Mcu Why More Stylized Directors Should Be Hired For Phase 5

After The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, the MCU’s Phase 4 is officially over, and it’s time to think about Phase 5. There have been announcements about the movies that are coming in the next few years, but there’s still no cast and no directors. There are some good ideas about who could direct the new films, but no announcements. We believe Marvel should hire more stylized directors for Phase 5, and here’s why:

New Directors Bring New Styles

     Sony Pictures Releasing  

In the last few years, one of the biggest criticisms Marvel has received is that many of its movies are formulaic and look alike. Getting new unique directors would change that, as they would bring their own style, idiosyncrasies, and way of doing things. Some of the Fantastic Four director ideas, show how much fun it would be having those different directors. Can you imagine a Marvel movie directed by Wes Anderson, Rian Johnson, Sofia Coppola, James Wan, or Alex Garland? Neither can we, and that’s what would make it so exciting. The MCU built its empire with surprising director choices that made films we never knew we wanted, and they should go back to that. To be successful, two things should be very important: find the right characters for this unique artist (Lord and Miller would do great with a Squirrel Girl movie; in a dark holocaust-filled movie about Magneto’s trauma, not so much).

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About how Marvel decides on which directors to hire, Kevin Feige told Coming Soon: “We watch a lot of films. We have a lot of meetings and those turn into multiple meetings and discussions and brainstorming about the project and the character with various filmmakers. Then we just get it to the point where we decided we’ve found the right people to work with for two, three, four years, to bring a character to life.”

It Would Help Evolve the MCU

     Lionsgate  

The MCU wouldn’t be as healthy as it is now if it hadn’t evolved since it started, and that must continue. Hiring stylized directors would help evolve the MCU, giving it new vibes and genres, and making it more interesting. Not every story should have the same structure and style. What would a terrifying Marvel movie look like? We don’t know. Sam Raimi’s Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a couple of moments where it showed all the possibilities of that kind of movie, but the film had to serve too many brand plots to really get there.

There are many galaxies and alien beings in Marvel Comics. What would a real sci-fi MCU movie be like? A musical? Or a rom-com? Most MCU movies are a blend of comedy and action, but when they touch on some other genres and themes, is when that richness makes the movie much better and transcends: the first Black Panther, and Captain America: Winter Soldier, are perfect examples of this.

That’s why Guillermo del Toro would be the perfect director for Ghost Rider, and we believe The Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Atlanta’s tandem of Donald Glover and Hiro Murai, and Rian Johnson should be Marvel’s next calls as all of them have a unique style, that is nothing like what’s the MCU is doing right now. The last stylized directors who joined the MCU helped open new worlds for the whole universe. We went to a very funny, colorful space in Guardians of the Galaxy, we discovered a most interesting Thor in Thor: Ragnarok, and we believed Wakanda was a real place, with its own millenarian culture and way of life in Black Panther, and all those gains were essential to the whole MCU when those characters met with more serious ones in the battle against Thanos, as they gave the films new weapons to play with; Fat Thor as some kind of Big Lebowski mess will always be funny, even if under all those Cheetos and beer was a real trauma and grief the Nordic God was having. The Eternals might not have worked as well as everybody wanted, but it was a step in the right direction, as the idea was to have a movie where the action wasn’t as important as the experiences those characters were having.

It Worked In the Past

     Marvel Studios  

John Favreau was an indie director who had written Swingers. James Gunn was known for Scooby-Doo. Taika Waititi had done a couple of small movies in New Zealand and was the writer and lead of the What We Do in the Shadows movie, and now he’s one of the best MCU directors. Waititi even said on The Late Late Show with James Corden that he just said yes to everything, so he could get the job, even if it meant faking his knowledge for a while. All those hirings of stylized directors worked and made the MCU better. It’s easy to say that without those (at the time) risky hirings, we wouldn’t have the MCU as it is now, as those risks paid out big, making the films these directors did, some of the better and most celebrated films in the whole universe.

The MCU is a big, well-oiled machine that is playing with house money, so now would be the time to take great risks, as even if they fail, that movie wouldn’t destroy the whole universe, and if they had another big success with a stylized director, the gains would be gigantic. It’s been proven, again and again, that the MCU is at its best when it surprises its viewers, as the power of amazement, and a “wow” feeling is still the best way to get people in cinemas.