Marvel’s Phase 3 rejig: For the love of numbers

Has the recent news of an Ant-Man sequel Ant-Man and The Wasp kicked up a hornet’s nest over at Marvel?

Firstly, it could be misconstrued as a snuff to long-awaiting Marvel heroine Captain Marvel that is set to make her way on to the silver screen. So not exactly a proud moment when Marvel’s first fem-hero to be named in an MCU production title has to appear with another MCU-established hero. Especially when said title has the woman’s name appear second to that of a man.

Whew, all oestrogen levels have been exerted. But still, it seems this Phase 3 addition and shake up (again) is as a result of some higher ups doubting the ‘numbers’ that certain Marvel movies can make and as such have doomed them before their release. With the announcement of Ant-Man sequel, Captain Marvel and, even worse, Black Panther, have been given designated release dates in the infamous ‘Dump Month’ barrel; Dump Months are those times in the year where Hollywood releases films they don’t expect to sell loads, outside the summer blockbuster spots they reserve for films they consider will become hits. Is it a coincidence the two films that got bumped were a film about a female pilot and an African ruler? Maybe. Maybe not.

But now on top of everything it seems there are conflicting reports about the Inhumans MCU film. Apparently, as Bleeding Cool reported, that the feature has been dropped due to ongoing issues between Kevin Feige run Marvel Studios and Marvel’s television arm. Of course, as you who have been keeping abreast with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the ABC / Marvel TV series has been hinting at Inhumans for a while now and as Feige no longer works under Perlmutter’s thumb, apparently Feige cancelled the film as he no longer had to accommodate Marvel’s television division.

But HitFix claims that this report is false, and states their sources confirmed the Inhumans film is still on. Notworthily, the article also states that well known Inhuman characters, like Black Bolt are off-limits to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

You can read the conflicting accounts here and here.

But this brings up an interesting issue. Is the introduction and shifting of the MCU purely a numbers game, placing backing on what Marvel feels are winning horses and dumping the rest to land where they may? Or is it all a pretext for coming news of downgraded or even axed previously-announced Marvel features?

Only time will tell I guess.