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Superhero fatigue not to blame for MCU's recent struggles, say directors The Russo brothers

Superhero fatigue not to blame for MCU's recent struggles, say directors The Russo brothers
Producers Anthony Russo and Joe Russo pose on the red carpet before the special screening of The Gray Man in Berlin, Germany, on July 18, 2022.
PHOTO: Reuters

The Russo brothers don't think superhero fatigue is to blame for the recent struggles of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

The sibling directors have enjoyed tremendous success in the superhero genre with movies including Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame, and argue that Marvel's problems stem from a "generational divide" in how audiences consume films.

Joe Russo, 52, told GamesRadar+: "There's a big generational divide about how you consume media.

"There's a generation that's used to appointment viewing and going to a theatre on a certain date to see something, but it's ageing out. Meanwhile the new generation are, 'I want it now, I want to process it now', then moving onto the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same time.

"You know, it's a very different moment in time than it's ever been. And so I think everyone, including Marvel, is experiencing the same thing, this transition. And I think that really is probably what's at play more than anything else."

Anthony Russo argues that "fatigue in general" is to blame for the disappointing box office performances and cites the criticism of Westerns to show that it is an "eternal complaint" in the movie industry.

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The 54-year-old filmmaker said: "The superhero fatigue question was around long before the work we were doing.

"So, it's sort of an eternal complaint, like we always used to cite this back in our early days with superhero work.

"People used to complain about Westerns in the same way but they lasted for decades and decades and decades. They were continually reinvented and brought to new heights as they went on."

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