There have been 11 movies, 16 seasons of television, two specials and two collections of Groot-centric shorts in Marvel Studios’ “Multiverse Saga,” which began just four years ago. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is all set to steamroll onward, starting with the release of “Captain America: Brave New World” next week. But that doesn’t mean everything is going well for Marvel.  

A year ago, the entertainment outlet Polygon published an article titled “Every tease Marvel still needs to pay off, in theory.” In excruciating detail, it describes the many post-credit promises that the MCU has made to audiences since 2021. 

Although the list was made only a year ago, some of its findings already feel ancient. Remember when Harry Styles, Charlize Theron, Mahershala Ali, Brett Goldstein and Kelsey Grammer were each introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I don’t, either!

Amid these teasers is a strange attempt at course correction in the form of “Brave New World,” which seems to only be adding to the pile of set-ups. The movie introduces yet another giant movie star to the MCU (Harrison Ford), welcomes a new Falcon to replace Anthony Mackie, who has been promoted to Captain America and brings back the love interest from “The Incredible Hulk” (2008.) 

This set-up issue is only worsened by the impending payoff coming far sooner than audiences might expect. “Avengers: Doomsday” is set for May 2026, and a sequel, “Avengers: Secret Wars,” will follow in May 2027.

To make matters worse, Marvel isn’t doing much in 2025 to set up this two-part event. It’s not just “Captain America: Brave New World” — 2025 is loaded with projects that seem unimportant to any larger narrative. 

On the TV side, Marvel offers three animated spin-offs, a “Daredevil” revival and a couple of origin stories. In May, the team-up film “Thunderbolts*” arrives, but that movie is filled with C-list characters like Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). 

The only project in 2025 with obvious implications for Marvel’s future is “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which releases July 25. The Fantastic Four’s foremost villain, Doctor Doom, will be portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in “Avengers: Doomsday.”  

As a franchise, one of Marvel’s greatest strengths and challenges alike has been their commitment to building a “universe,” but that universe is now filled with characters that general audiences may not care about, from the Eternals to Moon Knight to She-Hulk. Plus, the future of franchise mainstays like Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy is murky at best. 

I’ve been discussing storytelling more than I usually do in this column, but let’s be clear: Marvel’s trigger-happy approach to greenlighting projects in the 2020s is a business issue.  Box-office flops like “The Marvels” (2023) and “Eternals” (2021) still sting, even if they have been supplanted by successes like “Deadpool & Wolverine” (2024). Then there’s Marvel’s TV slate. Here’s a quick test: Do you remember that “Secret Invasion”, “Echo” and “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” have all been released? 

Marvel’s post- “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) business plan was to flood the zone with content, betting that the same audience that made their cinematic universe a sensation would unconditionally return. But this approach has clearly backfired. 

To its credit, it seems like Marvel Studios has realized this. 2025 is filled with random content, but that content has also been in development for years and needed to be released at some point. Beyond “Avengers” and a new “Spider-Man” movie starring Tom Holland — another sure thing at the box office — very little is known about what Marvel will do next, especially in theaters. The future of previously confirmed films like “Armor Wars,” “Blade” and a “Shang-Chi” sequel are unknown, let alone any new projects after ”Secret Wars” releases.

Marvel Studios is retooling, but it still needs to figure out what to do with its slate of interconnected failures.  From a storytelling and business perspective, though, there’s an easy fix. How do you establish a villain as powerful as Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom while leaving your box-office failures off of the future Avengers roster? 

It’s simple: Just have Doctor Doom kill a bunch of heroes right at the beginning of “Avengers: Doomsday.” It’d be a shocking and exciting opening that would establish his characters as a force to be reckoned with — and, at the same time, act as a superheroic business write-off. 

Almost no one will have seen all 39 projects Marvel will have premiered in “The Multiverse Saga” through 2025, so slashing a gigantic red pen through its own content would do wonders to set up a better future.

Sammy Bovitz is a sophomore writing about the business of film. His column, “Boardrooms & Blockbusters,” runs every other Friday. He is also a magazine editor at the Daily Trojan.