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Marvel is arguably one of the most successful if not the most successful, production houses in recent times, with the MCU franchise among the highest-earning franchises of all time. The films and shows that have come out of the studio, and with bare minimum delays in between them, before the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, are also among the finest in the genre.
However, producing so much content, and great content, also requires a certain amount of discipline and commitment to the source material. This is apparently the "hard thing" about working with Marvel, which allows very little creative freedom, thanks to the ton of material that the comic books possess.
Speaking to Radio Times in a recent interview, MCU star Anthony Mackie, who will soon helm Captain America 4, said:
"I would say the Marvel thing is completely different, just because it's such a space of controlled entertainment. Like, there's only so much you can do. There's only so much creativity you can bring to the table, because Stan Lee gave us so much content."
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He also revealed in the interview that this was the only hard thing about working with the studio, which has delivered an unreal number of hit films in the past decade.
Marvel's inability to go outside the comic barriers may be a good thing and a bad
It is hard to say whether it is a bad thing that Marvel movies cannot and do not go outside the comic lines or not. For one, sticking to comic source material helps the studio make multiple films at once, and continue producing good content one after another with little interval in between.
Moreover, the comics have such a huge lore and so many storylines that filmmakers will barely need new elements to liven things up. Often, filmmakers have merged multiple comics to create more original storylines and add a bit of zest, but with such a huge amount of content, few would even think of stepping out of the comic lines.
However, this also adds the limitation of a lack of choice, something that Anthony Mackie called "hard." He said in the same interview:
"Exactly. And that's the hard thing about the Marvel universe. It's like, you can't really go outside of the lines of those comic books....You know, when we introduced the Falcon, and the growth of the Falcon to Captain America, all of that had to coincide with what Stan had already gave us. So it's an interesting juggle to be a part of that world."
However, this may not be the case with the studio forever, which is getting increasingly experimental over the years, especially since it has not seen the same amount of success since Avengers: Endgame.
So, the MCU being based completely around the comics, as Mackie claims, may both work in favor of the studio or against it. As most of the Marvel projects have worked well so far, it will be much longer before fans can say for sure.
Anthony Mackie will soon return to the front with Captain America: Brave New World, which is slated to release in February 2025.
