Film Theory: Should the MCU Reboot? (Marvel) 

Matpat should do a theory on how much money Phineas and Ferb spent in that one summer

I don't care if they reboot or not I just want them to make good movies so people can actually care about the MCU

I think that the best age of Marvel was when they took years to hint to a BIG huge Thanos villain. That is when it was fun to watch, because even though each movie had a small villain there were hints to a larger threat. When everything was connected and not everything was so separate.

After watching the goodbye video….. this video hits soooo much different with all the Easter eggs…..

With matpat telling them what to do, south park telling them what NOT to do, and the constant stream of viewer feedback, they better be able to come up with something.

They just need a cannon lore team. A group to combat the constant retcons and inconsistencies.

Something these new movies are missing is a multi faceted story which is admittedly hard to write. The Spiderverse movies are such a great example of this. While yes, the story of the first one is about stopping a supervillain with a supercollider but it is also the story about a father and a son who struggle to agree on things. About how expectations can hold us back. About a kid trying to find his identity. And all the other characters have arcs that compliment each other, a story line that flows perfectly and even a memorisable soundtrack.

I think it’d be cool to compare the situation Marvel is in, vs the situation DC is in. It’s ironic that for Marvel, a reboot is truly the worst decision, but for DC, it’s DEFINITELY the best decision

Another problem is they are focusing heavily on multiversal and cosmic problems all the time. Sometimes we just want low stakes

You forgot to mention one of the biggest reasons why Captain Marvel did so well. It was HEAVILY advertised as a must watch before Endgame.

rather than a reboot, what I wish they HAD done during phase 4 was wrap up all the current characters save a small handful, then for phase 5 start some new stories just like with phase 1. A big part of what led to the overcomplexity has just been the continuing "everything is connected" as they add more and more characters and more and more content. They need to manage the overall spread of the MCU that they are telling through their stories at one time. Connect it all, sure, but connect it over time.

6:26 the fact that he made the sections the colours of the 4 different channels😨 He was making hints about his retirement and we didn’t notice..

They also should have people in charge of character consistency and timeline, working across the different projects supervising the writers and letting them know where their character should be mentally on the thing that they are writing, so the Wanda problem doesn’t happen again

They used to connect the films in such an exciting way. Nick fury showing up at the end of every movie to recruit people to the avengers was so hype. We all couldn't wait for them to meet each other. The avengers movies were some of the best. It feels like marvel studios stopped caring about that as much and instead focused on like... Cameos

After watching the goodbye video it seems obvious the Easter eggs were in place for us to begin with. I just never noticed them

Matpat, thank you for simply being a good person and thinking about your audience and making us great content instead of just making a random video every week and not giving much thought to what we want to see

Thank you so much for saying this! I hope Kevin Feige and Bob Iger see this video.

Fun fact: the reason why Disney+ shows were so bad was because Disney never hired showrunners to plan plotlines in conjunction with filming of the episodes and setting the shows as not serialized content. Disney thought it was easier to save money and have some of these shows as just “long movies” and that’s why like every show feels like there’s 8-9 missing plotholes/plotlines in a rushed finale. Yikes…

6:56 THE FORESHADOWING OMG

I really like the part where you said if every single film “changes everything” nobody will be invested. This side of media is so oversauturated and I just wanna watch a quality movie, I liked marvel for cool actors and fun.. not huge reveals and intense scenes that only make sense to super-fans

Breaking trust with the audience is a massive one for me. That we haven’t seen Shang chi since is criminal

If you want to see a good example of how resetting the timeline doesn’t always work out, the X-men movies after days of future past can be a good one to examine.

I can confirm they are already doing this. I am friends with someone who has pitched marketing strategies to marvel. Each section will have its own story in the future. Like (magic, tech street level) basically acting as an entry point so no longer you will have to watch all marvel properties. They will be connected but in their individual sections more or less.

this is foreshading his retirement

I wouldn't care how often they put something out as long as their interconnected stories remained cohesive and didn't contradict one another, and also the characters remained in-character and consistent in their motivations and actions.

The fact that MatPat has shamelessly plugged EVERYTHING in this video to show Marvel how it's done just beats me, amazing

Great video as always, MatPat. Hopefully Deadpool 3 gives some much-needed relief to their situation. Also hoping they introduce Fantastic Four and X-Men sometime in Phase 5.

Deadpool 3 is the last hope, if this movie doesn’t land with audiences, I think they should consider a small reboot while keeping some characters from the main universe.

it’s videos like this one that reminds me how well MatPat and everyone in Team Theorist run everything, not just as YT channels but as a company

On the matter of audience trust, you've gotten me to watch fashion videos despite never caring about fashion. Well done, Team Theorist. Well done.

I completely agree. People remember when Marvel was great, it wasn't that long ago. All they need to do is focus up the quality, cut out unecessary releases, and come out with a few focused bangers maybe delivering a medium term payoff shorter than the Infinity Saga. Like leading up to another Avengers movie. And they should scrap heroes people aren't that interested in. All of a sudden people would start saying "Marvel is good again." And that's all it takes

I wish this channel could make a video on all of respective dc reboots (pre crisis and post crisis) dc comics in order. It's very confusing yet interesting. I saw a yt video regarding the topic but it was satisfying.

The character assassination of Wanda is absolutely tragic. She could have easily been one of the biggest characters in the franchise, but they turned her into a full blown psychopathic villain who can't be redeemed

One thing i’m tired of about superhero movies is when they make it seem like the character is going to die but then they don’t and live like normal, they did a good job with Tony Stark in that one scene.

Great video, and as someone who has created their own channel and is currently working on helping a channel for a tv show, there is sooooo much to gleam from this episode. This is why I messaged you all on your website. I feel like you have a lot of helpful insight.

One of their big problems at the moment is also the cost of living crisis. People are now picking and thinking harder about what they actually want to see at the movies and with the turn around time to streaming being so quick now, people would rather save the pennies and wait or only go and see certain things. I know I've had to pick better at what films I really want to see and what I want to wait for now compared to before Covid and the crisis.

The way i see it is that this is what happens when a franchise becomes so big, companies feel they shouldn't have to replicate what came before which are the things that made it successful and instead double down on things people complain about in those said franchises. It's not really the writers or the directors or kevin fiege it's the ones that own the studio. Kevin and the crew he brought along with him were all still on a clear path of all the things to come in all the others phases, the only problem is is that Disney didn't start to interfere more until endgame was over, and it's not just Disney but other studios that do this.

sometimes I forget just how smart Mat is, the trust bank analogy to content vs. audience was genius.

Not stopping at END GAME... was the biggest mistake.

I don't think the MCU needs a reboot. They need new main characters. The MCU used to be based around Iron Man and Captain America. When they died, it spun out into tons of small independent stories. We need new leads.

The funny part is that even the Marvel comics Kevin Feige loved so much taught this lesson he chose to ignore: every Avengers team has their own leaders, and neither Captain America nor Iron Man lead all of them. It's just necessary when an operation gets large enough to delegate tasks.

I think Marvel needs to have something like an internal wiki, so they can keep the characters and what happens to them consistent between series

Watching this after the retirement annoucement really hits different.

I think you could have a lot of fun with theories around the show The Office. Specifically around why Kevin was hired for accounting instead of the warehouse position he originally applied for.

I really hope someone from Marvel sees this and takes it seriously. What MatPat just suggested would potentially start fixing a lot of the issues the modern MCU has.

They don’t need a reboot, they need a comprehensible timeline

Matpat should do a theory on where Lucy Gray went in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

10:05 so glad you mentioned this as some of my fav movie Easter Egg channels are making just this mistake right now, moving into discussion videos and trying to convert fans of Easter Egg videos into fans of podcast style videos - when you expect one type of video but get another then you feel cheated.

the whole sectioning of teams to like street level heroes and cosmic level heroes was greatly explained. i keep thinking that the marvel fandom is separated into at least 5 groups (mutants, avengers, spiderverse, magic, vigilante) and we all want different things that requires different people at the helm. but i didn’t know how to explain that in a way that really made sense.

The real problem is that they jumped straight into the multiverse instead of making a bridging phase to introduce new heroes while also establishing a threat like Dr Doom or the return of Ultron. It would be much better if it turns out the flag smashers are part of a bigger conspiracy and the whole restructuring of the world post blip got its own avengers movie. Because we don’t even know who’s an avenger still. The audience should really know who is part of the core avengers team before we dive straight into fighting kang.

Here's how they can right the ship. Make good movies. Yeah. Simple as that. Remove all priorities which are not directly serving that singular goal.

Honestly for the whole trust thing something I've been looking for is the bit of venom that was left in No Way Home. With Gorrs sword and Celestials' becoming a thing i always thought it set up Knull, The Symbiote God wonderfully as a new main antagonist... and then well we git She Hulk...

I don’t really want a reboot, I just want them to start making movies like they care again

I remember the days when I waited for the release of each episode of Wanda vision even though the first few episodes didn't made any sense. It's because of my trust in MCU that it will lead to something. Now, I have no idea which series or movie is gonna come next and I don't care if it releases or not. That's the state of MCU for me. Hope DP3 will have a good story and be a good movie overall.

I am such a big marvel fan and flop after flop i still golf out hope that they will come to their senses, it’s videos like these that reinstall my faith in the mcu… After re reading that i understand how dramatic i sound but it is what is it i guess

This is unironically a fantastic business management video. Nicely done Matpat 👏

The MCU had shows for years before WandaVision. Agents of SHIELD lasted seven seasons, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Runaways all had three, Agent Carter had two, etc. They tied in to the movies, but were separated enough that they weren’t essential viewing. Of course the biggest complaint about them at the time was that they didn’t have MORE crossovers with the films, but… we see now how that causes more problems than it helps.

I think it's important to also consider that while the "Ultimate" universe might seem like a failed experiment now; it was the basis for the entire MCU in the beginning. Heck, even Nick Fury being played by Samuel L Jackson was from those comics years before the first Iron Man film.

Another problem Marvel is having is not sticking to their comic books. I get some storylines don't transfer well onto the movie screen or TV BUT they LITERALLY have been changing storylines and having a much sadder fanfiction version of what it should be,- straying from the original source material. Dr.Strange 2 should have just picked up where Dr.Strange left off instead of the fan service movie we got. I feel like that's all the movies are now. . Did we really care about America Chavez a character we didn't know about or care about? At least with Marvel we got to be introduced to her before we went into the Marvels. Plus Ms Marvel gave a Peter Parker vibe. But other then that . I can write better fanfictions by using the original resource material . However Disney needs to let go of there egos and I agree with Matpat, they need other people in charge of different departments and have meetings so their all on the same page. Feige doesn't have to have control and his decision obviously isn't the best lately

Thank you for the studies today mark ❤ I appreciated all of your hardwork and will start my YT channels from scratch

3:21 "its all Kevin Feige" was the marketing campaign but i think its obvious at this point that Kevin Feige was a disorganized mess of ideas without Ike Perlmutter there to rein in his worst impulses. You can trace the decline of the MCU to when Feige wemt to Bob Iger and had Ike taken out of the equation.

The thing about releasing so many series without fleshing out things is so true. I LOVED Wandavision, but especially their first episodes where it’s supposed to be a regular sitcom that suddenly gets creepy and/or self aware and I thought it was really well executed. I wish they hadn’t rushed this series into so little episodes! It would have been so fun to see more of these episodes instead of it skipping through decades and lore every single episode.

The timing of this video is great since it seems like they’re doing exactly what you recommended!! All projects, with the exception of Deadpool 3, are official on pause until they figure things out. The Captain America movie is still happening but is being completely reshot and has been pushed back to 2025. Daredevil season 1 script was ready to go but they realised it isn’t actually what they want for the character or the MCU so it’s being completely rewritten. Looks like Marvel is finally taking some steps in the right direction, and that makes me hopeful!

6:50 coming back after MatPat announced he was handing off the channels, these are literally the guys he's handing them off to and he hid this right inside a video from 2 months ago

I think another overlooked aspect of their failures of late is power creep. When things start getting bigger and stronger and harder to understand just in hopes of making a show or movie "more exciting" than the last, it stops being relevant and relatable. People lose interest because there is nothing compelling to connect to. I know that doing the same thing over and over also loses interest over time, but if you are climbing at an exponential rate (on top of the over packed release schedule), you're going to lose interest faster. Especially as your fans didn't gain more time and money in the last 5 years to be able to afford to watch all the new content and how it affects everything (if it even matters). I'm fact, the number one complain I hear from friends and co-workers is they don't have time and since it's all connected, they can't keep up and instead give up...

I’ve seen so many videos like this, Matt explained it best, growing up on the original spider man movie and iron man on dvd was such a fun and memorable experience. I wish they could recreate that experience with the quality of their movies. There are very few movies in phase 4 that I would rewatch more than twice.

I lovethe podcast versions of the theory channels its a great way to reexperience your funducational channels while im at the grind on my retail job cause i can have 1 ear bud in.

Hey Matt, here are a few ideas I have for new films you could make theories on: 1. Megamind 2. Rango 3. Small Soldiers 4. Atlantis: The Lost Empire 5. Chicken Run (& the upcoming sequel)

Considering they’ve introduced the multiverse, I’d create one-off films that can be in very different genres/styles, each set in different universes, and maybe mini-universes with a few characters that can interact or team up.

It’s amazing how mat can take apart Disney while also avoiding all the controversy hot button issues surrounding the company.

I actually really like What if, and I think it's probably the way to go if they want to revisit older or dead characters like Tony Stark or Steve Rogers without resurrecting them or tarnishing their legacies. Staying in the realm of animation when exploring the stories of variants in alternate universes is a fun way of giving them new stories without having to worry about how it affects the MCU's 616, and it can lead to a lot of creative standalone side projects if they give it as much love as Spiderverse got.

This video is really good. It captures perfectly why MCU starts dwindling down, strategy to overcome, and the reasoning behind it over alternative options. If anything, i think Marvel should pay you guys over this

Another important important factor is being able to adapt to changes that will hinder timetables for films and tv shows. Considering events got awkwardly shuffled due to vid and plot points got shanked in the shows for at least Falcon and Secret Invasion. Secret Invasion would probably worked better as a film

I like how this shows matpats analysing data and making meaningful theories is not jus something he does as content but in his actual life and business

MatPat has given us a lot of hints foreshadowing his retirement. You've earned our trust, don't you worry. ❤

Matpat, please make a SKZ(stray kids) lore video, basically breaking down every video(there are more videos like SKZflix) please because the lore is so complex to me and I think other Stays would love the idea, Love your videos from 🇩🇴.

I feel like the trust system is something many companies completely ignore nowadays in gaming as well, specially on live service games. Great and informative breakdown

There is a correction I'd add. They ALSO kept Mr Fantastic alive from the Ultimates (the Maker I think?), and they even have a whole storyline where he's manipulating another universe to *recreate* the Ultimate universe. He even offered Miles a chance to join him.

The issue is that previous movies were based on comics from 1971 to 2015. The recent ones are based on comics from 2015 onwards.

I think What If could be a good template for them to make some quality marvel content. They use What If as a place to test ideas and the most well received ones get a show (one show not several movies and shows) based around the universe of that episode. That way they can tell stories people wanna see while keeping things fresh and interesting and mitigating the burnout. For example for season two, the 80s Avengers episode with Ego would make for a fantastic extended story and possibly same for the Tony meets the grandmaster episode. Obviously they wouldn't do this for every episode (probably limit to one or two maybe three from a season) and they'd probably have to move away from using the mcu actors but they'd have a lot more freedom

With Endgame we were wondering what kind of geniuses could juggle flaming chainsaws like it was nothing, afterwards, we realized they were just crazy and running mostly on luck and adrenaline.

I think the original plan was to have multiple different running storylines each different from the other. I think labeling each one would be good. Like for young avengers have a subtitle under the logo. Or for more cosmic stuff, have marvel Cosmos. That way storylines don't feel as stretched out because they are different parts of the universe. We knew the Marvel Netflix series were in the same universe, but they had thier own problems which made the story less muddled. Agents of Shield was originally connected, but as the show went on decided to have it's own plot with payoffs. But people knew it was separate. So having a couple movies while we get to learn more about this other part of the universe didn't feel like they were just ignoring the storyline.

Salad fingers has many more episodes since you last covered him and I'm sure we would all love a new theory on him!

I’ve been saying the same thing, I’m glad matpat finally said it on a public platform lol. I think the ultimate universe comparison really drives your point home, we need quality over quantity again and these shows on Disney+ should end up being spinoffs that explore side stories or more grounded and street level marvel stories. As a huge fan of the MCU and Marvel as a whole, I really hope they pull it together and start to deliver more quality, not that the last few shows/movies have been bad, but they could’ve been way better.

Thank you! This is what I'm saying reboots don't all equal a success and people need to think and realize it. Like come on just because you think it *could* workout doesn't mean it *will* work out.

Honestly, i think the bit you mentioned about the characterisation of Wanda is the biggest internal symptom of their problem at the moment. The people in charge of the different bits of content dont know whats going to happen with the character moving forward or where they'll be coming from from their last appearance. If the wandavision team knew she was going to be the villain they might have written the ending differently, if the MoM team knew where wanda would be at the end of the show they might have written a prologue explaining the shift. Marvel is too concerned about spoilers at the moment to allow enough interconnection to make the stories consistent. But as the saying goes, if your story is ruined by a spoiler then its not a good story. So what if we had known that tobey and andrew were in no way home, so what if tom holland or mark ruffalo spoil a couple bits here and there. If they really want to keep a vouple bits under wraps thats not the end of the world, but treating entire projects like these sacred sealed scrolls that cant be let out of the box until they're ready, and then turning around and expecting them to be treated as one coherent narrative is like making a puzzle, making each piece in a locked room with a different person for each one and then being shocked when they dont fit together at the end. Marvel knows what these characters are going to do over their next few appearances, they should plan for it better. I honestly think splitting the creative control is a great idea but it should honestly go a bit further, give each character a creative director, have them learn as much about the character as possible and plan the whole thing organically. For example having the wanda director and the doctor strange director meet and plan what the chracters will do in MoM, theyd know what happened in wandavision and no way home respectively and would be able to plan the transition between those projects a lot better than what we got

You brought up a lot of good points and how despite loving the MCU, it's getting harder to be excited despite the massive amount of content. Also I'm so glad to hear someone else complain about tone difference between Secret Wars tv and The Marvels for Fury. At this point, Secret Wars is gonna join the "don't talk about it" section for me along with Inhumans, Season 1 Iron Fist and Moon Knight.. Those things don't exist..

I'm so excited and happy for you matpat. Personally, I appreciate your insights, because I always just assume the movie is a good one, but without all the insights and critical analysis, with information that I would normally have overlooked? I won't learn anything. It's one thing to be a good reviewer, you do a really great job getting me interested in your theory.

I am an extreme fan of these deep dives "behind the curtain" into the industry and some of the things that go into media. Please do more 🙏🏻

It would also be good if Marvel appointed people to 'represent this character' for every character they have, with that person being able to discuss with the writers how a particular character would behave. Additionally, state that everything is inter-related in a 'multversal way', something that happens in one film or show may or may not be precisely what happened in the backstory/context of another film or show. Characterization and plot points will vary from time to time, with varying degrees of officiality.

Matpat's point about viewers' lack of trust in Marvel is on point. I hardly watch Marvel content anymore because I don't trust that it will be an interesting and worthwhile experience.

thank you for putting some film theory on spotify it just makes it so much better time wise for me. i will still watch most on youtube tho

Matt’s just describing how the comic book industry works, each character or group of characters gets an editor that should keep things coherent between the different books. Telling you you can or can’t use a character or you can’t do this because of what’s happening over there with the editors all reporting to an editor in chief

Though the MCU isn't doing well, I really hope they don't reboot the whole thing

I mostly blame Disney. 😑

Did bro think gotg 3 never existed

Full disclosure: I really liked "Multiverse of Madness!" That being said, I bet I would've LOVED the film if Sam Raimi got to make the R-rated horror film he originally envisioned. Disney has gotta let their creative people off leashes. Also would've loved to have seen Lord & Miller's comedy version of "Solo."

Mat pay really said “Fine, I’ll do it myself “. You know it's a good day when Mat uploads .

Totally agree, just hope this video performs well enough to catch Disney's attention. I would have watched it sooner, but the title and thumbnail made think you were arguing for the opposite, so I prioritized it lower amongst all the videos in my queue.

I think a soft reboot is exactly what they need right now 💯 It's perfect timing with all the multiverse shenanigans going on.