The former and returning CEO of Disney’s workshop has been vocal about getting the company back on track and he has announced some changes.
Disney has been trying to get back on track as their acquired properties have taken hits over the years. Marvel Studios is a big brand that audiences have voted against with their wallets lately. With projects like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels underperforming at the box office, many people debated whether superhero fatigue had finally set in. When Bob Iger returned to run the House of Mouse, the CEO had voiced his concerns over the quantity of material that Marvel and Star Wars had been releasing. He had also championed films focusing on story rather than messages.
Iger had long pledged to reduce the number of projects that Marvel and Star Wars produce. According to Variety, in the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, the CEO said, “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three. And we’re working hard on what that path is.” Iger stated that Marvel Studios has “a couple of good films in ’25 and then we’re heading to more Avengers, which we’re extremely excited about. Overall, I feel great about the slate. It’s something that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on. The team is one that I have tremendous confidence in and the IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing, is second to none.”
This announcement comes after the long-reported projects that include the postponed Captain America: Brave New World, as well as Thunderbolts and the newly announced The Fantastic Four, along with the stop-starting of the new Blade reboot. Additionally, the studio has been planning for an upcoming Avengers movie that was to include the character of Kang, which is a whole ‘nother bag of worms that Marvel is currently rebounding from.
Later in the quarterly earnings call, Iger also addressed Disney’s output of remakes and live-action adaptations versus original material. The CEO says the current concentration is on Disney franchises, “We’re gonna balance sequels with originals. Specifically in animation, we had gone through a period where our original films and animation, both Disney and Pixar, were dominating. We’re now swinging back a bit to lean on sequels.”
