While Marvel's plans are ambitious and growing all the time with movies said to be planned through 2021, things may not be going as strong as Marvel would hope. Recently, Captain America himself Chris Evans announced that after his contract with Marvel is up in 2017, he will most likely be retiring from acting and taking turns behind the camera as a director on other projects.
At first this news is kind of shocking. You mean, Chris Evans is going to give up being an Avenger? After thinking on it further, though, it makes perfect sense. At the end of his contract he will have spent six years in the Marvel Universe. Is this something he would want to sign on to do for another six years? Sure, some actors (*cough* Hugh Jackman) are perfectly happy spending a decade and a half in one roll, however most actors try to stay away from being stuck in one place too long. The longer they play one type of character, the harder it is to get different kinds of roles. Plus they just get bored!
So let's say this is true and Evans is quitting. This leaves Marvel with a couple of options: they could recast Steve Rogers, the could pass the Cap mantle on to a different character (Winter Soldier?) or they could kill off Cap and retire that character altogether. Many smart and passionate people are arguing right now about which options they should choose, but here is my take: it doesn't really matter; the character will suffer no matter what. A large chunk of the audience for Captain America will be unable to accept such a change.
Not only is the future of Captain America films looking grim, questions about Marvel's golden boy, Iron Man, have been swirling for a year or so now. Robert Downy Jr. himself has gone on record with Variety about his take on the future of Marvel films saying:
"The smart money is you have to look at everybody’s age. I’ll put myself at the top of the list. Sooner or later, they've got to start over and get somebody young."
Downy Jr. has also said he hopes Tony Stark is treated like James Bond, with the role being handed down again and again to new actors.
While this is a nice sentiment and has worked for 007, by most people's accounts Robert Downy Jr. IS Tony Stark. Without RDJ in the role, Marvel faces the same choices with Iron Man as they will with Cap. Would audiences stick around for Iron Man without Downy Jr.? Would they watch the Avengers without the character at all?
Of course, Marvel is not resting on its big characters. They have several films in the works that go well beyond the big four Avengers. They can afford to take risks at this point and they very likely will pay off. Even with these new properties though, Marvel faces a challenge with 20th Century Fox and Sony both building their own superhero universes around their Marvel properties such as X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. Avengers raised the bar and these guys seem to be rising to catch up or surpass it.
Marvel hasn't exactly shown signs of slowing down, however it is very hard to imagine this cinematic universe without the elements that have made it a worldwide sensation.
Do you think the Marvel Cinematic Universe can survive the loss of these or any of the main founding Avengers? Comment below! Also check out our review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
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