'Avengers' directors shield Marvel from criticism

The hit Marvel duo Joe and Anthony Russo believe the issue of fatigue with superhero movies is not specific to the MCU but has affected  Hollywood overall.

In a chat with GamesRadar+, the Avengers: Endgame filmmakers said the changes in people's interaction with media are impacting the performances of the films.

“I think it’s a reflection of the current state of everything. It’s difficult right now, it’s an interesting time,” Joe said. 

“I think we’re in a transitional period and people don’t know quite yet how they’re going to receive stories moving forward, or what kinds of stories they’re going to want.”

Sharing the issue at hand is born out of the generational divide, Joe noted, “There’s a big generational divide about how you consume media. There’s a generation that’s used to appointment viewing and going to a theater on a certain date to see something, but it’s aging out."

"Meanwhile the new generation are ‘I want it now, I want to process it now’, then moving onto the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same time. You know, it’s a very different moment in time than it’s ever been."

He added, "And so I think everyone, including Marvel, is experiencing the same thing, this transition. And I think that really is probably what’s at play more than anything else.”

His partner, Anthony similarly took the same position, claiming the matter of fatigue is more general than particular.

“The superhero fatigue question was around long before the work we were doing,” he shared. 

Adding, “So, it’s sort of an eternal complaint, like we always used to cite this back in our early days with superhero work. People used to complain about westerns in the same way but they lasted for decades and decades and decades."

"They were continually reinvented and brought to new heights as they went on.”