Multiverse in the MCU: Healthy or the downfall of Marvel?

Who doesn’t love the Marvel Cinematic Universe? With Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) knocking at our doors, we feel this is the best time to talk about the multiverse in MCU. If you are a comic fan like I am, you would know this is extremely common for Marvel. But the movies never intended to do this before. Before 2021, we had a one tracked timeline of MCU.

Beginnings

The concept of different timelines was first introduced in Doctor Strange (2016), although it did not catch everyone’s attention. And next, in Endgame (2019), we get a borderline idea of different alternate realities and multiverse. But in the next new movies, where the M word has been used often, this is becoming a significant concern for all. Will it be good or will it be bad? Let’s find out.

With the release of Wanda-Vision and Loki, we got the experience of how MCU is going to incorporate different crossovers and a multiverse formula in their upcoming shows. Needless to add, we loved both the series. Both of them brought so much more to the story. And two of our favourite characters getting a spin-off of their own was everything we needed. Wanda-Vision gave us a back story of Wanda and also what she is capable of once she becomes “The Scarlet Witch”.

The show opened many new doors for the next Doctor Strange (2022) movie, which we believe she will be a very important part of. And we don’t think we need to say anything more about Loki (2021). The Disney+Hotstar series has won the hearts of all with its plot. Not only was it eye opening for all the Loki fans out, it also gave us a very successful character development for Loki. All the gaps of Loki’s character change between “The Avengers” (2012) and “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) were filled. And whatever use of multiverse they did proved useful and created tremendous excitement among the audience.

Some would even say” jaw dropping”, but that doesn’t ignore the risks that come with using multiverse in the upcoming movies. Although it proved very successful, we can’t stop thinking about the parts that could go horribly wrong, just like the “X-Men” franchise. Let’s take up a few possibilities:

New variations

The movies give us multiple versions of the same character. Of course, we love seeing multiple layers of a character. But we not only get a lot of different characters but also many alternate versions of them. If done systematically, this can be proved as an excellent character development, but sometimes on the way of changing, the character loses its original appeal and tendencies, which made it a fan favourite. If we take Loki, in the first avengers movie, he was portrayed as a figure who is arrogant, malicious, literally God of Mischief. On the way of being a hero of his own series, lost his originality.

Various crossovers, various ultimate realities and the characters engaged in them, make the story hard to understand. Just take the example of dark. It raised so many eyebrows and got so controversial, for the same reason. There were so many figures, and each of them had a different intention or purpose at different times. Let’s be real, a complicated story is easy to follow for a long-term fan, but people who are just here to have a good time and enjoy a simple movie, will never get the full idea without knowing the back and front story. And that can go wrong.

We have seen before, many crossover movies use slow storytelling techniques, which becomes a real risk. Now don’t take me wrong, slow storytelling techniques proved to be a genius in many Oscars nominated movies, but for a billion-dollar superhero action sequence, we always expect an exciting, fulfilling and fast narration throughout the movie. And not to forget the most targeted audience, kids and teens who might not enjoy the style of slow narration.

We often get different actors playing the same role. When you see an actor portraying your favourite role, somehow unconsciously you picture that man as that character. But when the producers bring in a new face for that same character, that’s when the confusion begins. MCU has already done this 3 times with spiderman. We have three different spidermans from 3 different eras. Now imagine the confusion it will cause, if they’re all in one movie. Although, we don’t know about you all, but we kind of want that to happen, just to spice things up.

Endings

Last but not the least, the ‘Death’ of a character loses its importance. Death is a very strong emotion and has heavy effects on the on-screen characters and the audience. But in this multiverse, naturally there will be a lot of resurrections and deaths. So, when the character, who was already killed off in the show with a lot of emotion and storyline, is brought back to life, that sequence will automatically lose importance.

Of course, MCU had a very successful course, and all they gave us so far were over the top. The movies never cease to impress us and it gives us something new to talk about each time a new movie or series is realised. We are sure, MCU will continue to entertain us in the future. And in the meantime, we can’t wait for “Spider-Man: No way home”. For more exciting movies, check out our articles of “The Suicide Squad” and “Kong v/s Godzilla”.