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By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Want to know the question that has mystified countless fans around the internet and one of the most powerful film studios in the world? Here it is: “What can save the Marvel Cinematic Universe?” Once, the MCU was the dominant force in pop culture, regularly cranking out movies that earned over a billion dollars at the box office. However, things began to fall apart after Avengers: Endgame. Fans resented the influx of lackluster Marvel programming on Disney+, and they rejected movies that felt like lazy Variants of the same old tights-and-flights formula. By the time “superhero fatigue” entered our vernacular, the unthinkable happened, and The Marvels actually lost money at the box office.
This was particularly significant because it was a sequel to Captain Marvelone of those movies that earned over a billion dollars. The writing was on the wall: the MCU was going to have to change things up significantly if it wanted to livemuch less to thrive. Now, though, Deadpool & Wolverine star Emma Corrin has the perfect idea. Since she played Cassandra Nova, Professor X’s evil twin sister, she wants to star in a vulgar “sibling comedy” that shows how these two bitter enemies learn how to bury the psychic axe and finally start bonding.
Creepy Comics Queen
Cassandra Nova is one of the weirder characters in Marvel history. She was created by Grant Morrison for his amazing run on New X-Men. The long story with this villain is that she’s a parasite who copied Charles Xavier’s DNA in the womb and created her own body to serve as his dark “other.” The short story is that she’s his evil twin, one who has her own set of spooky powers. Nobody ever expected to see her on the silver screen, but Cassandra popped up as the surprise Big Bad of Deadpool & Wolverinewhere she served as the brutal overseer of the Void, the ultimate wasteland at the end of time.
The villain is killed at the end of Deadpool & Wolverinebut that doesn’t preclude one of her Variants popping up in the MCU. Cassandra Nova actor Emma Corrin agrees: in a recent interview with Variety, when asked if she would consider reprising her role, she replied that she “absolutely would, 100%.” Noting that the “story’s not over” for her character, she went on to pitch a very unconventional superhero story. “I would like to see a Professor X and Cassandra Nova bonding film — a sibling comedy like ‘Step Brothers.’ Make it happen! Internet, do your thing!”
Marvel Needs To Take A Little Off The Top
Obviously, this may be nothing more than an actor very publicly signifying that she’s open to more work. After all, who wouldn’t want another fat check from one of the biggest studios in the world? But the more I thought about it, I just couldn’t get over what a weirdly good idea this really is. Such a film would instantly solve two of Marvel’s biggest problems. One, it would be inexpensive to make, so there’s no need for another bloated budget. Two, a sibling comedy is like nothing at all in the MCU, and the sheer novelty of a movie so far outside the usual superhero formula is likely to put butts in seats.
Right now, Obsessionwhich was made for $750,000, is absolutely destroying the first new Star Wars film in seven years at the box office. The success of this movie (as well as its fellow low-budget horror film, Backrooms) is proof that what audiences really want is something new, ideally from filmmakers with a vision. That’s the opposite approach of Marvel Studios, which has spent nearly two decades effectively dooming itself by forcing some of the best directors to follow a cookie-cutter superhero formula. Every movie has to abide by the MCU house style, has to have the same quirky dialogue, and has to end in the same CGI slugfest slurry.
The Future Face Of Marvel
That’s the real cause of superhero fatigue: audiences didn’t get tired of watching superhero movies, they got tired of watching a barely-reskinned version of the same superhero movie. Emma Corrin’s idea of a Cassandra Nova/Professor X sibling comedy could finally give us a new kind of Marvel movie, one that emphasizes killer punchlines rather than world-threatening supervillain showdowns. Done well, such a movie would also focus on characterization, something that modern MCU movies like Captain America: Brave New World struggle with because they are busy shuffling us from one tepid fight scene to the next.
Emma Corrin called on the internet to do its thing. Well, I’m the internet, and I’m doing my thing to magnify her delightfully insane idea. Right now, Kevin Feige is hard at work trying to craft an X-Men movie to serve as the new foundation for the MCU, and it’s likely to be weighed down by attempts to match the gravitas of films like Avengers: Endgame. However, if Marvel Studios made Corrin’s idea a reality, we could finally have a mutant movie that celebrates the best thing about the X-Men comics: how delightfully silly they are and how bonkers plots and chaotic campiness have always, always been part of their charm!
