Just rewatched Dr Strange… reminded how impressive it is to keep this going for 28 movies/shows through 3.5 phases. Might watch new one in a theater
I was ready to write MCU off after disastrous Eternals, but Spider-Man NWA made me hit pause.
Conversation
Is there any bigger/more complex connected extended universe? I can’t think of any.
If they find a new creative doctrine for phase 5, it could work out. Though right now it looks like they’re mostly just folding in Deadpool, X-men and Blade.
4
13
I don’t think multiverses are it. I predict that’s just a clean-up and integration strategy for phase 4. For phase 5 they need something like the infinity stones long arc but maybe reverse the top-down Thanos type mega-god arc-design. Something more bottom-up.
4
11
I think Star Wars pulled off a major “phase 5” equivalent refactor
Phase 1: original trilogy
Phase 2: prequels — clumsy but good scaffolding
Phase 3: the tv clone wars type stuff I didn’t watch
Phase 4: the sequels and rogue one/solo movies, meh
Phase 5: mandalorian A+
1
9
I’ve tweeted before about why that worked (going down from epic to lore level, changing vibe to deprecate Jedi/Skywalker crap in favor of little guys)
I suspect you have to do that to revitalize really mature franchises. Profane what was sacred before.
1
10
Star Trek imo has kinda failed to grow from franchise to extended universe.
1
9
One of the dangers of MCU is diminishing marginal returns characters. Too many minor and overpowered dull characters nobody knows about. Hopefully Eternals warned them off that path. Needs a new core group maybe, but representing a different mood than the Avengers.
1
5
Star Wars and MCU have fractal depth. Stakes at all levels from friendly neighborhood to Thanos and multiverse. Star Wars has stuff from cosmic force stuff down to junk dealers. Star Trek though only has 2 levels: weird planets with different foreheads and starships.
4
1
22
Replying to
Also in Voyager. It’s very poorly done though. John de Lancie is very entertaining and that covers up the narrative weakness. It’s just a deus ex machina to create long-arc stakes that are not just tedious conflict with Klingons, Borg etc. No substance to Q just like irl.
1
1
Star Trek: Lower Decks might be the missing piece here, takes things a bit less seriously, but still keeps the basic moral frame. Also it depends if you consider The Orville as canon 😅
1