Long gone are the conspiracies touting James Gunn being sent undercover by Marvel Cinematic Universe head honcho Kevin Feige as a double agent tasked to tear down the competition from within, and in its place is the delicious irony of the DC Studios co-CEO being pinpointed as the person with the best chance of rescuing Phase Five from even further dismay.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is both the franchise’s second worst-rated installment on Rotten Tomatoes and joint lowest-graded feature on CinemaScore, while a last-minute delay for The Marvels and tales of Disney urging Marvel Studios to slow down in an effort to focus more on quality than quantity have set alarm bells ringing.
The MCU has released 31 features to date, and it’s not gone unnoticed that the three weakest performers on Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScore have arrived in the last 13 months, leading many to lower their expectations for not just the rest of Phase Five, but the Multiverse Saga as a whole.
There is one glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, though, and it’s Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Not only will the filmmaker be looking to go out with the biggest bang possible as he wraps up his association with both the current iteration of the team but the MCU in its entirety, but the first two installments in the cosmic series rank among the most popular and joyously entertaining entries to ever be slapped with the familiar opening fanfare.
While there’s always the chance Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 turns out to be another bust, we’d feel confident in saying it’s very unlikely, putting Marvel in the morbidly hilarious scenario of requiring the boss of DC to try and turn the tide of opinion by getting the shaky Phase Five back on the rails.