Marvel Studios have planned and strategised their massive money-making franchise of superhero movies for years in advance. Theyve titled each huge step a phase: Phase One ran from 2008 to the release of The Avengers in 2012; Phase Two finished this year with the release of Ant-Man, while Phase Three is the most ambitious yet, running from summer 2016 to summer 2019 and covering the release of eleven major motion pictures over that three year period. And thats just the strategy that theyre comfortable publicising in a press release: you have to believe that Kevin Feige and the others sitting at the big table are already heavily into plotting, casting and budgeting for Phase Four, and beyond. Thats potentially a fully realised strategy heading past 2023, eight years from now. To put that in perspective? Eight years ago there was no Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now Marvel is well over $9billion richer in ticket sales alone. At present, forward planning is handled poorly in WWE. The impression given to fans trying to follow the product is that too many angles are written on the fly and at the last minute. That may be factually incorrect... but its certainly how it appears. One of the biggest fan complaints of the last five years is that when it comes to pay-per-views, almost everything on the card except the main event seems to have been decided in the week prior to the big night. If, as discussed, WWE can keep straight what everyone has done and relate to what everyone is doing, then (barring sudden departures due to injury or worse, wellness violation, sudden retirement, etc), the next step should be to work forward: to determine the steps that they need to take to establish, progress and end a feud, and who will go on to feud with who next and then plan and strategise for the next, and the next. Its basic plotting. Preparing and creating a dynamic strategy for storytelling, production and promotion months in advance shouldnt be something that they only do for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and the main event matches at Wrestlemania.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
