A Superhero TV/Film Recession Is Coming in 2024: Are You Ready?
The TV slate for 2024 is looking a lot less “super” than recent years. Things seem to be “powering” down on the big screen next year, as well. But given all the cries of “Marvel fatigue,” maybe that’s a good thing…?
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You only need to flash back to 2021 to find more than a dozen live-action TV series based on Marvel and DC comics alone. The CW by itself that year gave us The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Batwoman, Superman & Lois and DC’s Stargirl, while over on what was then called HBO Max you could find new episodes of Titans and Doom Patrol.
2021 was also the year that Disney+ launched its foray into small-screen MCU fare, led by WandaVision and Loki, followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye.
And all of the above doesn’t even take into account animated series, including the debut of Disney+’s What If…? anthology.
What All Did 2023 Give Us?
The past two years have seen a downturn in output, due in part to lingering effects of the pandemic pausing production, The CW gradually easing out of the superhero game and, most recently, the Hollywood strikes playing havoc with the 2023-24 TV season. (Regarding The CW’s shift in focus under new ownership, entertainment chief Brad Schwartz said that “as much as we all love those shows and they had their time, they’re not working on linear.” Superman & Lois, specifically, is “expensive” and “doesn’t make any money for us,” he explained, especially since the CW app doesn’t get to stream it.)
Even so, DC in 2023 brought us The Flash, Titans and Doom Patrol (though each with their farewell runs), the first/only season of Gotham Knights, and new episodes of Superman & Lois; the Marvel pipeline, meanwhile, churned out Secret Invasion and Loki Season 2.
The big screen during this same span served up Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Blue Beetle, The Marvels and — now in theaters and heralding “the end of the DCEU” — Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
That was still a robust-ish lineup, but the year ahead promises to offer much less fare based on comic book properties….
What Is Confirmed for 2024 Release?
Disney+ at this time is only promising to premiere in 2024 the Hawkeye offshoot Echo (with a Jan. 9 binge drop) and Agatha: Whatever the Subtitle Is This Week (in the fall). The latter Marvel property, though, hardly falls into the “superhero” category; ditto The Penguin, the Colin Farrell-led Max series spun off of Matt Reeves’ The Batman movie and due out in late ’24.
Additionally, The CW will (eventually) let fly the final season of Superman & Lois… The Boys Season 4 is slated for a 2024 Prime Video release… and Max’s animated Creature Commandos team-up series will officially kick off the new DC universe being overseen by filmmaker James Gunn and his DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran.
Also confirmed for 2024 premieres are the animated TV series X-Men ’97, Eyes of Wakanda and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, all on Disney+.
The multiplex, however, is looking at one of its leanest superhero years ever. Among the major entries, you have only the new Deadpool film that finally unites Ryan Reynolds’ Merc With a Mouth with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (out July 26) and the sequel Joker: Folie à Deux (out Oct. 4 and which, like Agatha and The Penguin isn’t a “hero” story per se). Moving away from the top shelf, 2024 will offer the Spider-Man-adjacent flicks Madame Web (out Feb. 14), Kraven the Hunter (Aug. 30) and Venom 3 (Nov. 8).
Widening the net a bit more, you can also expect in 2024 the animated, straight-to-digital Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy.
What Else Might Premiere in 2024?
Might Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy open up its final season in 2024? That would be a smart bet, seeing as it’s been filming since February 2023.
Similarly, Disney+’s Ironheart — a standalone series for Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — seems destined for a 2024 debut after being bumped from its original fall 2023 perch.
But that’s about as much live-action content as one should expect in 2024. After all, Disney+(/profound creative issues) pushed Daredevil: Born Again from its spring 2024 window to, well, who knows when, and it’s highly unlikely that Max’s Peacemaker fires up Season 2 in the next 12 months (seeing as Gunn, last we heard, was still writing the scripts).
On the animated front, though, the Harley Quinn offshoot Kite Man: Hell Yeah is due out in 2024, and it’s possible that Harley Quinn itself might get Season 5 out by this time next year.
What superhero/superhero-adjacent TV programs are you most anticipating in 2024?
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