After a recent rough patch, Marvel is attempting something of a comeback (there was definitely a post-Endgame malaise the pandemic exacerbated, but let’s be real that their box office losses didn’t really start until last year when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sh-t the bed, and even still, Guardians 3 posted big numbers last year, too).
I’m qualifying it because I’m just not sold on the “Marvel in trouble” and “superhero fatigue” narratives, because while they have looked vulnerable for the first time in years, again, there are still plenty of wins. Guardians 3 and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made around $850 million each, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness made damn near a billion dollars, Spider-Man: No Way Home made damn near two, not to mention all of those films were generally well received by audiences.
I actually think the film side of Marvel is being punished for where their real issues lie—on the TV side. Yes, a few Marvel movies didn’t do as well as expected, but overall, their post-Endgame films have hit more than missed. TV, though, is a different story. They started strong with WandaVision, which was hailed as a triumph, and “proof” that Marvel Studios could do TV as well as they do film. But it turned out everyone counted their chickens too early, because The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed the inherent flaws of flipping feature film scripts into multi-episode TV series. From there it’s a wild seesaw of ups and downs, from genuinely good shows like Loki to truly awful dreck like Secret Invasion. There’s no consistency and there’s too damn much of it, which has been the real problem for Marvel.
They’re trying to course correct, though, beginning with Loki’s second season, which is really good not least because they had the guts to go for a bummer ending that saw Loki finally get a throne…at the expense of everything else (truly heart wrenching for a character who came so far!). In September, they’re going big with Agatha All Along, a sort of spin-off/sequel hybrid to WandaVision that comes from WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer. The teaser dropped yesterday and it’s really good.
Of course, teasers and trailers are rarely Marvel’s problem, though the use of Florence & The Machine’s “Seven Devils” is inspired, it’s a deeply underappreciated Florence track. And the setup of the plot is REALLY solid. Stripped of her powers by Wanda Maximoff, Agatha Harkness is a detective, apparently, and assembles a coven of reject witches to help her get her powers back. There’s a moment of group camaraderie that pinged Practical Magic midnight margarita memories for me, and the cast is f-cking STELLAR, with Kathryn Hahn joined by Aubrey Plaza, Joe Locke, Emma Caulfield, Debra Jo Rupp, Sasheer Zamata, and THE Patti LuPone.
I like the murder mystery element in the show, I like Agatha going on a quest to restore her powers and take on Wanda again, I LOVE the casting, and I’m into the autumn vibes of the teaser. The series drops the first two episodes on September 18, with the remaining seven premiering weekly on Disney+, which will take us through October, so this is very much a spooky season watch. Agatha sort of looks like Marvel’s version of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and I don’t hate that.
Marvel will be heading to Comic-Con’s Hall H for the first time since 2022 this year, but they also have their own in-house fan convention, D23, just two weeks later. Between those two events, though, I expect we’ll see a big presentation for Agatha All Along, which is their only live-action television series left this year. Deadpool & Wolverine is expected to have a huge opening weekend later this month, maybe even $200 million huge, and if they can combine blockbuster success with a new, popular TV show, it would go a long way to restoring Marvel’s perception as an invincible hit machine. Agatha just has to get her witch groove back.
