‘The Marvels’ Director Believes “Superhero Fatigue” Is Real, But Hopes To Her “Wacky” Film Stands Out

Are superhero films in trouble? It’s an argument that everyone’s been having in the last few years, and the pandemic hasn’t helped, given that it’s affected the bottom line of all moviegoing that’s in decline. DC doesn’t help the super narrative; they’re in freefall. And Marvel? Well, “Ant-Man Quantumania” grossly underperformed earlier this year, but “Guardians of The Galaxy Volume 3” made nearly $850 million worldwide and evened out the narrative. That leaves one more Marvel film to go for 2023, “The Marvels,” and even its director Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”), believes superhero fatigue is a thing.

“I think superhero fatigue absolutely exists,” DaCosta, known for the “Candyman” sequel and “Little Woods,” told Total Film magazine this week. “The biggest difference from the other MCU movies to date is that it’s really wacky and silly,” she teased. “The worlds we go to in this movie are worlds unlike others you’ve seen in the MCU. Bright worlds that you haven’t seen before.”

READ MORE: ‘The Marvels’: Director Nia DaCosta Said Kevin Feige Would Ask Her To Stop Being “Too Much Of A Nerd” On Set

Aren’t the “Ant-Man” movies already kind of wacky, though? I digress.

If you’re unaware, “The Marvels” is the sort-of sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel” starring Brie Larson. But instead of making it a straight sequel to that film, Marvel decided to expand the narrative to make it a team effort, crossing over with “Captain Marvel,” Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) from the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel,” and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) from “WandaVision” (also played by a young kid in the ’90s in “Captain Marvel”).

Haters will probably say that Marvel didn’t have enough confidence in another “Captain Marvel” solo film, but hell, that film grossed over a billion dollars at the box office, and it’s not like Marvel haven’t disguised a lot of team-up movies as solo film (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Thor Ragnarok” and more).

From what we’ve seen in “The Marvels” trailers, Nick Fury is back in space with Monica Rambeau (known as Photon) in the film, but then chaos ensues. Here’s the official synopsis, which hints at more.

While investigating a wormhole linked to the Kree, Monica Rambeau’s powers become entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Carol Danvers. The trio team up to determine why they are swapping places with each other every time they use their powers.

“The Avengers movies are these epic conclusions to chapters of storytelling, whereas this is a team-up within the narrative that we didn’t necessarily expect for Marvel,” explains executive producer Mary Livanos. “Usually, you wait for characters to show up all together in Avengers movies. We were excited to design a team-up featuring characters that women from all walks of life could relate to.”

What more to expect from “The Marvels”? It’s hard to say, but we do know that Kamala Khan is a Captain Marvel fan girl, and Photon and Marvel have history from the ’90s, which they will surely have to reconcile.

“The Marvels” premieres in theaters November 10, 2023, and maybe it’ll be the defining film to say whether superhero fatigue is real enough to even derail the mighty Marvel. Or not.