'X-Men: First Class' Director Matthew Vaughn Admits Marvel Cinematic Universe Is Dead, Says 'Deadpool 3' Can "Bring That Body Back To Life"

Deadpool in the Disney x Epic Games trailer

X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn, who is promoting his upcoming action spy thriller Argylle, recently admitted that he views the Marvel Cinematic Universe as dead.

(L-R) Director Matthew Vaughn, Joel Basman and Ralph Fiennes on the set of 20th Century Studios’ THE KING’S MAN. Photo credit: Peter Mountain. © 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Vaughn told Bro Bible’s Post-Credit Podcast, “The few snippets that I know about Deadpool vs. Wolverine — or Wolverine vs. Deadpool, I’m sure that argument between Ryan and Hugh is happening as we speak — are unbelievable.”

He added, “That’s going to be the jolt… the Marvel universe is about to have a jolt of them and it’s going to bring that body back to life… I think Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are about to save the whole Marvel universe.”

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Vaughn went on to share his hope that the film allows for Marvel Studios to tell good X-Men movies moving forward.

He relayed, “I’m a genuine fan of the X-Men, all I want is for the movies to be as good as they should be.”

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool in Deadpool 2 (2018), 20th Century Fox

Vaughn previously noted the Marvel Cinematic Universe had killed themselves. While speaking with ScreenRant at New York Comic Con he said, ” I think there’s been so many bad superhero movies as well that it’s like when the Western got, you make so many than you get bored of the genre, not because the genre is bad, but because the films are bad.”

“I was old enough, sadly, when Batman and Robin came out, and it was terrible. I was a big Batman fan, and we were like, Ah! And then superheroes stopped, and then they came back. Now, I’ll be intrigued to see how The Marvels does,” he said.

The idea that the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs to be brought back to life clearly indicates it’s dead and one need look no further than recent box office performances in 2023. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which was supposed to be the big screen introduction to their next Thanos level threat in Kang the Conqueror fell flat and lost the company money.

The film only grossed $463.6 million worldwide on an estimated $200 million production budget. Given the production budget, the film needed to gross at least $500 million to cover the cut the theaters take as well as the film’s marketing endeavors.

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While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was one of the worst performing Marvel Cinematic Universe films of all time, it got even worse for Marvel Studios this past fall when they released The Marvels.

The film did not even gross $200 million worldwide, and it has a production budget upwards of $274 million. In fact, that $274 million number was the film’s budget as of September 2022. That means the budget is likely a lot higher given the film did undergo reshoots and post-production work in 2023.

Not only has the Marvel Cinematic Universe churned out a bunch of duds on the big screen, but their television offerings on Disney+ have done poorly as well. The recently released Echo series, which features a cameo of Deadpool and sees Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin as a recurring character has a middling 6.1 on IMDb. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score sits at 61%.

After releasing all five episodes onto Disney+ at once in the beginning of January, the show only made it on to Samba TV’s 9th most streamed program for the week it debuted. It fell out of the Top 10 list in its second week.

The #SambaTVWeeklyWrap is here! #Reacher has reclaimed the #1 spot, with #LiftNetflix riding its rise to 2nd, newcomer #AmericanNightmare in 3rd, #FoolMeOnce dropping 3 spots to 4th, and #PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians rising from 7th to 5th.#SambaTVInsights #Queenpins #RolePlay… pic.twitter.com/CiGdK5QwGm

— Samba TV (@samba_tv) January 25, 2024

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Vaughn hasn’t just criticized the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he also criticized Lucasfilm’s handling of Star Wars earlier in the year. Speaking with Josh Horowitz, Vaughn said, “Star Wars is the Skywalker family. And that’s where I think they’ve gone wrong ’cause they’ve forgot that.”

He added, “They’ve done brilliantly in the TV, but it needs an epic, new film. And that’s what I would do. I would go, right. Everyone’s going to go batshit crazy, but let’s bring it on. Because if you want a new generation make the movie for them. The old generation can hopefully make it well enough that they go, ‘Okay, I’m enjoying it.’”