SFFTV call for contributions: “What Was the MCU?”

special section, call for contributions: “What Was the MCU?”
Science Fiction Film and Television (deadline extended to February 1, 2024)

Science Fiction Film and Television invites contributions (no more than 2000 words) to a special section tentatively titled “What Was the MCU?” Since Avengers: Endgame (2019), the once nigh-invulnerable Marvel Cinematic Universe has faced an increasing drumbeat of fan, critical/scholarly, and labor backlash, culminating in the domestic-box-office disappointment of The Marvels (2023), which made only US$47 million in its opening weekend. That The Marvels—starring a diverse, woman-led cast and helmed by the first Black woman director in the franchise—has already become widely recognized in the discourse as the symbol of this decline is unfortunate, as all of the post-Endgame MCU features have been heavily criticized for their increasingly shoddy scripting and effects work, while also having steep box-office drops from earlier franchise features. What accounts for this fall from grace, and what can those of us working in media studies, franchise studies, and science fiction studies learn from this massive shift in the cultural tide? How has the current state of the MCU been inflected by outside pressures like the shift to Disney+; the COVID-19 pandemic; hyperexploitation of writing, directing, editing and VFX staff; the right-wing targeting of “woke” media and of the Disney Corporation in particular; the fracturing of the existing Marvel fanbase; and a rising “Generation Z” that seems to be almost completely uninterested in this sort of franchise production? Is the moment of “the franchise” as the dominant mode of cultural production in the United States nearing its end—or, for that matter, are accounts of the death of the MCU premature? 

Contributions on any aspect of this topic are welcome; please query Gerry Canavan at gerry.canavan@marquette.edu with any questions.