10 things Marvel needs to do to save the MCU
![Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Studios' LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL. Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Studios' LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3100,h_1743,x_369,y_5/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImageExchange/mmsport/308/01hkt27pg59cb64kgz42.jpg)
4. Get The Fantastic Four right
When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, Marvel Studios regained the movie rights to both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. While general audiences have been more excited about the prospect of the X-Men joining the MCU, the studio has decided to play the long game with the mutants, instead introducing the Fantastic Four first. Of course, we're getting more nods and references to the X-Men, but as far as movies go, Fantastic Four comes first.
That's an admirable choice considering the foursome of heroes have always had the potential to be huge Marvel stars but never quite became the success that Fox wanted them to be. They were movie stars in their own right, headlining two movies before the MCU was even a thing, and while they were popular enough, the lukewarm response to them and the overwhelmingly negative response to the 2015 reboot, have prevented them from breaking out in the way that the likes of Iron Man and Captain America - and even Fox's X-Men - did
Taking that into account, Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four movie has to hit. Yes, it's important that it be a financial success but the titular heroes have enough star-power to ensure that some of the general audience will go and see it. It needs to be a critical hit to ensure that a lot more people go and see it outside of the core MCU/Fantasic Four fans.
When this movie as announced, it was seen as the platform that the Fantastic Four have been craving over the past decade, with high expectations to boot. Marvel always delivered; why would anyone doubt it? But in recent years, with lackluster reviews and the first ever box office flop for the franchise, it's more imperative than ever that Fantastic Four hits. It has to be a major success so that the studio can justify investing in the less-famous of the two franchises it chose, and it also must have an important role in the Multiverse Saga, jutifying its own existence as a major Phase 6 title.
This needs to be the Fantastic Four movie fans have been waiting for.