Marvel Studios Boss Admits 2023 Was a ‘Rough Time,’ but Says: ‘If We Just Stayed on Top, That Would’ve Been the Worst Thing’ and ‘We Learned Our Lesson’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Victoria Justice, who headlined Nickelodeon’s popular series “Victorious” for four seasons and 57 episodes between 2010 and 2013, said in a new interview with Marie Claire that she feels like series creator Dan Schneider owes her an apology as she was “treated unfairly” at times on the show. Schneider also created the series “Zoey 101,” which Justice appeared on prior to “Victorious.” Schnieder has come under fire this year in the wake of the Investigation Discovery series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” which included many misconduct allegations against him from his tenure at Nickelodeon.

Over the past several months, on more than one occasion, we’ve heard from Disney executives about how they’re going to be cutting back a bit on streaming and put the focus on streamlining releases. That is to say, all that talk about how Disney+ was going to be the golden goose of the company was a bit premature.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The theme of Disney‘s 2024 upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday was “connections” — and not just because of the running bit started by “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Rob McElhenney, which involved their constant replaying of a five-second ad spot that said “Connections!” with a Disneyified logo and voiceover. No, the symbol of unity across Disney’s brands was made up of a slew of announcements from Marvel, and about such other high-wattage projects as “Star Wars,” “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building,” the “Wizards of Waverly Place” sequel series, “9-1-1,” Ryan Murphy’s new slate of FX titles and more franchises with intersecting talent. Disney kicked off the event when Oscar-winning “Poor Things” star Emma Stone introduced the Mouse House’s big boss, Bob Iger — a job like that would traditionally go to a top ABC star.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Hemsworth expressed frustration in an interview with The Times of London over Marvel criticisms made by some directors he considers to be personal heroes such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Hemsworth is one of the original Avengers in the MCU as Thor, debuting in a 2011 standalone movie before headlining three sequels and starring in several “Avengers” movies through 2022. “It felt harsh, and it bothers me, especially from heroes.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Joel Edgerton revealed on The Playlist’s “Bingeworthy” podcast that he failed his audition for Star Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy” because he just couldn’t nail down the tone writer-director James Gunn was looking for. Chris Pratt ended up getting the career-defining role, which he’d reprise in two “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequels and various other Marvel movies, including “Avengers: Infinity War.” “Star-Lord’s a good one, actually, because I, unlike Chris [Pratt], didn’t quite sort of understand the tone of it the way he did and the way that those guys did,” Edgerton said on the podcast. “And I wasn’t really sure how I could be a part of that tone.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Pine earned some of the worst reviews of his career for “Poolman,” a Los Angeles-set comedy mystery in the vein of “Chinatown” that Pine directed, co-wrote and starred in. The movie is Pine’s feature directorial debut, but it got eviscerated by critics when it premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman called it an “absurdist disaster,” for instance.

With Paramount Global and its assets currently in play, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook was asked on a call today if the nation’s biggest broadcast might look at CBS stations.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Orlando Bloom has fond memories of making movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Lord of the Rings,” but Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 historical epic “Troy” is a different story. During an interview for Variety’s “Know Their Lines” video series, Bloom blanked on one of the lines said by his “Troy” character Paris (he thought it must be from “Kingdom of Heaven” or “Lord of the Rings”) and admitted that he has mostly blocked the movie out of his mind. “Oh my god, ‘Troy.’ Wow.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Nicholas Galitzine recently told British GQ that he felt somewhat guilty when deciding whether or not to play a gay character as a straight man because he does not want to take up anyone else’s space or opportunities. Galitzine starred opposite Taylor Zakhar Perez last year in Prime Video’s popular gay romance film “Red White and Royal Blue,” and he’s currently a co-lead opposite Julianne Moore in the Starz drama “George & Mary.” Galitzine’s character in the series is queer. “I identify as a straight man, but I have been a part of some incredible queer stories,” Galitzine told the publication.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Pine was taken by surprise when news hit that Steve Yockey, creator of the Max series “The Flight Attendant,” had signed on to write the script for “Star Trek 4.” Why? “I thought there was already a script,” the actor recently told Business Insider during an interview on his “Poolman” press tour. Pine’s not wrong, as a potential “Star Trek 4” has gone through multiple iterations in the years since the 2016 release of “Star Trek Beyond.” Pine took on the role of Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 franchise reboot “Star Trek,” and reprised the character in 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” and 2016’s “Beyond.” Variety exclusively reported in March that Paramount Pictures remained committed to making a fourth “Star Trek” film to be headlined by Pine and his co-stars.

Marvel Studios Co-President Louis D’Esposito and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige are addressing the rough patch the studio has been through over the last few years.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Elisabeth Moss recently appeared on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast while promoting her new FX series “The Veil” and reflected on the “intimidating” but exhilarating set of James Mangold’s 1999 drama “Girl, Interrupted.” Moss was around 15 years old when she shot the movie and starred as Polly “Torch” Clark, a burn victim who suffers from schizophrenia. The cast was headlined by Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, the latter of whom won an Oscar for her performance. Because of the tension that exists between their two characters, Moss said the film set became naturally divided into two camps.

Marvel Cinematic Universe in the future, according to the CEO of Disney.Bob Iger was speaking to Wall Street analysts when he confirmed that he plans to release no more than three new Marvel films per year, as well as only two television series in the MCU.The studio head said that the plan is part of an overall strategy at Disney to focus on quality rather than quantity, with that applying particularly to their Marvel properties.“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three,” he said. “And we’re working hard on what that path is.”He continued that the MCU will have “a couple of good films in ’25 and then we’re heading to more Avengers, which we’re extremely excited about.”“Overall, I feel great about the slate.

As everyone knows, the otherwise untouchable Marvel Studios had a particularly rough 2023. The disappointment of “Ant-Man: Quantumania,” the box office flop of “The Marvels,” and the critically reviled Disney+ series, “Secret Invasion,” severely put the studio on the ropes for the first time ever.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Nikki Glaser was one of the highlights of Netflix’s Tom Brady roast, eviscerating the NFL superstar with jokes about his divorce from Gisele Bündchen and her reported new romance with Jiu-Jitsu instructor Joaquim Valente. But Glaser didn’t get to deliver every punchline she intended to during the live comedy event. During a post-roast interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” Glaser rattled off some of the Brady jokes she cut from her set.

Marvel will be cutting back on the amount of content released per year after seeing a dip in interest.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the most viral moments to emerge out of Tom Brady‘s Netflix roast was when the NFL icon got up from his seat and told off roaster Jeff Ross after the comedian made a massage joke about Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Brady was heard telling Ross: “Don’t say that shit again.” But according to Ross, Brady was not actually pissed off at him. “Come on, come on, no way, no way,” Ross said on “The Rich Eisen Show,” downplaying that Brady got angry at him for the Kraft massage joke.

It’s not really news to say that Disney CEO Bob Iger is going to be a bit more hands-on with Marvel Studios in the future. The executive has made several comments in the past about reducing the number of projects the studio releases, as well as making sure the films and TV series that are released are of the best quality.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company will limit its output of Marvel movies to “two good films” a year — three maximum — from about four and also cut the numbers of TV series spinoffs for the franchise.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company is shrinking the MCU with a new mission to drop the number of Marvel TV series to two a year and the film output to no more than three movies per year. Iger said this is part of Disney’s overall strategy to reduce output and focus on quality, a strategy “that’s particularly true with Marvel.” On the TV side, Iger says that a portion of the upcoming series set for release are “a vestige of basically a desire in the past to increase volume.” “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three.