MarvelBlog News for July 27th, 2025

Comic-Con is running through today, and that means…absolutely nothing to Marvel.

As a reminder, The Walt Disney Company chose not to send Marvel to the event.

The decision makes sense because, as you know, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened this weekend.

So, Marvel doesn’t have anything new to hype for the next 16 months, at least on the movie side.

Rather than hype its upcoming shows such as Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel just sat things out…kinda.

The studio proved oddly passive/aggressive, though, and I’ll explain why in MarvelBlog News.

Kevin Feige Speaks

Since Marvel skipped Comic-Con, the obvious inference was that they didn’t have anything to say.

Well, that’s just not true. In fact, Marvel couldn’t shut up this past week, which makes the whole Comic-Con thing weird.

Kevin Feige performed a wide-ranging press conference interview wherein he spoke his mind.

Specifically, Feige talked about the current state of comic book movies and where Marvel stands.

You can understand why the head of Marvel may be feeling a bit aggro right now.

Superman, the James Gunn movie, has been the number one film for a couple of weeks now.

Everyone knows that Marvel critics will compare the performance of Superman to The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

I’ll discuss that in a bit, but Feige’s other comments were interesting. For starters, he reemphasized that less is more.

When asked about Marvel’s movie plans moving forward, the leader simply stated, “Making less.”

Then, he added the context of, “Making two or three movies a year, some years it will be one, some years it will be three.”

To me, that wasn’t the surprising statement, though. It was this: “We’ll be down to a single live-action show a year.”

That’s a worrisome comment, and I know exactly why he said it. Disney+ is moving away from original content.

Sure, we’ll still get some, but people subscribe to the streaming service anyway.

So, they don’t need to spend money to make Marvel content, which, as you know, is quite expensive.

Thus, Marvel’s new plan is to scrimp on Marvel shows while leaning heavily on Marvel movies.

What about Superhero Fatigue?

Feige somewhat took credit for the success of Gunn’s Superman. First, he pointed to its success.

The executive noted that the DC movie’s performance showed that superhero fatigue isn’t a thing.

Then, Feige added that Gunn told him, “We (DC’s film division) wouldn’t exist without you guys.”

That’s not the least bit true, as Batman and Superman films predate Marvel movies.

But it’s true for Gunn, who leveraged his Marvel success into running DC.

While Feige claims that they speak regularly and that there’s no rivalry, his comments are a bit feisty.

I suspect he’s feeling the pressure when it comes to Superman doing well and gaining natural comparisons to Fantastic Four.

Despite claiming a lack of superhero fatigue, Feige noted, “It’s the expansion that is certainly what devalued [the studio and its content].”

So, I guess that was a huge coincidence? People grew tired of Marvel but…not because of superhero fatigue?

Feige then explained away the box office disappointments of The Marvels and Thunderbolts*.

Apparently, that happened because they were television series characters that moviegoers didn’t know.

Honestly, this wasn’t Feige’s finest effort, as his free-form comments vacillated between incoherent and inconsistent.

Still, the dude had a great week because the one thing that needed to happen did in fact happen…

Big First Steps

I’m relieved and pleased to inform you that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a blockbuster.

I know that it’s been touch and go with Marvel movies this year, what with Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World struggling.

Well, the slump has ended, with Fantastic Four earning $24.4 million on Thursday and $56 million on Friday.

As usual, the Friday total includes those Thursday sneaks, giving the film a true Friday of $32.6 million.

From there, the movie performed more like a family film, with a weekend box office total of $118 million.

That’s the domestic take. Fantastic Four’s worldwide debut of $218 million surpassed Brave New World’s $192 million.

So, Kevin Feige and his team can breathe a huge sigh of relief…for multiple reasons.

Fantastic Four is also really good, as I said in my review on MickeyBlog.

The film is currently 88 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes after nearly 300 reviews. Also, its exit metrics are excellent.

Similarly, Fantastic Four earned a Cinemascore of A-, which is a bit lower than hoped but still quite good.

Basically, lots of people watched the movie this past weekend, and they universally loved it.

Marvel’s most recent two movies, Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four, both pleased the audiences who watched them.

I say this with confidence because Thunderbolts* earned an A- Cinemsacore as well. More people will find it soon on Disney+.

The quality of these two films buys Marvel some breathing room as it waits the next 17 months for Avengers: Doomsday.

Marvel Miscellany

Feige actually said a lot of other stuff, much of which Justin Hermes has covered on MarvelBlog all week.

Perhaps the biggest story is that despite his noncommittal recent comments, Mahershala Ali is still attached to Blade.

Also, we’re still getting Blade. I’ve said that a couple of times recently, but Feige just confirmed it.

Matt Shakman added that he loved having the opportunity to “pass the baton” to the Russo Brothers.

Without doing spoilers, there is a path laid to Avengers: Doomsday. So, Shakman had to connect the dots.

Oh, and Feige confirmed that Marvel will cast the X-Men in the aftermath of Avengers: Doomsday.

So, this story will play out as expected. The former Fox cast will get one more moment in the sun.

Then, Marvel will finally introduce the MCU version of The Mutants, and there will be much rejoicing.

 

 

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