There was a hot second where Marvel Cinematic Universe rumormongers were certain Taylor Swift would sail off her biggest success of all time straight into a role in Deadpool & Wolverine. Swift did not wind up playing Dazzler in the MCU-X-Men crossover event because she had 8 billion other better things to do, but at no point was the cameo inconceivable — why wouldn’t the two most hyper-saturated pop culture franchises become one?
Taylor Swift is the Marvel of music. That’s not meant to be condescending, but a reflection of size and trajectory. Both started with simple beginnings pinned to emerging names (2008’s Iron Man, 2006’s Taylor Swift) and over the years dabbled in every kind of genre to become a titan of their respective industries. Swift is a mere person, whereas Marvel is a web of blockbusters, but they’re both mega-franchises at the brand level, and full of interconnected stories with mythology and Easter eggs worth decoding. To culminate a decade-long experiment, Marvel released Avengers: Endgame. Taylor — not even derailed by Cats, worse than anything the MCU has ever released — had The Eras Tour. Based on “hmm do we like this” fan reactions to recent projects, both are in their post-glow era. A new deal with Disney Plus stands to literalize the Taylor-Marvel analogy in ways a Dazzler cameo never would have.
After debuting The Eras Tour on the streaming service in 2023, Taylor Swift has doubled down with Disney for a pair of projects tied to her record-breaking show. The 14-time Grammy winner will debut (brace yourself for the actual title here) Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The End of an Era, a six-episode docuseries chronicling the making and “impact” of her career-defining tour. The series will premiere alongside Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show, a new version of the concert film that includes material from The Tortured Poets Department. Both premiere Dec. 12.
The docuseries promises an intimate look at Swift’s creative process, featuring cameos from friends and collaborators like Gracie Abrams, Sabrina Carpenter, Ed Sheeran, and Florence Welch. Two episodes will drop each week on Disney Plus. That’s a whole lotta Taylor!
The news arrives right on the heels of The Life of a Showgirl, Swift’s 12th studio album, which arrived right on the heels of Taylor Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce, which arrived not too long after she made news for purchasing the masters to her first six original studio albums, which happened just a month or two after Swift dominated coverage of Super Bowl LVIII. Marvel released four movies and four TV shows in the same year-long stretch.
Bob Iger has admitted that maybe, just maybe, Marvel overloaded the market with #content, and in the years to come, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will make more strategic choices to revive the tentpole eventization of each MCU release. But Iger clearly doesn’t feel the same about Swift, who ostensibly is getting a massive payday from Disney for integrating her empire into Disney Plus. Swift does not need Disney. Her independently released music-video-documentary hybrid Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl grossed $34 million in theaters earlier this fall with little to no marketing behind it, other than being a name brand. But Disney clearly sees her as a Marvel equivalent in terms of audience market share. Maybe one day, Swift’s steady stream of albums, singles, concerts, viral celeb content, and hype will burn out audiences like Marvel did with its post-Endgame output, but for now, Disney’s betting the Swift Cinematic Universe can make saturation feel like an event, not exhaustion.
Swift’s singular vision as an artist transformed her into something akin to Marvel in terms of scope and ubiquity. Now, dealmaking has solidified her as an MCU-level business. For better or worse? To all the Swifties I’ve annoyed with this take, I’ll just say, it feels like neither. At a certain point, stuff this big just “is.” Marvel’s post-Endgame era might be a mess, but in Taylor’s world, the multiverse still sells.
