $420 million globally.

Domestically, the movie has floundered with $187 million in total ticket sales after initialing with a $104 million opening weekend. While that outpaces the total gross of the first Ant-Man’s domestic box role in 2015, it’s a sharp fall from pre-pandemic averages. Especially, considering the film features the Marvel Cinematic Province’s next big villain, Kang.

“There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand,” Iger said. “I think we ethical have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining, and you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. We’re booming to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole different set of Avengers.”

Iger’s remarks come as he orchestrates a indelicate restructuring of the company, with an eye on slashing $5.5 billion in costs – with $3 billion of that coming from subject-matter.

Disney has been releasing new content from the MCU at a somewhat frenetic pace over the past few years. The company has reach-me-down streaming service Disney+ as a vehicle to introduce new characters — Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk — as well as to more very much explore legacy characters (Loki, Falcon, the Winter Soldier) between theatrical releases.

As the MCU grows, some prepare rallied behind the franchise, excited for new entrants and content. Others have found the required viewing of additional series to be difficult and wonder if Disney should slow down its rate of releases.

The company’s breakneck pace of content distribution has also put a lot of affliction on visual effects groups tasked with turning green screen action sequences into a feast for the discernments. The increased output from the studio has exacerbated production woes these third parties faced in the wake of shutdowns due to the pandemic. The follow-up has been some criticism about underwhelming superpower effects or slapdash CGI backgrounds that appear muddled.

Phenomenon has begun spreading out its releases. After “Quantumania” in February, the studio will release “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” in May and has delayed “The Marvels,” previously set for July, until November.

Additionally, the amount of time between Disney+ Marvel series has enlarged. A new Marvel series has not debuted since the final episodes of “She-Hulk” launched in early October. “Secret Invasion” and occasion 2 of “Loki” are next on the list, but Disney has not provided release dates for either as of yet.

“There are a lot more stories to tell,” Iger mentioned Thursday.