Disney CEO Bob Iger said on Tuesday that the company will be placing a cap on the amount of Marvel movies and TV spinoffs it creates every year, part of a studio-wide strategy to emphasize quality over quantity. The new approach to producing comic-based content, which was announced during Disney’s quarterly earnings call, comes after several box office failures for the once-untouchable Marvel brand, which many have attributed to the public’s growing “superhero fatigue.”
During the call with investors, Iger said that the need to refocus on quality is true for all of Disney’s IPs, but is “particularly true with Marvel.”
“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three,” Iger said. “And we’re working hard on what that path is.”
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Since 2019, when the record-setting “Avengers: Endgame” capped off the studio’s years-long “Infinity Saga,” Marvel has averaged between three and four films per year—with many of them struggling to match the critical and financial success of the entries that came before them.
The only Marvel movie coming out in 2024 is “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Iger went on to say that Marvel Studios has “a couple of good films in [2025] and then we’re heading to more ‘Avengers,’ which we’re extremely excited about.”
The four films scheduled for next year are “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts,” “The Fantastic Four,” and “Blade.” There are also several projects already confirmed for 2026, including the fifth “Avengers” movie.
“Overall, I feel great about the slate. It’s something that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on,” Iger continued. “The team is one that I have tremendous confidence in and the IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing, is second to none.”
Related: Disney “Going Woke” Began with Bob Iger on January 6
Given recent box office flops like “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” as well as the critical failures of several Marvel spinoff series on Disney+, Iger also indicated that the studio will rely less on sequels and more on original stories and animated content.
“We’re gonna balance sequels with originals,” he said. “Specifically in animation, we had gone through a period where our original films and animation, both Disney and Pixar, were dominating. We’re now swinging back a bit to lean on sequels.”
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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