Running MCU thread

Saw it with my daughter...

• It's easily better than the last Eternals, Thor, Dr. Strange, and Black Panther. Easily.
• It sets the tone for Kang. He's a bad mother fucker.
• There are great set pieces, including the final battle. I would have deleted a couple things, but it's still very enjoyable.

And I mentioned this to my daughter, and she agreed.

The MCU is like a football team that lost its franchise players. Cap and Iron Man are gone. Black Panther went away too soon. It's like the Patriots losing Brady and Gronk. There is still leadership in place, but you are refilling the pieces. The new players are coming along. Some are finding their traction and some need more help. The Fantastic Four is coming in two years. Those are the big dogs to push this forward. They are QB1.

 

That analogy works to a point, but the X-Men are far more likely to be the new QB1. That said, you made me think of this scene.

 

Are there any stakes in this movie? Does Kang cause any permanent damage or does one of the weakest superheroes in the MCU fight the new big baddie to a draw?

I’ll take a very simple answer if you don’t want to give spoilers.

 

Ant Man gets a lot of help. Think of the QR as a planet overthrowing a dictator.

 

Jonathan… I really hope you didn’t do this.

 

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/jonathan-majors-united-states-army-commercials-dropped-1235564855/

The Army already pulled commercials with Majors in them. Disney fired James Gunn over old Tweets before hiring him back. They also fired Gina Carano over comments she made. The difference, of course, is there was no dispute over the facts in those cases, but I wonder how Disney will handle this one. The accusation is a serious one and there have been other comments on social media about him not being a good guy, but they really have put a lot on him with the focus on Kang in upcoming movies.

 

On the other hand, if there is one character they can recast and easily provide an in-story explanation for, it's one that has an infinite number of variants, right?
Just bring in somebody new to play Kang and write around it as being another variant from another universe.

 

I read something where the cab dropped her off and took him someplace else for the night.

A lot left to unpack here.

 

I'm certain that is what they would do, but they already showed a giant arena full of Kang variants, and the ones we got a good look at all looked like him. They have recast parts before, so it's probably not that big a deal. Obviously, the larger concern is the possibility that he might be guilty.

 

Terrence Howard has no idea what you’re talking about.

 

Neither does Edward Norton.

Of course, those were both in the early days of the MCU. It also helped that they got Don Cheadle and Mark Ruffalo to step in.

We will see how it goes now that the MCU has become such a massive franchise. If not Majors, then with Harrison Ford taking over for William Hurt (RIP) as Thunderbolt Ross. Again, the quality of the replacement certainly helps, though I wonder if Ford is too old for the role at 80.

 

Here we go.