“She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” premieres on Disney+ next week, and it’s the latest of almost a dozen MCU series to hit the streamer in less than two years. It begs the question: is Marvel releasing too much content? MCU mainstay Mark Ruffalo doesn’t think so and even took a dig at the rival “Star Wars” universe to explain why.
Variety reports that in an interview with Metro.co.uk, Ruffalo defended Marvel’s spate of new releases. “It’s not something I worry about,” Ruffalo said when asked if there’s too much Marvel content. “I understand that these things run their course and then something else comes along. But the thing Marvel has done well is that, inside the MCU, just as they do with comic books, they let a director or an actor sort of recreate each piece to their own style, their likeness. Marvel generally lets them bring that to the material.” Is that actually true, though? Take “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness,” for instance. Sam Raimi‘s usual flourishes are all over the movie’s latter third, but they get lost and diluted amid Marvel’s green-screen excess. Does Raimi’s cinematic voice, or anyone other directors, shine through as well as they should?
Ruffalo kept going, though, and he used the “Star Wars” movies to prove his point. “If you watch a ‘Star Wars,’ you’re pretty much going to get the same version of ‘Star Wars’ each time,” he said. “It might have a little bit of humor. It might have a little bit of different animation. But you’re always, really, in that same kind of world. But with Marvel you can have a whole different feeling, even within the Marvel Universe.” To be fair, Ruffalo does make a good point here: the “Star Wars” shows on Disney+ all share a similar flavor, and there’s not much dimension to them at all. But Marvel’s “whole different feeling” between series and films are also for the most part superficial. Even if each MCU property focuses on a different hero and respective genre, they mostly look the same and move at the same pace regardless of who’s behind the camera.
Is Ruffalo right in his assessment? Whether he is or not, the Marvel train isn’t slowing down any time soon. After “She-Hulk” premieres on August 18, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” hits theaters in November. “The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special” also hits Disney+ before the year is out. Then next year, the MCU has four movies and up to six Disney+ shows set for release. Will all of Marvel output have a distinctive flair all their own? Ultimately, critics and audiences, and not Mark Ruffalo, will be the judge of that.