MCU Releases in 2021: What Worked And What Didn't

2021 has been a big year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and here are some of the studio's biggest successes and mistakes. Marvel Studios sat out 2020, with both production and release schedules disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. They've made up for lost time in 2021, though, with four movies and multiple Disney+ TV shows that have transformed the MCU Phase 4 into a true multimedia franchise.

The results have been mixed, however. 2021 has included some of Marvel's greatest successes; for example, WandaVision was both popular and critically acclaimed, while Spider-Man: No Way Home is the most successful movie Sony has ever released. Not everything has gone so well, though, with diminishing returns on the Marvel Disney+ TV series, while both Black Widow and Eternals stumbled in the box office (the former in large part because of a controversial hybrid release). Marvel's leadership have good reason to look back at 2021 with a sense of satisfaction, but they also need to recognize their mistakes and failures as well.

Marvel Studios has a reputation for playing the long game, but in truth, Kevin Feige and his team have always been willing to course-correct and learn. That means it's valuable to look back and critically assess both the successes and the failures - from Spider-Man: No Way Home to Hawkeye, from Black Widow to The Falcon & the Winter Soldier. Here's our breakdown of what worked for Marvel and what didn't quite hit the mark in 2021.

Worked: Spider-Man: No Way Home's Three Spider-Man

Undoubtedly, No Way Home's reveal was the worst-kept secret in Hollywood. No matter how many times Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire denied it, everyone knew they were certain to appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home. What could have been nothing more than a nostalgia trip turned into a truly spectacular multiversal team-up, however, shining a light on how each of the three different portrayals of Spider-Man differed from the others. Tom Holland's latest iteration was the rookie only just at the beginning of his journey, Andrew Garfield's was the Spider-Man who had learned the price that comes with being a hero, and Tobey Maguire was the seasoned superhero who had found peace at last. Even better, somehow director Jon Watts managed to keep his focus on Holland's Spider-Man, and on the way, his character arc was affected by interaction with other versions of the wall-crawler. It really couldn't have been handled better.

Didn't Work: The MCU's Farewell To Black Widow

Black Widow was intended as a coda to Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, after the character's sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. The MCU had always failed Black Widow; she was eye-candy in Iron Man 2, with subsequent writers struggling to give her consistent characterization and Joss Whedon introducing an ill-received romance with the Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Black Widow's death in Avengers: Endgame felt arbitrary and unearned, coming at the end of a by-now-traditional scrap between Black Widow and Hawkeye. In theory, the solo movie should have been a chance to redeem her. Unfortunately Cate Shortland's film couldn't quite decide whether it was supposed to focus on bidding Natasha Romanoff a fond farewell or on replacing her. What started out as an incredibly intimate family drama was sadly undermined by Marvel's typical CGI extravaganza third act, and a moment of grief and reflection in the post-credits scene was ruined by the Contessa. Audiences had been clamoring for a Black Widow solo movie since 2010, but this was too little, too late. It was left to Hawkeye to truly reflect on Black Widow's sacrifice and bring meaning to her death.

Worked: WandaVision

The WandaVision poster showing Wanda and Vision overlaid with the black and white sitcom
The first official MCU TV series, WandaVision was undoubtedly one of Marvel's biggest successes this year. Stylistically, other Marvel TV shows have been film-like, structured like six-hour movies, and as a result, there have been notable pacing issues. That was largely not the case with WandaVision, which was essentially a superhero sitcom, a love letter to the TV shows of yesteryear. The true villain was not Agatha Harkness, but grief itself, with Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch creating a fantasy world in an attempt to escape her heartbreak after the death of Paul Bettany's Vision in a series that artfully blended decades of sitcoms with the MCU. Meanwhile, the show featured one of the best songs of the year, "It Was Agatha All Along," which earned a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Didn't Work: Eternals' Cosmic Stakes
eternals celestial tiamut

Although they were created by the legendary Jack Kirby, the Eternals have never been one of the more well-known superhero franchises. That made Chloe Zhao's Eternals something of a gamble for Marvel Studios, and unfortunately, it didn't quite pay off. The core problem lay in the third act, which devolved into a fairly standard "fate of the world" CGI-fest that sadly clashed with the intimacy of Zhao's production during the first two acts. It meant Eternals felt oddly mismatched, as though the topic and the general style were opposed to one another rather than cooperating. It was a bold vision with a fascinating premise, but Zhao's naturalistic bent clashed with the enormity of the cosmic story being told.

Worked: Eternals' Druig & Makkari

Eternals may not have been one of Marvel's biggest successes, but the character work was superb. The dynamic between Barry Keoghan's Druig and Lauren Ridloff's Makkari was particularly enjoyable, leaving viewers eager to see more of the unexpected couple. Incredibly, the Makkari-Druig romance wasn't in the original script. "I don't know if, Lauren, you remember," Zhao recalled when discussing the film with Ridloff, "It was your first time meeting Barry [Keoghan], the two of you started to just riff. You know, you started to improvise. And I go, what’s happening? I see sparks everywhere! Because initially, that was not the intention. I think really it was from you guys meeting that we saw that and went, maybe we should let play into it?" Zhao undoubtedly made the right call, and while the future of the Eternals franchise seems to be up in the air right now, Makkari and Druig should most certainly return.

Didn't Work: Falcon & Winter Soldier's Power Broker Villain Twist

There's a sense in which the MCU TV shows seem to have the same plot–namely, a "surprise" villain twist. The best have been unforgettable, such as the introduction of Agatha Harkness in WandaVision or He Who Remains in Loki, but, sadly, The Falcon & the Winter Soldier featured the worst to date. Captain America's old flame Sharon Carter has become the Power Broker, taking a turn for the dark side after she helped the Avengers during Captain America: Civil War. The problem, though, was that the heel turn was signposted too obviously for too long, and she was literally the only candidate who could have been the titular Power Broker in the show's narrative. All of which meant the season 1 finale - which treated the news as though it was a shocking revelation - was frankly underwhelming. What's more, her reasons for becoming the Power Broker never quite made sense and undermined everything the character had previously stood for. Hopefully, Marvel will go on to redeem Sharon Carter as a character by using her more effectively down the line.

Worked: Shang-Chi's Wenwu

Marvel has sought a way to bring the Mandarin to life on the big screen since the MCU was launched in 2008, and they finally found a way to introduce the real Mandarin in Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings. Tony Leung was perfectly cast as Wenwu, the ancient quasi-immortal warlord who had inspired the legends of the Mandarin in the MCU. He portrayed a complex and sophisticated character, a man whose grief and sorrow had torn apart his family and who was lost in his desperate desire to regain his loved ones. Although Leung was given multiple exposition dumps, the sheer quality of his performances elevated them and invested them with a deep sense of emotion, not only redeeming the Mandarin debacle of Iron Man 3, but also resulting in a legendary, if too brief, MCU performance. Wenwu truly goes down as one of the best villains in the MCU to date.


Didn't Work: Hawkeye's Kingpin Reveal

Hawkeye delighted audiences when it revealed Vincent D'Onofrio's return as the MCU's Kingpin, apparently a continuation or multiverse version of the villain he played in Daredevil. Unfortunately, the reveal was obviously foreshadowed from the very beginning, meaning everybody knew full well Kingpin was destined to appear. Marvel's decision to hold Kingpin back for the cliffhanger of episode 5 meant his relationships were underdeveloped, and his betrayal of his adopted niece, Maya Lopez, lacked any emotional punch. Marvel would have been wiser to have let the Kingpin reveal take place in Hawkeye episode 2 or 3, which would have given the show and the Marvel Cinematic Unverse.
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