The world was in a different place in early 2019 than it would be for several years to follow. When Avengers: Endgame hit theaters that April, it was the culmination of an epic box office run by Marvel and Disney. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and the world unraveled. Things have started to come back together slowly but surely. Now, seven years after Endgame, it’s coming back to theaters in an “Encore” version that’s supposedly “required viewing” for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Let’s talk about that.
Superhero Fatigue is Real
There’s already a debate going on about “superhero fatigue” in films. It does exist, but every time a big movie comes out like Spider-Man: Brand New Day that makes bank at the box office, some groups will say superhero fatigue doesn’t exist. There’s the proof! Look at what Spider-Man did! Yeah, because he’s Spider-Man. The world loves Spider-Man, and if you make a good Spider-Man movie, people will turn out for it. Same thing with Batman. Certain heroes are fatigue-proof, as long as you make a good movie.
The Avengers are likely in that category as a group of heroes because of the clout the previous films have had. But one of the issues surrounding that team is how that universe expanded way too much. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney opened a floodgate of films and series to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe past a point of reasonableness. Now, when you go to watch a new Marvel project, how do you know if you’re going to understand what’s happening?
Required Viewing Concerns
Thunderbolts* tanked at the box office despite being a positively received film from a critical perspective. If this was a movie released during that lead-up to Endgame, it easily could’ve been a billion-dollar film. Narratively, we know that’s impossible, but it was a different time then. Because of the hype train and superhero fatigue not setting in, Marvel could’ve released anything and cleared a billion, especially if it was getting strong reviews. But Thunderbolts* featured heroes that no one really cared about, and the audience didn’t know how much “required viewing” they’d have to do to comprehend the plot.
People really don’t want to do “required viewing” for a movie the same way they don’t want to do algebra to figure out their monthly bills. The difference is you have to pay your bills; you don’t have to go to the movies. That’s why the recent comments about Avengers: Endgame Encore are so troubling to some. Director Joe Russo of the Russo Brothers stated, “But I think it’s important to see Endgame again in theaters for two reasons: One, you’re going to have a lot of fun … and two, I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday.”
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Homework or Salesmanship?
Part of the controversy around these remarks is that it’s not the movie itself that’s the required viewing; there’s the supplemental content. Russo also stated that content is “going to connect the story of the two movies.” Reports indicate that additional footage is about 4 minutes of content. Four minutes in a film that’s already 3 hours long. Must be some pretty goddamn amazing extra footage then if it’s required viewing.
Now, if we’re being generous, maybe that four minutes of footage isn’t entirely what Russo is talking about. Maybe he means the movie itself is necessary as a refresher. You know, like seeing Star Wars: Episode IV is helpful for seeing Star Wars: Episode V. If that’s the case, then yes, that makes sense. But that also means you could go back and watch it on streaming or Blu-ray. Saying you need to go back to watch it, with the film returning to the theaters with new footage, implies something different. If this footage is so important to understanding Doomsday, why not put it in Doomsday?
Singular Movies Can Do Well Too
So what is this now? Is this a money grab to boost up Endgame‘s box office take? Is this a legitimate homework assignment? A combination of both? No matter which way you look at it, none of it feels right, does it? Singular, one-off stories are doing well at the box office this year. Backroom may have been based on a web series, but it was written as a feature film that you didn’t need to see the series to understand. Obsession was a fresh IP. Even Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was a singular story that arguably could have been broken up into different parts. But it wasn’t, and it’s Nolan’s most commercially successful film in his career.
RELATED: “The Odyssey” A Flawed But Staggering Spectacle of Scale and Scope [review]
Obviously, Doomsday is going to have a lot of backstory to it because of the nature of Marvel’s films. But there’s a problem when you have to issue a list of “required viewing” before people should see your upcoming picture. As a storyteller, it’s your job to bring the audience into the world you’re crafting. You don’t tell them to go listen to someone else do their job first and then come back to you. That’s part of the reason these shared cinematic universe films have been failing in the first place. The goal of every film should be to tell a complete story. If it’s not doing that, audiences will eventually take notice.
Heading for Doomsday
We’re actually pretty damn sure that Avengers: Doomsday is going to be a good film. We don’t think it’s going to disappoint. We do think, though, that this is a chance to talk about the nature of storytelling and how films have changed due to the success of the MCU. Trend chasing and the like have taken a significant toll on what types of movies studios want to produce. Just like the trend of young adult dystopian fiction films that followed The Hunger Games. The same thing happened with this shared universe concept and films becoming “required viewing” for other movies. It’s a media overload that has pushed people away from theaters. We’re thrilled to see films succeed. We’re not so thrilled about the trends that will generate the same types of films that tend to fall prey to the same problems time and again.
There really should be no such thing as “required viewing” for movies. Can you get something more out of a picture by seeing a previous film? Sure, that makes sense. But a requirement? That needs to end. If Doctor Doom can help cause that to happen, we’ll be the villain and the hero we need and deserve.
