With Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe announced, we can finally glean a trajectory for the franchise post-Infinity Saga. And if there is one word to sum it all up, that would be… weird.
Just, really dang weird.
Which is all for the best, if you think about it.
It’s important to point this out because starting the Marvel movie ’verse with Iron Man and Captain America and Hulk set a particular tone for audiences straight out the gate. Heroes created via scientific means, responses to war and terrorism and the military-industrial complex, they were closer to science fiction than pure fantasy, and they grounded the films in very specific ways. Part of the reason that the MCU initially struggled with integrating Thor into the universe was a tacit acknowledgment of the fact that he didn’t fit that mold. They tried to handwave it with some “oh magic and science are the same thing on Asgard” pseudo-babble, but it could never cover up the fact that Thor was a mythic prince from a magical land who could wield a special hammer that most people couldn’t pick up, like an alien Excalibur.
While Marvel worked hard to broaden its range as it collected new heroes, most of them retained that (incredibly loose) sheen of logical cohesion. Even when they added talking trees and raccoons, or the infinitely odd realms at the fingertips of the Sorcerer Supreme, or mysteries of the Quantum Zone, Marvel was all about keeping that continuity in line, making these stories and tones play well together.
Then Endgame arrived and bulldozed that dynamic right out of existence.
The often-baffling time travel shenanigans and other choices of the Infinity Saga’s final chapter served as a paradigm shift. Matching tones was right out. Clear Point-A-to-Point-B narrative was no longer in vogue. Grounding through an expanding repertoire of fictional technology was not a priority. It makes sense because the larger the pool becomes, and the more heroes you throw at the wall, the harder it is to pretend that all of these people come close to occupying the same universe. The only way to make it all hold together is to stop making internal continuity the top priority. At which point, things are bound to get a little freaky.
It is telling that Black Widow is the first film in the Phase 4 roster because she’s now a remnant of the previous era. Marvel is years behind on giving Natasha Romanoff her own movie, to the point of having to go back in their own canonical timeline to make the story possible. Widow is set to be the very last of the old guard, and her film(s) doesn’t have to sync up with any of the new content being produced. And what’s coming up is getting a little darker, and a little odder (sorry, you can’t say “stranger” because then you invoke him), and a little wilder. When asked about the upcoming WandaVision series, set to premiere on Disney+, most of the actors who arrived on stage at San Diego Comic Con had one thing to say about the show: It’s freaking weird.
This is a welcome piece of news for the character of Scarlet Witch, a character who never managed to play well with the OG Avengers because she was both too powerful and too utterly apart from the group’s overall dynamic. Wanda Maximoff was wasted on her introduction because both she and Quicksilver were planted in Avengers: Age of Ultron at director Joss Whedon’s behest, with no consideration for how Scarlet Witch would fundamentally alter the manner by which the heroes of the MCU faced challenges. It resulted in continually sidelining Wanda, to the point where Infinity War had to lampshade her continued under-use when Okoye rightfully griped, “Why was she up there [i.e., protecting Vision away from the fight] all this time?”
WandaVision is meant to give Scarlet Witch a vehicle to truly come into her own. According to actor Elizabeth Olsen, the show is a space to “get weird, get deep, and finally understand Wanda Maximoff as Scarlet Witch.” The events of the series are supposed to play directly into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which Marvel is billing as their first “scary” film. This makes sense on several fronts, knowing the sorts of opponents Strange is likely to face off against, and the frequent psychedelic terror his powers can evoke. But a horror film wouldn’t have fit the mechanics of the MCU even a year ago. By focusing on two characters whose powers encompass the potential to warp reality, Marvel can try something truly different.
And if that’s not mind-bending enough for you, the Eternals film is about a set of near-immortal genetically enhanced humans, many of whom were around observing Earth’s history for thousands of years, sometimes posing as gods. If Marvel goes whole hog with the Eternals concept, the film could draw back the narrative to a macro level that might make even the epic scope of the Infinity War arc feel hilariously superfluous, but this is where we’re headed regardless. Then there’s the Loki show, which is set to follow everyone’s favorite trickster meddling in Earth’s history for the ‘gram or the Vine or whatever pseudo-gods do things for. It almost seems too silly to be a sustainable concept, but then again, given how muddled the MCU timeline became post-Endgame, why not go for it? And if that’s not enough timeline foolery, we’ve got the upcoming What If…? series, full of familiar (animated) faces and even more alternate timelines, just to prove that reality is a matter of perspective.
What about a potential buddy comedy between the new Captain America and his hundred-year-old super soldier pal? The Falcon and the Winter Soldier characters had that rapport going from the beginning of the MCU, but the early film arcs didn’t have space for a burgeoning odd couple dynamic. Between those two and the other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, arriving to set Clint Barton straight (he has a lot to answer for with all the… murdering), we’re delving into interpersonal dynamics like never before. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is also likely to deliver on family drama (Shang-Chi’s got a thing with his dad), while simultaneously capping off the story of a long-running MCU villain—the real Mandarin, also known as the Master of the Ten Rings—and playing into the tropes of Kung Fu cinema.
And now that Marvel has finally nailed their vibe for Thor’s corner of the universe, they’re bringing him back and changing things up: this time, it’ll be Jane Foster who is worthy to wield Mjolnir and assume the mantle. Aside from the fact that this is an excellent idea lifted from a recent run of Thor comics, there’s also the fact that Jane Foster has always been a character that these films didn’t know what to do with; she was too smart to sit still and wait on Thor to fix problems, too curious about the universe and all its wonder, and possessed of her own odd entourage—her frank and funny BFF Darcy, frequently harassed scientist Erik Selvig, and Darcy’s new boyfriend Ian. Despite the fact that Jane and her crew were a solid highlight of the first two Thor films, the MCU clearly didn’t feel comfortable with them because they were experts at drawing focus away from their big buff hero. It looks like Marvel has finally recognized that might be a good thing, hence giving Jane a chance at the big buff hero status.
And to cap this all off, we’ve been told that Mahershala Ali has been cast as Blade in a forthcoming film. While some fans cried foul since Ali has already appeared in the MCU as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in Netflix’s Luke Cage, this isn’t the continuity pile-up that everyone making it out to be. For one, Alfre Woodard (also of Luke Cage fame) has already appeared in the MCU twice and no one seemed to take note: She played Cornell’s sister Mariah Dillard on Cage, and also appeared in Captain America: Civil War to give Tony Stark a dressing down as grieving mother Miriam Sharpe. Add the fact that Doctor Strange is bringing a multiverse to bear quite soon and we’ve got infinite reasons why a man looking just like Stokes might show up elsewhere in Marvel’s giant story web. What’s more amusing is that people haven’t latched onto the truly pressing change that Blade brings with him: an entire underworld of freaking vampires.
If you had tried to convince movie buffs and new fans that vampires existed in the same Marvel Cinematic Universe that brought them Captain America and Iron Man, you probably would have had some difficulty in that task around, say, 2011. Those pieces didn’t interlock in a way that felt feasible. But all these characters (and far weirder ones) are a part of the Marvel Comics roster, and they were destined to show up one day. Phase 4 is about precisely that—making room for the things that didn’t fit. Because once Captain Marvel and Blade occupy the same narrative landscape convincingly, then there truly are no limits to what the MCU can pull off. Talking raccoons and sentient trees were only meant to be the start of this turnover, not the sole place where they dialed to eleven. And once they hit that mark, there was no chance of backing off—it’s time to crank the dial and break off the knob.
Will they succeed? It looks like that’s what we’re about to find out. And it’s true that the multitude of changes we’re soon to encounter aren’t going to work for every fan, but there was no way to keep this sprawling cinema empire going on the back of a bunch of similar-looking dudes named Chris, and one guy who’s great at mecha armor. If the Marvel Cinematic Universe wants to survive, it needs to feel bigger and far less knowable. That’s the only way you can churn out films and TV shows by the dozen and still be remotely interesting. And you don’t get there on the backs of enhanced soldiers and shiny tech. You get there with big, messy conceptual nightmares, and ancient history, and blood-sucking monsters… who might all be around the corner from that Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
You get there with the weirdos.
Emmet Asher-Perrin is pretty excited for some of these weirdos to get their due. You can bug him on Twitter, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
love it, thank you
I wonder if the same people who insist Mahershala Ali can’t play Blade in the movies because he played Cottonmouth in a handful of TV episodes have any sort of problem with the fact that Fandral was played by two different actors in the Thor movies?
I think the MCU is going to run into the problem that they have too many characters and too many stories and too many points of view and too many interconnected bits.
I think the ride is going to be fun, but eventually it will be too many balls to juggle and it will all come crashing down in a huge mess that will probably coincide with the end of the current superhero movie push.
I don’t know when it will happen, but it will eventually happen.
I don’t mind Mahershala Ali as Blade, but I want Wesley Snipes to be Whistler.
@3: And Hulk’s been played by three actors this century. Chris Evans has been two Marvel heroes. Then that one bit player—the old man with a mustache and glasses—was a different character in, like, every single MCU movie.
I meant @2.
And it only took them 22 films.
My only quibble with Mahershala Ali is that he’s already getting a little long in the tooth, pun intended.
Not happy about the return of Jane Foster. The OTHER supporting cast of Thor – Selvig, Valkyrie, Korg – way more interesting. They are FUN and kick-ass in so many way. Selvig fills the super scientist role, and he’s entertaining. Valk is the most awesome partner. Korg is funny. Foster is meh in all dimensions. She’s a boring, unfunny, less interesting scientist.
And the un-romance of buddies Thor and Valkyrie is just too good.
“it’s time to crank the dial and break off the knob.”
This will lead to Conan joining the Avengers in Phase 5.
TBH, none of this really excites me for a post-Infinity War MCU.
The problem with the MCU is that, while it did get weirder over time (if you really consider cybernetic raccoons or aliens that look like ‘trees’ actually weirder than aliens that look exactly like humans with a more interesting hue of skin), it was largely doing so under the aegis of strong characters like Stark or Rogers, and adhering, even if that adherence is somewhat loose, to science fiction.
That’s what made MCU successful, and that’s what concerns me about this phase 4 stuff. I mean, for goodness sake, they’re doing a prequel– if there was ever a death knell of a franchise, it’s when they start pulling out prequels.
It’s been gradual, as you say, Emily. I always called starting off with the most mundane yet still super characters (Iron Man and Cap) as cinema working through their “superhero embarrassment” phase. Thor was a first step, but he was self-contained; and then I squeed when Falcon shows up with his wings, because, mechanical or not, this was a dude with wings.
Stokes. Mariah Stokes!
Most of the movies coming, as a casual fan of what Marvel has done do not interest me to be honest about it. I wonder how many others who are not hard-core comic nerds would agree and won’t go and see these at the theater. It’ll be interesting to see how they’re earnings compare to the endgame and movies leading up to endgame. i think we’re about to see the superhero bubble pop. Marvel has forgotten I think who their audience is when it comes to people who go to the movies and i don’t think the non comic nerd types are going to be very interested in these weird off the wall movies that don’t make sense relative to the established norm.
Rocket origin story!
It could be a glorious creative time ahead… or it could be another AfterMASH — that weird thing after the big finale just to keep the brand going. We shall see.
Count me as cautiously optimistic. The thing is, the MCU has already dodged not one but two franchise-killing bullets; by conventional Hollywood wisdom, both Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man ought to have done sufficiently lackluster business to kill the overall momentum.
Instead, both did well by being explicitly different from what had gone before…as did Dr. Strange, in a slightly different way. What the MCU has done is to prove once and for all that the audience for fantastical adventure is not a niche audience — it is, in fact, pretty much everybody. Look at the sheer number of screenings Endgame got on its opening weekend…and the fact that nearly all of them were more or less full houses.
The result? The MCU is flat-out too big for organized fandom to be able to kill…and conversely, big enough that it doesn’t need all of its audience to commit to any one subset of it.
@10. Please, if they actually bring that Crom-accursed Conan-Avengers crossover to the big screen, Robert E. Howard will rise from his grave, grow to kaiju-proportions, and stomp Hollywood flat. Which could only improve that town, frankly.
@17. Nothing is ever too big to fail.
@17. Westerns were once big business, too, for at least a couple of decades. And they became more diverse and, sometimes, weird as they went along. There were noir westerns like 3:10 to Yuma; spy gadget westerns like The Wild Wild West; sci-fi westerns like Westworld; comedy westerns like Blazing Saddles; black westerns; Asian westerns; spaghetti westerns; and bizarre low-budget horror westerns like Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter! (Yes, that’s a real movie.)
But it still didn’t stop the eventual fade out from public interest. And I expect it may take another five to ten years, but it will happen to Marvel and superhero movies too.
@19. Spike: the thing is that some people have been claiming we’ve reached Peak Superhero Saturation ever since 2012 when the first Avengers movie came out.
I think there’s a long ways off before we reach that point. The original Guardians is always a case in point. If they can be creative enough sell the audience on a group of very obscure tertiary characters, the future looks bright. I have my doubts for next year: Black Widow as a prequel seems hollow if they don’t bring her back to the Marvel present; Eternals as a concept is awesome, but they may be altering too many things (I’m a fan of Hayek, but her playing Ajak?)
The year after that will be big for Marvel. Looking forward to both the new Thor and Dr Strange movies and a kung fu movie to boot. Then there’s the launch of the streaming stuff.
Beyond that there will likely be a build-up to the next epic story. Perhaps the coming of the Celestials, or Galactus, or Galactus as a Celestial (heh)… Feige has hinted at both the introduction of the Fantastic Four and Nova. Marvel’s not going to flail around here. There’s a long term plan here.
@20. Those people were wrong in 2012, because it was only the second phase then. First come the big names that get everyone’s attention, then the crossovers, and then the more obscure characters and prequels and interquels and remakes spinning off into ever weirder and more niche levels of meh, but still ballyhooed by smaller and smaller groups of people trying to convince others, but mainly themselves, it’s still holding together. It’s a gradual process.
I’m looking forward to the new movies. Variety is the spice of life, and I’m glad they aren’t just spitting out more adventures featuring the old, mainline superhero characters. Or rebooting their adventures again and again and again.
If they capture even a fraction of Kirby’s gonzo energy in the Eternals movie, it will be a fun ride.
Remember, when Iron Man first came out, he was considered a second-tier character by many, and critics predicted the movie wouldn’t be able to find an audience.
@22. Alan: was going to say what you said. Iron Man was not a top tier character even for Marvel fans. It was big risk to launch with that character. And Thor was constantly getting cancelled and going dormant for years. Only Cap can be argued as a mainstay Big Good of the Marvel universe.
@22 & 23. The overall Marvel brand had already run through several big names with Sony’s Spider-Man and Fox’s X-Men and a few failed attempts with the Fantastic 4 and Hulk. It was only natural to take a chance with the second-tier at that point. Where else could they go? Captain America? A big name but too square. He can wait. Let’s get the bad boy who dresses like a robot!
@24. Spike: Sure. But you said, “First come the big names that get everyone’s attention…”
It was by no means a given that Iron Man would work or even become the granddaddy of a MCU. As I said, I have some doubts, but Feige has earned enough good will to give consideration to just about anything he wants to try at this point. And the Marvel Universe is far from exhausted as a resource at this point.
I have mixed feelings on on Jane and her associates. They’re fine in the original Thor, but Dark World gave them way too much screen time at the expense of Sif and the rest of Thor’s supporting cast except for Loki who is his own problem. I liked Selvig in the original, but his character ended up poorly served. Who was Ian again?
If Sif doesn’t return I will be severely disappointed.
Also given Mjolnir has been reduced to so much Uru scrapmetal, I wonder exactly how Jane will become Thor.
@26 multiverse that’s how. In the universe where Loki escaped with the Tesseract he was never imprisoned on Asgard, so he never had a chance to exile Odin, Odin never weakened, Hela never escaped. No Hela equals yes Mjolnir, and Lady Thor is born.
I’m quite puzzled by people who think Mjolnir being destroyed is an obstacle to Jane becoming Thor. This is superhero fiction, people.
@14:
Phase 4 is taking me from Phase 2 and 3’s “Must go with my kids on opening night to every single release” to “happy to catch two or three in the theater at some point, and wait for the DVDs on the rest.”
The kids aren’t so happy about that pronouncement. But I’m happy about it, and I’m fine with what Marvel is doing. They’re taking a breather and expanding the scope of what they do.
The real danger isn’t from some ill-defined notion of “audience fatigue” or “burnout” or even that audiences will be reluctant to go see a Marvel kung-fu movie or a Marvel mid-quel (Black Widow isn’t a prequel, @11). The real danger is that Marvel will fall victim to what Lucasfilm experienced with Solo: they’ll put out a solid movie that is profitable at the box office, but because it didn’t make a billion dollars like the other Star Wars movies, everyone called it a flop. It wasn’t. At all. Any other movie would have been thrilled to make the bank that Solo did.
We’ve already seen people do this with Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. Both were profitable. Neither were billion-dollar movies but they weren’t supposed to be. Marvel didn’t promote them like tentpoles, yet people call them failures – or if they’re being generous, “relative” failures” – because they didn’t put up Avengers-level totals.
Black Widow isn’t going to do a billion dollars. I’ve been watching box office trends long enough to be reasonably confident about that. It’ll top out somewhere around $7-800M worldwide; possibly less. And going by the commenters here, plenty of people will be ready to label it a failure, the death of comics movies, and proof that Hollywood will never make another movie with a leading woman. Just watch.
Jane Foster in any Marvel film is a bad idea. Character reflects precisely how unfathomably boring Natalie Portman is in any movie she’s in. Thor 1 was just okay. Thor 2, no. Ragnarok, however, was genius. Yep, the one that Jane’s not in.
15. Morellio
Rocket origin story!
Oooohhhhhh,I would watch the Hell out of a Rocket origin story!!!!!
Re: Dr. Strange – it’s WAY past time for him to get REALLY weird! This can only be a good thing.
Great take, and I couldn’t agree more. I especially like that they’re stretching out for the ball here with characters even I (an old school, but still casual comic nerd) am unfamiliar with. Doctor Strange has always been a favorite of mine, and I’m excited to see where that story is going with Scarlet Witch and Vision. I’ve always loved Blade and I think Ali will be a great addition — though I really loved Wesley Snipes in that role.
I knew that Marvel was ready to take the plunge when they attacked with space elves and then followed it up with one of the greatest space fantasy series I’ve ever seen: GotG 1, GotG 2, Thor: Ragnarok, and Infinity War.
Make mine Marvel!
Weird is not necessarily something the MCU does well–Howard the Duck, anyone? Personally I’d like to see more development of the grittier, more human dramas in the MCU–Daredevil, the Punisher and Jessica Jones come to mind as characters that would be worth further exploration, whether on the big screen or on Disney’s new streaming service. But however they change things up, I do think change is good. For all their crazy and multitudinous plot threads, the “superheroes save the world in extended dance remix final boss battle” thing is getting a bit overdone. Even the end of “Into the Spiderverse” (an otherwise excellent movie) left me feeling like I was going to have a seizure after a while.
While a small but vocal portion of the fanbase is loving these changes, I’m not sure about these alterations. I won’t go so far as to form an opinion before I see the works, but part of me hates the fact that for these (otherwise) creative geniuses, the only way for them to make a great female lead is to either resurrect the.long dead (Carol Danvers, killed by Rogue accidentally in the 80s) or do gender/racial reassignment surgery.
I quit collecting comic books right around the time Infinity Crusade was finished, but I recall many possible choices that would’ve made great leads and or supporting characters in an ensemble. Blade as a female? You gotta be kidding me. After 3 movies, all the comics and several cartoon offerings, what, nowhere is a she? I think he’d use any surgery to become human, not to be a female. Or do they justify this as a result of the time travel changing stuff? Either way I don’t like the idea. Create a new brand instead of poaching off another one.
I agree, Jane Foster’s friends had a great interaction going. But giving her the power of Thor…I think that would be best served as a What If episode. Who will prove worthy next, Justin Hammer?
Instead.of needless rebranding I feel they should use existing strong female characters–and there are many worthy considerations. As for Scarlet Witch, I remember her as having some vaguely defined “hex” powers in the comics, I must’ve missed out on when she suddenly got more powerful than the Molecule Man. It’s been 20 years since I collected so I suppose it could’ve occurred anytime in that stretch. She went from.a gimmicky heroine they had to write specific plot points into the stories in order to make her powers useful into a woman who might be the most.powerful marvel character. So yes, still very difficult to write about. I think what surprises me most is that Olsen will continue to portray the witch–i thought I read it was to be a TV show..? I guess they’ll be throwing boatloads of$ to make that happen.
Glad to see them taking some chances with Phase 4, because you get the feeling that once they get rolling with X-Men and Fantastic Four, we may not see anything this weird again for a while. (Not that the X-Men and FF aren’t plenty weird, but their brand of weirdness is pretty familiar to moviegoers at this point.)
@32. Michael: “Thor 1 was just okay. Thor 2, no. Ragnarok, however, was genius. Yep, the one that Jane’s not in. “
That’s just plain silly. You’re free to dislike Portman, but correlation is not causation. Of all the reasons one could argue for Thor 2 being disappointing, she’s way down on the list. Near the top would be an inadequate director in over his head. A villain that should have been epic is lame as hell, whether we blame the writing or a bored actor.
Portman was never meant to carry these movies. That’s absurd. Now, if they do Thor 4 and she sucks in it, then maybe you’ll have a case. Till then any such formulation is a fallacy.
11. xomic
They are doing a prequel because they didn’t get around to doing a Natasha story before she died in the MCU, not because they are out of ideas.
37. @Greg gauvreau – I’m a little confused by some of your points. The MCU didn’t “resurrect” Carol Danvers. The thing where Rogue stole her memories and powers got more-or-less sorted out more than 35 years ago, and Carol has been operating under a variety of different codenames ever since (Binary, Warbird, back to Ms. Marvel, and finally Captain Marvel). She was never “long-dead.”
I’m also unclear what you’re talking about with Blade, because. . . they’re not making him female? I mean, I don’t know EXACTLY what their plans are for the movie, but they cast a black male actor in the part of a black male character, so there’s no “gender/racial reassignment surgery” happening. Unless maybe you thought that Mahershala Ali was female for some reason?
@19 – it was once said that a genre died when Mel Brooks did a satire of it (cf. Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs).
Anyone know if Mel is tooling up a superhero movie?
Can we please end it all with a Marvel Zombie movie? After that last terrible movie with no audience fizzles in the box office and everyone is absolutely sick of it all, wrap it up in a crazy zombie movie where everyone dies.
I can see it now.. a grizzled Tom Holland, lines on his face and an arm missing, is the final hero standing as zombified Wolverine, Mr. Fantastic, Beta Ray Bill and Lockheed tear him to bits on a pile of the bodies of CG rendered actors and actress no longer under contract.
No happy ending. Just bodies. The end.
@43 – I never knew how much I wanted all this to end until I read that idea.
I mean, I don’t really want it to end, but I hope I’m around when it does and I’m praying to all gods in all languages, including Welsh: make that happen.
Having stories in different ‘verses is fine. Trying to cross them all together is not. The disdain for continuity, and continual reboots seemingly by each new writing team, were part of why I quit following the old print lines. The same slapdash attitudes in another media of tv/movie will not regain my patronage.
@32 – Michael Tyson: Could it be that the guy reponsible for Ragnarok being so awesome, who is also going to be responsible for this fourth movie, has a plan for Jane Foster? GASP!
@36 – kgrierson: Howard was not an MCU movie. There is no point of comparison except for the fact that it was a movie based on a Marvel comic… it was a completely isolated effort on Lucas’ part, not a carefully constructed franchise like the MCU is.
I’m excited to see where the MCU goes and really want to see some of the “odder” heroes show up. Hercules, Darkhawk, Power Pack, Dazzler, and Howard the Duck could all be in the future as movies or shows. Marvel under Feige seems to be getting this mostly right and I am hopeful they will continue to do so. I am worried that eventually their “batting average” will have to go down, no way they can keep up the quality.
As far as weird goes, my dream continues to be that MarvelDisney opens up the money spigots, purchases all rights to Micronauts and ROM: Spaceknight, and includes them in a subsequent phase.
@47 – Dan P: Dazzler is going to get an animated show with Tigra on Hulu. Not live action, I know, but it’s a step…
I don’t believe Blade will be part of phase 4. I think I read that it’s separate.
@50. Both Blade and Conan are Avengers in the comics now, so…
I, for one, love weird, so this is cool – which is one of the things I enjoy about the MCU. I don’t love everything about it equally but there’s something for everybody.
And for all the people talking about the death of Westerns, etc. What’s the most popular thing on Disney+/social media right now? The Mandalorian. A space western.
Love them or hate them, they are at least pretty savvy at this stuff.