Marvel had the perfect chance to take over Halloween and completely fumbled it.
Marvel had the perfect chance to take over Halloween and completely fumbled it.
With how massive Marvel became at its peak, I never understood why they didn’t try to own a holiday like Halloween. Other companies have done it perfectly, take Fortnite for example. Whether you play or not, their Halloween season has become something fans look forward to every year. The whole game transforms, the community gets hyped, and it feels like an event.
Marvel had every tool to do something similar. Imagine after Endgame — instead of random scheduling, they started building a spooky seasonal lineup. Year one, we get a Halloween special like Werewolf by Night. The next year, a Moon Knight series drops right around October. Then maybe a Blade movie hits theaters the following fall. Eventually it all builds to a Midnight Suns crossover.
It’s wild to me that they didn’t lean harder into that vibe. They touched it with WandaVision and Agatha, but it always felt like an accident rather than a plan. Halloween feels like such an easy win for Marvel, the aesthetic, the characters, the marketing potential; everything lines up.
They’ve done a Christmas special with the Guardians, but a recurring Halloween tradition could have been something special. Marvel and Halloween just seem like a natural fit, and it’s a shame they never made it a real thing.
What do you guys think, could Marvel have built something long-term around the Halloween season, or am I overestimating how much people would’ve cared?
With how massive Marvel became at its peak, I never understood why they didn’t try to own a holiday like Halloween. Other companies have done it perfectly, take Fortnite for example. Whether you play or not, their Halloween season has become something fans look forward to every year. The whole game transforms, the community gets hyped, and it feels like an event.
Marvel had every tool to do something similar. Imagine after Endgame — instead of random scheduling, they started building a spooky seasonal lineup. Year one, we get a Halloween special like Werewolf by Night. The next year, a Moon Knight series drops right around October. Then maybe a Blade movie hits theaters the following fall. Eventually it all builds to a Midnight Suns crossover.
It’s wild to me that they didn’t lean harder into that vibe. They touched it with WandaVision and Agatha, but it always felt like an accident rather than a plan. Halloween feels like such an easy win for Marvel, the aesthetic, the characters, the marketing potential; everything lines up.
They’ve done a Christmas special with the Guardians, but a recurring Halloween tradition could have been something special. Marvel and Halloween just seem like a natural fit, and it’s a shame they never made it a real thing.
What do you guys think, could Marvel have built something long-term around the Halloween season, or am I overestimating how much people would’ve cared?
Commentaires
But you're right it's not gatekeeping in the proper sense and you're right people are entitled to downvote. I oversimplified my stance.
What I meant is that I find it unfortunate that people use the the downvote so aggressively against people just sharing their opinion. It's particularly unfortunate because after a certain amount of downvotes comments get hidden.
I just personally feel downvotes should be reserved for "yeah that take is wrong" or "hmm thats a sketch comment" not for "I disagree and want you to look bad in front of everyone" but that's my personal take and it's evidently a free place for people to do whatever they want so eh... I just find lately on the global scale, outside of Reddit, rhetoric has turned so needlessly divisive and the, for a lack of better word, spiteful downvoting, especially in a community meant for fellow fans and discourse is similarly needlessly divisive.
I feel people forget or deliberately ignore that this is the main purpose of downvotes: "censoring" comments. You downvote someone because want their comment to be hidden so other people can't see it. It's quite rude and elitist to essentially downvote people's simple, harmless opinions because apparently, their opinion isn't worth even hearing.
This sub can be something else lol
I feel like - for Marvel to continue taking chances - the fans should be happy to see them branching out stylistically and genre-wise, and we should expect some amount of groundwork-laying storytelling, and a little uneven-ness of writing, and cheer that.
Also, I feel like some of my favorite movies were kinda slept on even in early Phases (I think the first Captain America movie is seriously underrated), so I think everyone rushing to judgment or proclaiming the death of the superhero movie are all just natural reactions that real fans should be planning to ride out and try to find the real quality. Personally, I’d love more stuff as daring as WandaVision, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Not everything needs some grandiose conclusion, but when you set up so many projects that way and tease more stories with these characters, that's what fans come to expect.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is clearly leaning towards a specific genre that's more satirized so I think it gets a pass. That show is very meta and isn't taking itself seriously either
None of these are even fleshed out ideas or pitches. You just saw a fan wanted to see more supernatural stuff and decided “this is dumb”.
Love love love Nicolas Cage in a he's so cooky I never want him to change kind of way but saying "I watched a Nick Cage Ghost Rider project and this defines my opinion on Ghost Rider in film forever more" is freaking ridiculous.
Also, we got a solid example of how a Ghost Rider could like in live action via Agents of Shield and he was super duper appreciated. Folks wanted a solo project. Didn't pan out but they wanted one which says a lot about the hunger of fans for such a production
If they ever screwed on their heads right.
Then again, the same thing could be said about Eternals and Thor 4 with all of the cosmic related stuff
Marvel Zombies is the big Halloween project for this year and it was a big success.
Last year we got Agatha All Along, yet again, a big success.
I’d hardly consider those things comparable.
Using the word “purpose” was a poor choice of words on their part which y’all are clearly taking way too literally instead of just trying to engage with the actual point they’re making
... I'll ask this in the kindest way I can manage .... THE HECK???!
Like, the purpose for Marvel is, well, primarily to make money, duh. But for that to work, the purpose has to also be to entertain audiences (because you don't make money if nobody's watching and subscribing to D+ etc.). And clearly, people are watching it and from what I've seen also enjoying it a lot.
You do realize there's no written rule anywhere that says "all of Marvel has to be one interconnected big MCU thing, each leading into the next one", right? Fun is the best purpose you could have. Why do you think we sometimes get comics that are standalones, or shorter stories, or almost illogical ideas? It's all just for fun. Not everything needs to be a years-long plan; not everything needs a big convoluted culmination.
Werewolf By Night is not set in October, FYI; it's set between Christmas and New Year's Day (specifically December 29th).
The only date in 2025 that is 5 days before a Full Moon that also lines up with the official MCU Timeline placing WBN in proximity to Thor: Love and Thunder and the The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is December 29th.
Also I just checked the Official Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline book, and Werewolf-by-Night does indeed take place in Autumn 2025.
2. The Official Timeline (both the book and Disney Plus) places Werewolf By Night between Thor: Love and Thunder and the The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, but, again, actual details from within the story of WBN itself place its events AFTER the TGotGHS rather than before, thus requiring a setting of December 29th, 2025.
2022 - Werewolf By Night
2023 - Werewolf By Night in Color
2024 - Agatha All Along
2025 - Marvel Zombies
I think what they're doing is fine. No need to cater stuff specifically to the Halloween season, just release stuff that's inherently kinda spooky around Halloween time
There would have also been issues with leaning too hard into Halloween as a broader strategy. The biggest is that Marvel Studios would be up against basically every horror movie distributor who will want to capitalise on the period for obvious reasons. Horror is also very much an acquired taste, so it could be polarising for the general audiences that Marvel Studios really needs to win back. So, I can see why they don’t lean into the theme too heavily.
However, we have recently seen more supernatural themed projects, like *Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness* and *Agatha All Along*, which aren’t horror but do share similar themes. So, we’re at least getting more of the supernatural side of the Marvel universe.
I understand that Marvel wants to go in a different direction, but I think the investment in one-offs would be smart to keep Disney+ subscribers engaged (while also potentially filling in storyline gaps during long delays between MCU movies). The fact that they haven't done this is one of the reasons we've canceled our Disney+ subscription and now plan to only pick it up for a month or two each year to catch up on shows. The "event TV" feeling is gone, and just watching Treehouse of Horror reruns to get in the Halloween mood isn't worth the price of a sub anymore.
There's background behind it being changed to "Suns". Per Google...
>The original team name "Midnight Sons" was changed to "Midnight Suns" for the 2022 video game to be more inclusive of its female characters.
Think of it like this, when their are Females on the team it's Suns, when it's a complete sausage fest it's Sons lol.
Honestly, Iron Heart could've fit the Halloween feel pretty well by the end if they opted to release it now. Even though it wasn't totally in that direction or apparent it would be from the outset.
I think Blade's development hell has probably hampered their development of this corner of the MCU. I think if that took off then we very well could have a Midnight Sons lineup by now with him, Moon Knight, Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, etc. Holding out hope that is still to come, though.
Werewolf by moon Knight is a banger of a title, though. Hopefully next Halloween will see Jack, Ted, and Elsa return to some extent.
Blade
Moon Knight
Black Knight
Werewolf by night
Man-thing
Elsa Bloodstone
A ghost rider.
The question is which rider, and do they introduce them in a solo project first?
I keep seeing Dr Strange mentioned, but I don't see it. Marvel will probably want ti save Benedict's contracted appearances to solo or avengers films, not one thats a bit of a gamble. If theres a magic user, I could see them using one of the witches from Agatha (Jennifer Kale has links to Man-Thing already, and >! Agatha's ghost !< could be a fun addition) or they introduce a new characyer like Jerichho Drumm (his brother was in dr strange after all)
There's a mix of cinema and D+ characters in the running.
Decades of source material that fans are salivating for - nope! Let’s push fan fiction instead. The audience will come back eventually. The audience is wrong. They just don’t understand 😂
Do you work for Disney OP? If you don't, you'll fit right in.
So tell me when the movie comes out. I'll wait
I wasn't *looking for an argument* I was just making a comment in good fun, like what??
Hope you have a good one, mate.
I guess we’re getting Punisher next year but they had the perfect opportunity to introduce different genres and types of characters to the universe without devoting 6-9 whole episodes to them (on average the length of like 2 movies)
I don't want marvel to "take over Halloween". I don't want marvel to "take over" any holiday..
Why the fuck would anyone want that?
Thats why he haven't seen Kate again in like 3 years.
If they have an idea for a New movie or show that is gonna be 5 years out.