File this under opinion, but I keep seeing interviews with Marvel directors lately where they are talking about how “new,” “different,” or “unexpected” their version of a film or characters are. While being different is usually a good thing, I think that might be one of the overall issues with the decline of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe.)

Marvel did fantastic until it hit Phase 4, and part of the decline was due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down theaters. That wasn’t all of it. Oversaturation and replacing the established characters for swapped versions of what audiences knew did not help. Now, the directors keep discussing how “different” their films will be from the past. I’m not sure that will work out the way Marvel and Disney think it will.

‘Eternals’, for example, did not perform well, and part of it was because several new characters were introduced, and most MCU fans didn’t know them. But the director kept trying to make them film in a non-traditional way. While she didn’t get to destroy Earth at the end, she still made a film that didn’t resonate with fans. It has to feel like an MCU film, as well.

Meanwhile, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ did perform relatively well at the box office, even though it had primarily new characters. The difference was that it felt like an MCU film.

‘The Marvels’ and ‘The Thunderbolts’ are coming out soon, and for both films, the directors have made comments about their movies being different.

Director Nia DaCosta recently talked about ‘The Marvels’, saying:

“The biggest difference from the other MCU movies to date is that it’s really wacky and silly. The worlds we go to in this movie are worlds unlike others you’ve seen in the MCU. Bright worlds that you haven’t seen before.“

First off, that isn’t necessarily true if you look at films like “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.” But right off the bat, it is about how different this film is from the MCU. That is something that, while it can work, will likely backfire. Especially as only Ms. Marvel has been portrayed as “wacky” so far, and her show performed terribly.

Recently, the ‘Thunderbolts’ director, Jake Schreier, made some similar comments about his film.

“I can’t say what it is, but I can say that there is something different.

I think that something that was exciting about Thunderbolts is it’s not a sequel. It’s a new story, and it’s a set of characters that maybe we’ve met a little bit in the MCU before, but this is a very new take on who they are and what brings them together. Probably not what people are expecting from it, but I guess I can’t really say more than that.“

Again, this is a new group of characters we know well, like the Winter Soldier and characters we’ve barely met. While a “rag-tag” group can work well (see ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’), the comments about being not what people expect might blow up in their faces. (Honestly, this film was one that has a lot of promise if done well.)

Over the past year, only ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ has performed somewhat well at the box office, and it did so due to a good story and the fact that people love these characters. The characters are mostly who they’ve been since they were brought in. Meanwhile, we’ve seen diminishing box office and Disney+ returns with almost every new offering. Frankly, given what the directors say and the number of people who are seemingly over the MCU, I’m unsure how either of these films will do.

We shall have to wait and see. Hopefully, it all works out well, and we get notable films with significant box-office returns. But honestly, I’m not holding my breath.