4 Years Ago, A Surprising Sci-fi Movie Put the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Shame

Most of the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies – like Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Thunderbolts – didn’t really explore the idea of the multiverse in a significant way. The films that did try, such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, created confusing and inconsistent rules for how alternate realities worked and didn’t explain why these alternate realities were interesting. Then, the firing of Jonathan Majors after his conviction further disrupted any existing story plans. Loki was the only exception, consistently using the multiverse concept in a logical and impactful way. Overall, the saga showed that Marvel had a great idea but lacked a clear plan for how to tell a cohesive story. The studio didn’t anticipate that a much lower-budget film could demonstrate what a truly ambitious multiversal story could be.







