Marvel has quietly cancelled another movie; "no plans" for it, reports say

The overwhelming success of Deadpool and Wolverine has allowed Marvel Studios to stage a phenomenal comeback at the box office. The future of the franchise was never truly in question, but after a couple of uncharacteristic underperformers at the box office, there were questions about what that future could look like. Hits like Deadpool and Wolverine, that's what!

This billion-dollar sensation is going to be the studio's only movie released in theaters this year, but it's also going to be one of its most successful ever. That's the kind of bounce back it needed after its previous Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, The Marvels, became its lowest-grossing movie ever. And that film's underperformance, along with a number of other issues, was what forced Disney and Marvel Studios to reshuffle its release strategy and content plan, focusing on different titles.

There have long been rumors that this has resulted in the cancellation of a number of projects that the studio was hoping to produce, including sequels to certain films. Now, a new report has seemingly cemented one of those rumors.

There are reportedly "no plans" for Captain Marvel 3

According to Marvel insider Alex Perez, no plans "currently exist" for a third Captain Marvel movie. The scooper revealed this in response to a question about the potential of Captain Marvel 3 during his August Discord Q&A via The Cosmic Circus.

This is no doubt disappointing but it isn't exactly shocking to hear either. The threequel was among a number of projects that were rumored to have been scrapped by Marvel Studios (the others being Ant-Man 4 and Eternals 2) as it seeks to take less risks with its content going forward, relying on more guaranteed hits. Veteran Marvel insider Daniel Richtman had reported this a number of months ago, and it appears that the more time goes on, the more that these reports are confirmed or supported. In fact, Kevin Feige himself confirmed that there aren't currently any plans for an Eternals sequel.

Of all the projects in limbo, however, Captain Marvel 3 seemed like it was the one at most risk. The Marvels' underperformance was significant, as it was the only MCU movie to outright flop at the box office (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania did fail to break even, but it got relatively close and had a much stronger opening weekend, while Eternals had a solid, but underwhelming performance given its star-power). There were certainly extenuating circumstances that made its underperformance that much worse (the strikes in Hollywood at the time meant that the actors couldn't promote it at all) but it also was judged more harshly given that the first Captain Marvel movie surpassed $1 billion.

It's quite the turnaround for the franchise, particularly because it was always one of the ones that Marvel truly intended to franchise. After the success of Captain Marvel, a sequel was inevitable; but after the failure of The Marvels, another is essentially impossible. And that seemingly extends to TV as well, as a series planned on the character of Monica Rambeau with Teyonah Parris reprising the role was also reportedly cancelled after the movie's underperformance.

That's not to say that there won't ever be a third Captain Marvel movie, but it does rule it out for now. There have been rumblings of a potential third installment at some point in the future, but those rumors suggest it likely wouldn't be something Marvel would do until well after the Multiverse Saga as it would need time to figure out how to ensure it's a success. Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but it is a constant reminder that no rumor or report is as accurate as the official word from Marvel themselves. But as Kevin Feige essentially confirmed the Eternals 2 scoop, it wouldn't be too out-there to believe that the Captain Marvel 3 aspect of it all is true too.