{"id":3290,"date":"2025-04-07T16:03:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/07\/how-marvel-masters-storytelling-across-movies-tv-games-and-books\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T16:03:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:03:15","slug":"how-marvel-masters-storytelling-across-movies-tv-games-and-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/07\/how-marvel-masters-storytelling-across-movies-tv-games-and-books\/","title":{"rendered":"How Marvel Masters Storytelling Across Movies, TV, Games and Books"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool\/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman in Deadpool & Wolverine. Jay Maidment\/Courtesy of 20th Century Studios and MARVEL<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1950s, Walt Disney created a famous flywheel\u2014where each business element drove value to another\u2014that quickly became the decade-spanning strategic model for entertainment companies of all sizes. Today, in our fractured media ecosystem with rapidly changing audience behaviors and unprecedented competition for attention spans, we must delve one layer deeper. If content truly still is king, creators and studios must deliver it across all available distribution pathways\u2014films\/TV, video games, books\/comics, etc. This requires brands to methodically develop interconnected strategies that keep them competitive on all fronts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This challenge resembles teaching your golden retriever to drive. It\u2019s proven nearly impossible for many who have attempted it over a sustained period of time. Yet this approach helped transform the Marvel<\/a> Cinematic Universe (MCU) into Hollywood\u2019s most dominant franchise\u2014and could potentially help it recover from its current rut.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Derick Tsai<\/a>, CEO of the intellectual property development studio Magnus Rex, recently <\/span>penned an essay about what he calls \u201cmedium mapping,<\/a>\u201d a story-telling approach that strategically pairs specific narratives with the mediums best suited to tell them creatively. Different formats offer distinct strengths and weaknesses, so identifying how specific content enhances the <\/span>overall IP experience<\/span><\/a> becomes crucial.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhen you map the right story to the right medium, you don\u2019t just expand the IP\u2014you make it feel deeper, richer and more intentional,\u201d Tsai told Observer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Movies most effectively introduce an IP\u2019s world, themes and characters to the widest possible audience. Television excels at developing long-form character arcs. Video games allow players to live and control decisions within <\/span>a story. Comics and books enable fans to explore untapped histories, settings and characters within an IP\u2019s universe that may not center stage on-screen.<\/p>\n

When executed properly, medium mapping delivers both revenue and fandom. It provides multiple engagement points for fans, creating more access points and entryways into a franchise through new stories and wish fulfillment between major releases. Consider Insomniac\u2019s beloved Spider-Man <\/i>video game or watching Loki <\/i>on Disney+. This is key to ongoing fandom development, not just maintaining an existing fanbase. It also extends the brand\u2019s reach and earning potential by creating a varied ecosystem to capture consumer spending. Fans buy movie tickets, subscribe to streaming services, read comics, play video games and buy merchandise. This business model offers higher upside than just producing one-off movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective medium mapping turns a franchise into a lifestyle\u2014and that\u2019s where both loyalty and long-term revenue live,\u201d Tsai said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marvel\u2019s success formula<\/b><\/h3>\n

Marvel\u2019s Infinity Saga (2008-2019), culminating in the record-breaking success of <\/span>Avengers: Endgame<\/span><\/i>, succeeded largely because the studio synthesized decades of comic book material into emotionally resonant content that anyone could enjoy. Studio president Kevin Feige<\/a> and his creative partners led with a character-first ethos that grounded stories with human stakes that all demographics connected with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other brands, such as the now-defunct DC Extended Universe, deconstructed the superhero mythos and positioned characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman as gods. Marvel, meanwhile, emphasizes its characters\u2019 humanity.<\/span> Audiences fell in love with Robert Downey Jr.\u2019s Tony Stark, not just Iron Man (as evidenced by the largely out-of-suit <\/span>Iron Man 3<\/span><\/i>). This character wasn\u2019t just a billionaire with great tech, he was a rich prick who grew a conscience, a classic archetype. Captain America was a man out of time desperately searching for a foothold in a world that had passed him by. Thor was a god learning humility. Marvel scaled these relatable character tenets across multiple mediums, explaining the success of Disney+ shows like <\/span>WandaVision <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Loki<\/span><\/i>, the millions of cosplayers creating elaborate (and expensive) homages, and the popularity of games like Marvel Rivals. Both main and ancillary content prioritized human journeys while satisfying essential storytelling needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that the MCU has hit some creative and commercial turbulence since Thanos turned to dust in 2019. Though the franchise still reaches atmospheric highs (<\/span>Spider-Man: No Way Home <\/span><\/i>earned $1.9 billion while <\/span>Deadpool & Wolverine <\/span><\/i><\/a>grossed $1.3 billion), its historically elite consistency has faltered. A few tweaks could help restore balance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marvel needs to reclaim its character-first approach. Recent Multiverse saga installments have either shouldered too much world-building burden (like <\/span>The Marvels <\/span><\/i>trying to connect <\/span>WandaVision<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Ms. Marvel<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Captain Marvel <\/span><\/i>and the <\/span>X-Men<\/span><\/i>) or been mapped onto the wrong medium for the story (<\/span>Secret Invasion <\/span><\/i>needed to be a movie with better writing). Interestingly, Tsai saw <\/span>Wicked <\/span><\/i>as last year\u2019s best example of a Marvel-type movie\u2014a rousing story about a character with abilities overcoming societal prejudice and inner doubt. Recent Marvel projects have struggled to recreate these emotional beats that were common across the MCU\u2019s franchise pillars in phases one to three.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Medium mapping <\/span>plays a key role in building hype, as not all platforms carry equal weight. Introducing Jonathan Majors\u2019 Kang (intended as the Multiverse Saga\u2019s Big Bad successor to Thanos) on Disney+ and expecting audiences to follow him to theaters proved too ambitious. His big screen debut in <\/span>Ant-Man: Quantumania <\/span><\/i>resulted in the second-largest second-week box office drop (down 70 percent) and ninth-smallest global gross ($476 million) in MCU history. Success depends on matching each story to the right format and following through with the right expansion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Immersive experiences now provide a premium (and <\/span>rapidly growing<\/span><\/a>) frontier for IP expansion. Super Nintendo World and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks recreate beloved environments, bridging fans from source material to tangible fantasy. This explains Disney\u2019s <\/span>expansion of Avengers Campus<\/span><\/a> to include Avengers Infinity Defence and Stark Flight Lab as part of the company\u2019s <\/span>10-year, $60 billion investment<\/span><\/a> into parks and experiences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it works, you get asymmetrical returns\u2014one hit can lift an entire ecosystem,\u201d Tsai explained. <\/span>The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a great example of a successful film revitalizing interest in other facets of a franchise\u2014game sales, merchandise, and park attendance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like all things, of course, there exists a downside. In failure, a single project can be an anchor on commercial prospects. Tsai points out that last year, Hasbro reported a <\/span>17 percent year-over-year decline in revenue<\/span><\/a> driven in part by audience fatigue with partner brands Marvel and Star Wars. Quality control across such prodigious franchise content space is massively challenging, as seen with the poor reception and sales of DC\u2019s 2024 video game <\/span>Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League <\/span><\/i>and the shoddy VFX across Marvel properties recently. As fans grow stale on an avalanche of uneven content, the entire ecosystem falters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marvel\u2019s winning streak couldn\u2019t continue forever\u2014every Hollywood fad is finite. However, this franchise and other ambitious IPs must focus on multi-platform medium mapping to reach new heights. They must be omnipresent without becoming oversaturated, prioritizing strategic content expansion over sheer volume. (The driving Golden Retriever is sounding more believable at this point, right?). As the next layer of Disney\u2019s famous flywheel, this approach remains the most effective way to create a universe that drives fan development, engagement and revenue. Most importantly, it\u2019s a pathway back to great storytelling that satisfies fans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"How<\/p><\/div>\n