'Deadpool 3'

Source: Disney

‘Deadpool 3’

Disney is reducing the annual slate of Marvel Studios films from around four to two “or a maximum three”, CEO Bob Iger said on Tuesday, echoing previous remarks about a strategy shift in the wake of superhero fatigue.

“We’ve been working hard with the studios to reduce output and focus more on quality; that’s particularly true with Marvel,” Iger told analysts during a Q2 earnings call.

“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to about two TV series a year instead of what had become four, and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two or a maximum three.”

Looking ahead to this year’s Disney broader pipeline the executive praised his studio teams and said the studio’s IP was “second to none”.

“I feel good about the slate coming up – Apes [Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes opens on May 10], Inside Out 2 [June 14], and Deadpool & Wolverine [July 26], Alien: Romulus [August 16], Moana 2 [November 27], and Mufasa: The Lion King [December 20].

Iger told an analyst later in the call: “We’re going to balance sequels with originals, particularly in animation. We had gone through a period when our original films in animation, both Disney and Pixar, were dominating. We’re now swinging back a bit to lean on sequels.”

He continued, “Right now, given the competition and the overall movie marketplace, there’s a lot of value in sequels because they’re known and it [costs] less in terms of marketing.

”In terms of Marvel specifically, we have both. Thunderbolts is coming out in 2025 as an original, and Deadpool [& Wolverine] this summer, which is a sequel, and Captain America [Brave New World] is coming out in 2025.

Avatar 3 from 20th Century Fox is also coming in 2025. With regard to Fox, Iger and his executives will continue to look at the library “to see what can be mined”. He hinted there may be more Apes films depending on the performance of Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes.

“I don’t think we’ll necessarily lean into the library,” he said, “but we’ll continue to look opportunistically at it.”

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