Making an audience care about a character is vital to any story, and it’s something Marvel Studios did well in its first three phases. Characters like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) got their own movies before appearing in big team-up films. They also continued to star in standalone sequels, so viewers got to watch them evolve on a regular basis.
That hasn’t been the case in Phases 4 and 5. For example, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) was a hit with fans when his movie came out in 2021, but he hasn’t appeared since, and it isn’t clear when he’ll pop up again. There’s no word on when “Shang-Chi 2” might come out, so the character isn’t getting the chance to develop in the way that, say, Captain America did.
The same could be said for many characters that were introduced and then seemingly dropped, like Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac) and She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany). It’s possible they’ll all come together in the next “Avengers” films, but perhaps without putting in the work to build up the characters over several projects. Iman Vellani clearly wants the characters to be done justice, and told The Direct that’s a sentiment shared by many in the studio: “Every single person that works at Marvel Studios is genuinely a fan and so in love with their craft and in love with their job. And I think that dedication to their work is what makes a good, if not great, movie.”
