Doomsday is a make-or-break moment for the MCU

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10 years ago, you couldn’t escape the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase Three had just begun in 2016, kicking off the long road to Avengers: Endgame with Captain America: Civil War. Marvel monopolized movie theater screens, post-credit fan theories dominated social media, and even the biggest haters couldn’t help but let superhero movies live rent free in their minds. Whether you loved or loathed it, the MCU was the ultimate water cooler.

The cultural landscape looks very different a decade later. Sure, the MCU is still trucking, as evidenced by a busy week of news set in motion by a blowout San Diego Comic-Con panel. You could even argue that it still has plenty of juice left based on the glowing praise for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But it doesn’t take Doctor Strange to see that the buzz for Avengers: Doomsday isn’t as all-consuming as it once was for Infinity War. The MCU faces its truest make-or-break moment this December, and it’s getting hard to predict how it will all end.

In some ways, Marvel’s SDCC presence last weekend was business as usual. Doomsday’s star-studded cast took the stage to power up the hype cycle. We learned that Ghost Rider, Black Panther 3, and Nova await us after Secret Wars. We even got a stunt Ryan Reynolds cameo to remind us that Deadpool is still on the chessboard. A decade ago, that would have been enough to break the internet for a few weeks.

Instead, the generator only produced so much buzz. Polygon’s Jake Kleinman noted that the SDCC news panel was met with more grumbling than excitement on social media, while Disney Plus subscribers didn’t seem moved to catch up on MCU movies post-panel. The once deafening hype sits at a neighborly decibel level.

Image: Disney

It’s hard to blame fans for approaching Doomsday with trepidation: the MCU’s Multiverse Saga has been a mess. Underwhelming movies, dropped plot threads, and a panicked villain switcheroo has made it hard to get fully invested in a story that feels like it’s been written on the fly at every turn. The joy of the MCU in its heyday was watching every thread come together in one climactic team-up. It’s less fun to put together a puzzle once you know there are pieces missing in the box. Why even get excited about Ghost Rider if you’re not sure if it will even come out? (It’s not looking great for Blade.)

In that sense, Doomsday is the greatest test the MCU has ever faced. Marvel will have to prove that even when the lead-up movies slip off tempo, the crescendo is still worth sticking around for. If Doomsday can’t pay off years of moviegoing frustration, it’s hard to imagine viewers or Disney investing in another “just trust me” saga. We’re in the endgame now.

The good news for fans is that there’s still social cachet in the MCU. Audiences already seem to love Spider-Man: Brand New Day, proving that people will still show up for a superhero movie so long as it’s well-made. Maybe the only thing Disney really needs to get fans reinvested in the MCU again is to make a coherent movie. A wild concept, I know.