10 Huge What Ifs That Could Have Changed The MCU Forever
6. What If It Hadn't Been Sold To Disney?
Disney don't exactly make movies on a small scale, and the monolithic corporation's insistence that almost the entirety of their output be mega-budget blockbusters has virtually eliminated the mid-budget movie from their repertoire.
Ant-Man is the only Marvel Studios movie since Phase One that cost less than $150m to produce, but before Disney stepped in to purchase the company there had been talk about the franchise narrowing its scope and testing the waters with some lower-budget efforts that focused on more obscure characters.
Kevin Feige confirmed in 2010 that they were in the process of developing $20-40m projects based on Doctor Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage and Power Pack, and while the Sorcerer Supreme did eventually land on the big screen six years later, it was as the star of a $165m epic.
Even the upcoming slate of shows exclusive to Disney Plus are reported to be costing up to $150m, which is an eye-watering chunk of change for what will only amount to six or eight episodes of television per season.
Before Disney got into the Marvel business, the studio were keen to expand and diversify their portfolio of comic book adventures, but once Disney came calling the business model shifted entirely to gigantic budgets designed entirely to maximize profits and nothing else.