For the past decade, Disney has been the Teflon movie studio, remarkably adept at withstanding the tectonic changes impacting the film industry, and well fortified by its arsenal of key properties such as Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar.
But this year, the long-reigning titan of the box office has shown cracks as four of its biggest releases from those brands and others have struggled in theaters…
Theyre only connecting series together because Disney wants to ultimately do their rendition of Secret Wars (happened in the comic series in 2015). They threw the hints by including the concept of incursion in the multiverse of madness. Its also why fantastic 4 is getting a reboot, despite the countless number of times it failed. Dr Doom is essential for Secret Wars to happen.
Comics being super interconnected in big events is indeed not a Disney invention, and it makes sense for movies to follow that format. BUT both comics and the MCU initial phases only worked out because the heroes’ standalone comics/movies stood on their own feet. Disney fucked up when they started making interconnected movies without setup (Eternals, I liked it but no one else did) or making standalone hero movies that are clearly just there for a future mash-up (compare recent movies to first Iron Man or first two Captain America movies). Doesn’t help either that repeating the same formula for new hero movies over and over gets boring with time and today’s Disney (and overall mainstream movie market) is deathly afraid of creativity. When was the last time you saw a movie that isn’t a remake/sequel, adaptation, or documentary?
Im pretty sure its the other way around. Disney paid good money for the Fantastic 4 and theyll reboot it like Sony on Spiderman if thats what it takes make the IP pay out. The specific movie plots involved in doing this are all secondary concerns.