Credit – Sony/Marvel
Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, is a juggernaut at the box office. As of this writing, it has brought in a box office haul of 1.82 billion dollars, with no end in site. With a domestic gross of 536.6 million, ‘No Way Home’ could be on its way to being in the top five domestic grosses of all time. Even more interesting, is the fact that ‘No Way Home’ is a weekend away from beating the worldwide and domestic grosses of ‘Black Widow’, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, and ‘The Eternals’ combined. Those three Marvel movies together make up 1.19 billion globally and 572.7 domestically. ‘No Way Home’ has only been out for thirteen days and it looks like there’s nothing coming out in the next few weeks to even make a dent in its box office dominance. It would seem that Sony is on a mission to make money the old fashioned way…give the fans what they want. Most importantly, however, is that Sony has just shown Marvel, Kevin Feige, and the rest of Hollywood, that if you make something the fans want, stay faithful to the characters, and leave your stupid politics out of our movies, then the sky’s the limit to your success. Also, if I were marvel, I’d be a bit concerned that Sony looks like they might be developing their own version of the MCU, with Spider-Man as the centerpiece. Will Sony create their own MCU? I would.
Will Doctor Strange 2 be Successful?
If I were Kevin Feige, I would be worried about the future of the MCU and its guarantee in the past, of always having a billion dollar movie. The MCU’s last three entries into the box office have been very tepid, and with ‘The Eternals’, was just outright pathetic. The next few installments for the MCU look just as weak as the previous three, with plenty of helpings of diversity and inclusion. ‘Doctor Strange 2: In the Multiverse of Madness’ comes out in May, and features a Latina lesbian character named America Chavez. She is a failed comic book character that has powers and abilities that can best Captain Marvel. She has been shoe horned into the Doctor Strange sequel solely for representation purposes. Doctor Strange is not called the sorcerer supreme for nothing. He is hands down the most powerful sorcerer in the Marvel universe, yet will need the help of America Chavez and Wanda Maximoff. If you look at the Doctor Strange trailer, it would appear that an evil version of Doctor Strange must be defeated…no doubt being bested by the lesbian Latina America Chavez and Wanda Maximoff. That’s just pure speculation, but it would not be surprising to see Kevin Feige kill off or diminish another white male superhero in his MCU universe. Remember, Kevin Feige controls marvel publishing as well, and Marvel Comics just recently killed off Doctor Strange. Making the white Stephen Strange the villain in his sequel, and then defeated by two diverse and inclusive women, is right in Feige’s wheelhouse. Although, I will admit, that ‘Doctor Strange 2: In the Multiverse of Madness’ will probably benefit from Strange’s appearance in ‘No Way Home’, and have a moderately successful box office…as long as audience’s memories don’t fade by then.
Using Established Characters for Your Diversity and Inclusion Platform is Lazy
After ‘Doctor Strange 2’, ‘Thor Love and Thunder’ comes out, and I don’t know any comic book fan looking forward to that. Jane Foster becomes the new Thor…another failed entry into the comic books. A failed Thor, that Kevin Feige feels necessary to take over, for the very successful Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Another white Marvel superhero bites the dust. And then we have ‘Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever’ that will introduce a race and gender swapped Iron Man called Iron Heart, and rumors of two lesbian characters in Wakanda’s Danai Gurira, that will be in a relationship. I think Kevin Feige has lost all semblance of what it means to be a fan. It’s great that he believes in all this diversity and inclusion, just don’t use our established characters as your bull horn. Create new ones. But he won’t, because he’s lazy, and appropriating established characters is much more convenient for his messaging.
Finally, it would appear that Sony is making a move to create their own version of the MCU with Spider-Man at its center. I don’t think Spider-Man will fit in to this new universe immediately, given Tom Holland’s expected departure from the franchise, but all indications are that Sony could make this new Spider-Man universe work. Sony owns 900 Marvel characters, and would have no problem developing a universe of their own, without any interference from Marvel. With the success of ‘Venom’, ‘Venom 2: Let There be Carnage’, and now ‘Spider-Man: No way Home’, it seems plausible. Sony is also set to release ‘Morbius’ next month, a character who plays an important part in the Spider-Man lexicon. Kraven the Hunter, another famous Spider-Man villain is also rumored to be coming out in 2023. Sony has set itself up very nicely to create its own Marvel universe, if it so chooses, and Kevin Feige and Marvel can do nothing about it. If Sony plays its cards right, and stays with the same successful formula it had this year, Sony will be looking at Marvel Studios in the rearview mirror and laughing at Kevin Feige and Disney all the way to the bank.
Related: The Definitive Spider-Man Movie?
