The Future of the Superhero: Do We Have Collective Cape Fatigue?

Welcome to the twentieth episode of One Moore Hollywood Podcast. In this episode, our three hosts, Chris Moore, Katie Marpe, and Dennis De Nobile, will discuss Marvel, going over its interconnected web of superhero movies and whether or not people are starting to experience some superhero fatigue.

Is It The Cape, or Is It The Quality?

The Marvels opened this weekend to 47 million dollars grossed domestically–the lowest opening weekend in franchise history. Now, why is that? Are people sick of the superhero genre, or is it the quality of the superhero movie that's missing?

De Nobile, the only one of our hosts who has seen The Marvels so far, thinks it's the quality in question, saying it felt like they were building the car while driving it. The story didn't feel compelling to him, seeming more focused on setting up future movies in the series rather than the story it was telling.

"It's not that I can't watch another superhero movie–it's almost like Marvel educated us and set the bar so high that we just know none of these movies are that good."

–Chris Moore

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and its sequel are examples of recent Marvel movies that opened to critical acclaim. So it doesn't seem like the public opposes all superhero movies, maybe just the ones that aren't very good.

The World of Marvel

Another question that comes up when discussing the popularity of Marvel movies is their accessibility, given their interconnected nature. While the Marvel universe is a plus for superfans, the rest of the public has to consume a lot of content to understand the complexities of each new movie. For example, says Marpe, a Variety article wrote that to really appreciate The Marvels, you have to have watched Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision (the series), Hawkeye (the series), and Ms. Marvel (the series). That's a significant amount of required viewing to enjoy one new movie. And is that too much to ask of an audience these days, especially with their content spread over so many streaming platforms?

Well, according to De Nobile, "If you have good stories, people will come.” Perhaps it isn’t too much to ask as long as the content is worthwhile.

Listen to the entire episode here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or iHeartRadio.