Starring in a Marvel movie is one of the biggest dreams out there now. This doesn’t apply just to people who watch the movies, hoping to break away from their normal humdrum lives, but to actors as well as being in a Marvel movie means practically swimming in money for years to come. The studio has certain rules that stretch out to a whole lot of years, so landing a Marvel contract would mean financial security for quite some time.
The main financier for Marvel is Disney, who owns several huge franchises now such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars, among others. Disney is rolling in the big bucks by having control over such remarkably popular franchises and it keeps them in line by having a strict set of procedures that form part of the company’s policy to maintain its hold as the leader in the market. Sometimes these policies can reach levels that are hard to believe. The struggles of young actors who form part of Disney Channel shows and movies are well-known and the company has extended its practices over to other studios it owns.
These aren’t all necessarily bad, as they are tried and tested formulas that result in the enormous success we know Disney is experiencing. But these can still have an effect on those under contract. Here are 20 rules Disney makes the MCU follow.
20 Stars Need To Be In Peak Shape
When you’re playing a superhero it is natural to look the part. There aren’t any heroes out there who are overweight or too skinny. So once an actor is cast as a superhero you can bet they will be hitting the gym.
Marvel has made superhero figures out of the unlikeliest.
Chris Pratt was nowhere near the hunk he is today and can still be caught in Parks and Recreation DVDs in his 'fat' phase. Upon being cast in Guardians of the Galaxy, the actor shed all of it away. But it is a definite trait of Marvel to ensure its heroes are seen with their chiseled bodies. You can find all these guys without their shirts in films like Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and Guardians of the Galaxy, among others. Even Scarlett Johansson’s figure was seen in Iron Man 2.
19 A New Film, A New Costume
Marvel has made sure it is in the subtle differences that a movie feels different. Some might not know it, but there have been about 50 different Iron Man armors in the films! It doesn’t stop there, either, as every other superhero has had their costume changed in between movies. With each new film, the superhero can be seen slightly, or sometimes greatly, different than when he last saw them.
Captain America’s suit has changed with every film he has appeared. Interestingly, Black Widow has had a change in hairstyle in all her appearances starting way back from Iron Man 2. Spider-Man’s suits had different capabilities from Captain America: Civil War to Spider-Man: Homecoming. The same goes for Black Panther. So if you haven’t noticed it yet, go back and check out how every superhero undergoes an overhaul.
18 Extended Press Tours
It might seem fun and glamorous to us normal folk to see actors in press junkets, answering questions from admiring fans and journalists, taking quirky quizzes, or playing games on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, but these constitute a significant amount of time of the actors’ lives.
Marvel movies, in particular, have a whole lot of press tours and the tiring aspect to this has to be the constant traveling from one place to another. Within the same day, an actor can be in Asia and North America, if the press tour calls for it. Media promotion is a big part of the Marvel policy, so if you happen to be cast in a Marvel studios movie then be ready for a whole lot of press junkets.
17 Really Long Contracts
Back in 2008, it was revealed that Samuel L. Jackson had signed a nine-picture deal with Marvel to appear as Nick Fury. That was mind-boggling to anyone who had heard the news at the time. It seemed impossible to comprehend that any actor would be in nine movies of the same franchise.
Ten years later we are at the nineteenth film release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Jackson’s contract doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore, especially considering he hasn’t been in nearly as many movies as some others. Robert Downey Jr’s Marvel filmography is astounding. It comprises of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers 4. Ergo, getting cast in a Marvel film means a really long-term commitment.
16 The Comedic Element
Back in the early 2000s, we had Marvel movies that had been produced by other studios. The most popular ones of these were the X-Men and Spider-Man films. The noticeable traits of these movies were the struggles these heroes went through to be accepted. Once the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off, this aspect was done away with in favor of showing how superheroes can find themselves in comedic situations.
Marvel movies are laugh riots. The studio ensures we get sizable quantities of jokes with films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man even going so far as being half-comedy genre movies. You really can’t find any MCU movie that isn’t funny. Even those films that are supposed to be serious like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, have a nice quantity of jokes in them.
15 Conforming With The Studio
Hard as it is to believe, making a Marvel movies isn’t all fun and games. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is tightly knit together and that means each film has to build up to another, which means that a director for a particular film has to follow certain rules despite being at the helm of production.
Joss Whedon said making the Avengers films “broke” him.
The director was constantly butting heads with Marvel higher ups who would insist certain scenes to be put into Avengers: Age of Ultron so as to set up Avengers: Infinity War. Directors aren’t the bosses in Marvel films as the studio itself interferes regularly with the filming process. Edgar Wright walked away from Ant-Man because Marvel didn’t want to make “An Edgar Wright Movie”.
14 Coinciding Toylines
At the end of the day Marvel is still running a business. The films can be all fun and hilarious, the action can be invigorating, and there can be a great message or moral to the story. But this is done to make money, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, one of the many techniques employed by Marvel to ensure their films are successful is by creating media hype. One of the best ways to do so is to release franchise media, namely toy figurines, to amp up the anticipation level.
These are used to such degree that sometimes action figures are released well before the film’s release dates and effectively spoil the film’s events. For instance, Thor’s latest weapon, the Stormbreaker, which he will use in Avengers: Infinity War, has already been seen as part of his toy collection.
13 Other Disney Movie References
Talk about tooting one’s own horn! Disney does it best. The company owns Star Wars too, and the MCU’s second Phase is filled with The Empire Strikes Back references as each of its films has a scene where a character’s arm is removed. Along with this reference, Disney also takes it traditional and throws in references to its earlier cartoon features such as Pinocchio.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron the titular robot would regularly refer to Pinocchio by claiming “there are no strings on me”. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 Yondu has a famously funny line where he calls himself Mary Poppins. All these references are a kind of self-promotion as hearing them will definitely get some people interested in watching the movies being referred to.
12 The Phases
Avengers 4 will mark the end of the 22 film cycle that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen since Iron Man. And while all the films up to this point are connected in some way, they are still distanced a bit due to the fact that certain films are grouped together in ‘Phases.’
Each Avengers film has been part of a different phase, until now.
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 will both be part of Phase Three while the preceding two had been part of Phase One and Phase Two respectively. These Phases don’t have much to separate each other, save for a few slight differences. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 could very easily be part of Phase Two as its story is only a couple months after Vol.1 but it is understood that the Phases need to be defined separately.
11 Connections With Other Movies
This is more strikingly prevalent in recent times, as the presence of so many superheroes makes it impossible not to acknowledge them in separate movies. But the MCU has, in fact, set up the following film’s release in almost all occasions. Iron Man’s end credit scene set up The Avengers while The Incredible Hulk featured Iron Man himself. In Iron Man 2 easter eggs saw references to Thor and Captain America.
Thus, it is a necessity for Marvel movies to make some connection to other movies, either to set them up or just to remind us there are other heroes out there. For instance, Captain America’s cameo scenes in Spider-Man: Homecoming did nothing but make us remember that Steve Rogers is no longer that symbol of liberty, but a fugitive now.
10 Animated TV Shows
Back when The Avengers weren’t all the rage, we had gotten a couple movies featuring the characters called Ultimate Avengers. Those animated films didn’t draw as much hype until 2012’s The Avengers live-action, at which point previous animated Avengers media was revisited as interest spiked.
To capitalize on the success of the Avengers, Marvel commissioned animated TV series.
The animated show Avengers Assemble was made for this very purpose, as it features a team almost identical to the one on the big screen. Word of advice: It’s not that good. Similarly, Guardians of the Galaxy the animated TV series was also made to replicate the success of the film with the same name. It makes sense from a business sense, though, why Marvel has this rule as more eyes to the product will garner more profits.
9 Related TV Shows
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded from the movies all over on TV too. A wide variety of shows are out there like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. All of these eventually bring back revenue to Disney as Marvel is owned by them. The TV shows were all expanded upon after Disney acquired Marvel, which means that the company has maintained its intention to take a grasp of the TV market too.
The announcement of Disney’s version of Netflix will see the main content of MCU programming shifted over to that network, and with it you can be certain that new shows will be seeing their way through, expanding the MCU even more than it already has.
8 Fixed Amount Of Film Releases
Marvel keeps its slate of releases in such a way that you would think it forms part of some kind of master plan. The studio had kept to releasing two movies a year since the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s inception, save for 2009 where no films were released. But it seems since Disney acquired Marvel it has moved forward with a strict schedule of releasing a number of movies per year. Up until 2016 there were two movies each year, but since 2017, where Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok were released, Marvel has moved up to making three movies each year.
This combined with a Star Wars movie released annually means Disney is seriously raking in the big bucks. And as every film has been enormously successful it’s easy to see why more movies are being seen as the years go by.
7 Cast Kept In The Dark
Part of the whole ‘Master Plan’ Disney has for the Marvel Cinematic Universe involves keeping scripts tightly under wraps. There are actors who are notorious for letting slip what might be in store for future movies, which is why Avengers: Infinity War in particular was kept in such a way that some actors knew what was happening while others didn’t. Benedict Cumberbatch was the only one from the main cast to read the Infinity War complete script.
The actor revealed he was in the know how due to his character’s role in helping the universe as a whole, and so he was privy to the whole story. Other than this exception Disney does its best not to let its own cast members know what’s going on.
6 Multiple Reshoots And Cameos
It is understood once you’ve signed on for Marvel that you will be required to turn when needed. The actors’ contracts are such that even a cameo role must be adhered to, and no amount of whining can change it. Chris Evans was required to film a tiny cameo in Thor: The Dark World, where Loki impersonated Captain America to get on Thor’s nerves. He was once again brought back to film minor scenes in Ant-Man and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
In the same vein Idris Elba was called over to the Avengers: Age of Ultron set to film a short scene that set up Thor: Ragnarok. This was much to the actor’s chagrin as he was also forced to come back for Thor: The Dark World’s reshoots straight after filming Mandela. But once a contract is set up, actors get little room to complain.
5 Avengers In Disneyland
Disney is a monster as far as media promotion is concerned. Disneyworld and Disneyland are worlds of their own, with just about any character that Disney owns being there in some shape or form. Thus, it is natural that now that Disney owns Marvel characters they will make full use of them. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is part of Disneyland now and you can find these characters alongside iconic ones such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
It may even seem goofy (pun partially intended) but no one can really do anything about seeing that our favorite characters are owned by Disney who can do whatever they please with them. Over the coming years you can expect these superheroes to play an even bigger role in the theme parks.
4 Spoiler Free Zone
Disney and Marvel may make you think they have a light sense of humor but judging by actor interviews one can tell how pressurized they are from these studios to keep their traps shut.
Even minor spoilers are not welcome.
Although that hasn’t stopped actors such as Mark Ruffalo, Sebastian Stan, and Tom Holland from accidentally revealing some major spoilers, Disney does its best not to reveal any potential spoilers for coming movies. You would think the level of secrecy they have planned has to do with some world changing event, but its rather weird when you consider that these are just movies after all, so the enormous lengths Marvel goes to keep everyone quiet is a bit off-putting.
3 Stan Lee Has To Cameo
Now this one might be slightly ridiculous, but it is more awesome than anything else. After all who wants to deny themselves of Stan Lee? The man is responsible for bringing us all things Marvel so he deservedly finds himself in Marvel movies, in small cameos, and should do so however long he wishes to.
But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 made it clear that Marvel wants to make Stan Lee cameos a thing too. In said movie, Stan Lee is revealed to be an actual character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a watcher informant, who travels across all galaxies to bring back information to the Watchers. Now that we know that is his role, it brings perspective to all his other cameos. No doubt Disney will look into capitalizing more on this.
2 Extensive Make-up
As has already been established, there isn’t much room for actors to complain when it comes to starring in a Marvel movies. And so they must brave through one of the most arduous of tasks and sit through hours and hours of make-up.
Getting into character is quite a task when you have to sit in one spot for hours on end.
Karen Gillan was even required to shave off her long locks to appear as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy. She and other actors of the Guardians of the Galaxy series see the most time with the make-up department as their characters have the quirkiest of appearances. It isn’t easy to look the part when you are supposed to be a green or blue-skinned alien.
1 Robert Downey Jr. Is Money
There is a simple reason why Robert Downey Jr. has almost exclusively appeared as Iron Man since 2008. Apart from a couple movies like Sherlock Holmes and The Judge, the actor has only been seen as Tony Stark for more than a decade, and it comes to down to money. Robert Downey Jr is making the big bucks as the character and it is justified as Iron Man is always the biggest draw for any fan.
However, it is now an agreed rule he will make the most out of the cast even if he doesn’t appear as the main character. Case in point was Captain America: Civil War, where Robert took home a cool $40 million+ home despite not being the titular character. He even reportedly took in a slice of the profits as his inclusion in the film saw the movie rake in more than $1.1 billion.