The Marvel Cinematic Universe
This should come as no surprise. Of course, fans flock to MCU news. Splitting it into films and Disney+ series, the biggest movie news seems predictable. But our readers’ interest in the series is perhaps a bit unique. Of course, in general, the most interesting MCU news this year came from San Diego Comic Con’s debut of Marvel Studios’ slate for Phases 5 and 6, culminating in Avengers: Secret Wars.
MCU Movies
With the news that Phase 6 will include Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, the speculation of multiversal proportions has begun. Our readers, though, have been most interested in a rumor about who the first Avengers to potentially bite the dust in The Kang Dynasty will be.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a big moment in 2022 for countless reasons. The MCU’s newest anti-hero, Namor, finally made his live-action debut. While many want to see the return of the character, it may not be in the form of a solo film. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore confirmed that the character can definitely return in a future project, but Disney is not able to produce a standalone project based around the character. It seems the rights are still with Universal, who also holds the rights to Hulk and was the reason that character never got a sequel since the Edward Norton film back in 2008.
Other major MCU movie news includes, of course, Deadpool 3. While fans have been clamoring for any information on the character’s MCU debut, we were treated this year with the knowledge that Hugh Jackman will return as Wolverine, and a new working title (that includes “Wolverine”) for the film seems to make it clear how important and big his role will be.
While not directly about any particular MCU film, once again this year legendary director Quentin Tarantino made negative remarks about Marvel and/or superhero films which gave film Twitter fuel to rave for days. One of the things that peaked our readers’ attention was learning that Tarantino actually has or had an idea for an MCU film based on the Howling Commandos.
As a side note, MM readers apparently got a kick out of our Ultimate Lists of What to Watch Before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. If you thought the Multiverse of Madness list was chaos, just imagine what the Ultimate List for Secret Wars will look like (hint: the entire MCU and then some). Rest assured, an Ultimate List for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will hit the internet soon.
MCU Disney+ Series
If you were to guess what our readers clicked on most in 2022, would you guess Moon Knight? If so, you’re a winner. Not only was our most-read article about how Moon Knight beat out Hawkeye’s viewership on Disney+, but fans were all in on Moon Knight costumes. Theorizing alter ego Jake Lockley’s costume (which did not come to fruition) was a fun pastime, and others were extremely interested in some of the unused suit designs for the series. Clearly, fans seem interested in more of the series. Will we get it? We still don’t know, but we have a general guess we could see it in 2025.
Readers also flocked to news about the upcoming Secret Invasion. Perhaps fitting for the show, some of the most-read articles involved leaked set photos or rumors about the identity of characters—specifically Emilia Clarke’s character—whose identity will further be questioned throughout the series.
What would the past few years have been without the constant Daredevil dialogue? Of course, fans jumped on all news Charlie Cox-related. It ultimately paid off when fans learned he would return in his own MCU show, Daredevil: Born Again as well as cameo in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Still, the thing that got fans stirred up the most was when Cox finally broke his silence about his wild appearance in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and re-ignited the renew Daredevil campaign.
DC
To be honest, DC has been a mess for quite some time. Whether you love(d) the DCEU (and/or all of the things that were in the DC multiverse but not the DC Extended Universe, which makes no sense), hated it, or (most likely) were indifferent to it, it existed. However, late this year all of it was thrown into complete additional chaos when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be taking over as co-leaders of the newly-formed DC Studios. There is plenty to try and unpack so far—for example, Henry Cavill is no longer Superman. Who else will be recast? What will they do with their current 2023 slate that includes The Flash, Aquaman 2, Blue Beetle, and Shazam 2?
We do not know. But to be honest, MM readers have not spent too much time tracking the fire tornado that is DC. But Gunn has reassured fans that more will be known early this year.
Hot Take
We also generated plenty of discourse around the MCU’s post-credits scenes. One unknown member of the site, Charles Murphy, wrote a piece on why Marvel should end its post-credits scene tradition:
Given they distract from the movies, aren’t always followed through on and the disturbing trend in their quality, it really is time for the Marvel post-credit scene to be retired. We’ll always have that kiss between Jane and Thor…before Jane disappeared for a decade.
Charles Murphy
If you still have too many opinions about it, feel free to hop right back into that conversation. But screaming into the Twitter void about movies feels so 2022. 2023 is better…right?
Honorable Mentions
It’s not all about superheroes, though MM readers certainly love them. But in 2022 we had some major interest in several other things. Check out some of the most noteworthy ones below.
