The Marvels Underwent Four Weeks Of Reshoots, But Was It Enough?
Today, Variety published a feature about the ongoing troubles behind the scenes at Marvel Studios, and in addition to several major revelations about the issues involved with its new "Blade" film, potentially replacing Jonathan Majors' Kang with Doctor Doom, and even maybe reuniting the original Avengers squad, it reveals there have been four weeks of reshoots on this month's theatrical release, "The Marvels."
Variety says "The Marvels" reshoots were to "bring coherence to a tangled storyline." Tweaking things up to the last minute has always been the Marvel way (the studio famously added its post-credits scene to "The Avengers" after the film's world premiere), but four weeks of additional photography is longer than usual — even for a Marvel film.
For years before Marvel Studios came along, if a movie underwent reshoots, the perception in the fan community (fair or not) was that the film in question must be in deep trouble, and getting the crew and actors back together for additional photography was a desperate attempt to save the film. Marvel head Kevin Feige almost singlehandedly changed this perception by incorporating two weeks of reshoots into every Marvel Studios production. "We always build in two weeks because the hardest thing about the additional photography is the actors' schedules, wrangling the actors," Feige said in 2014. "So we just build it in. We've done some movies that have three days of reshoots, some that have fifteen days, twenty days if not more. Sometimes we know what we need by that point and sometimes we're wrangling them anyway."
Will those reshoots be enough?
The four weeks of extra time on "The Marvels" is not the longest stretch of reshoots in Marvel Studios history. In 2021, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" underwent six weeks of reshoots, filming six days a week during that stretch in order to get what Feige and director Sam Raimi needed. However, the difference here may end up coming down to money: Raimi's film ended up pulling in $185 million domestically when it opened last year, while "The Marvels" — despite having a $250 million budget and being a sequel to "Captain Marvel," which earned over a billion dollars globally when it debuted in 2019 — is only on track to open somewhere between $75-80 million in its opening weekend.
"Additional photography is invaluable," Feige said in that same 2014 interview. "Sometimes it's to fix something that's not working, but most of the time on our movies it's two-fold: sometimes a better or more exciting idea will come along, or more often something will come out of the movie — because it's too long or the movie is stronger without a particular beat or scene or shot, and you need connective tissue."
Variety also points out that Marvel Studios held a test screening of "The Marvels" this past June, where audiences gave it "middling reviews," and notes that director Nia DaCosta ("Candyman") moved to London earlier this year to begin prepping for her next movie, a Tessa Thompson drama called "Hedda," even though "The Marvels" was still in post-production.
I still have hope
I don't necessarily think any one of these things alone is indicative of a major problem with "The Marvels," and I don't love the idea of contributing to a broad narrative about a film being in trouble, especially since I wasn't on the set and don't know for sure what types of decisions are being made. But the combination of factors here — the film's release date being moved multiple times, the ongoing mess of VFX problems in Marvel Studios projects, the studio's overall dip in quality since "Avengers: Endgame" — has me desperately hoping that "The Marvels" ends up being a pleasant surprise instead of some kind of creative disaster. The initial trailers were not particularly encouraging to me, but recent TV spots have piqued my interest and showed off a lighter tone than I was expecting.
Plus, Iman Vellani is absolutely delightful as Ms. Marvel, so she might be able to provide a real sense of fun while further establishing herself as a star, and help save the film from being overly dour.
We'll find out when "The Marvels" arrives in theaters on November 10, 2023.