Most people don’t keep up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe anymore. After reaching what many considered to be a logical conclusion with Avenger’s Endgame, audiences bowed out.
After dominating popular culture for over a decade and making billions at the box office with a series of films that build on one another in increasingly compelling ways, the MCU was at an interesting crossroads. It could close up shop and come back swinging with a new story that people owed it to themselves to care about, or dig itself into an oversaturated hole of its own making. As you can probably guess from the countless new TV shows and movies you haven’t seen, it went with the latter. Now, Marvel is staring down the barrel of its own irrelevance.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe Has Outlived Its Purpose
Earlier this month saw the release of Captain America: Brave New World, which was met with a middling critical reception and general disinterest at the global box office. It has the difficult job of cementing Anthony Mackie as the bearer of the shield for a new audience while connecting many of the disparate dots left behind by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, The Eternals, and several other films and TV shows the majority of us didn’t get around to watching.
It was confusing, self-indulgent, and was far too reliant on innate knowledge of the MCU dating back to 2008. People just don’t seem to care, and it’s hard to see how Marvel and Disney are going to supersede this apathy when it comes to a duo of new Avengers films, where they need to introduce new heroes, new villains, and huge stakes capable of making billions at the box office. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to try and stay afloat when there isn’t a big and simple villain like Thanos underpinning it all – Kang has been written out and Doom won’t be introduced until Fantastic 4 this summer, which seems to take place in a different universe.
But all this time, even with stunt casting Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom, I thought there was a way back into the light with the MCU. Yet things have gotten so bad Hideo Kojima is confused like the rest of us.
The MCU Is More Confusing Than Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, is not a conventional teller of stories. In fact, he has developed a reputation for larger-than-life tales wrought with awful exposition that seldom bother to make any sense. Death Stranding is an acid trip where you play as a Deliveroo driver fending off ghosts in the post-apocalypse who can be defeated by throwing grenades filled with your own urine, while Metal Gear Solid follows loads of clones as they fight off an increasingly complex series of mechs and global conspiracies. It’s utter nonsense, but none of that matters because everything about it is so compelling.
After watching Captain America: Brave New World, Kojima posted the following to his Twitter account: “I watched “Captain America: Brave New World” in IMAX. I vaguely remember Sam receiving the shield in “Endgame,” but when did he officially become Cap? Is it because I haven’t seen “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?” And what’s this about the Avengers being reorganized? I’m also getting it mixed up with the “Thunderbolts” trailer.”
Sam does in fact officially become Cap in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a series that also sets up Thunderbolts’ John Walker, so Kojima may be confused for a while longer.
Despite spending the past three decades telling complicated and boundary-pushing stories, Hideo Kojima is still encountering the same obstacles concerning the MCU as all of us are. He hasn’t had the time nor the passion to keep up with a constant stream of TV shows and films, both because the central narrative isn’t particularly interesting and nobody should be expected to. Even superhero films like this that are designed to be a part of a much larger puzzle should still be able to stand on their own two feet without losing us completely. But the MCU, time and time again, has failed in doing so.
Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, and several others not only stood on their own and were solid films in their own right, but built towards a wider story while giving us a reason to care. The MCU as we know it today is depending on that lapsed familiarity to engage audiences while trying and failing to introduce us to a new era of heroes and villains. It isn’t working, and when a figure like Hideo Kojima is able to acknowledge this and actually have a point, you know you’re in trouble.
Besides, every single Metal Gear Solid title stands out as an experience of spectacle and drama without prior knowledge. My first game in the series was Guns of the Patriots, and I was still able to see through all the existing characters and military jargon to care about the story unfolding at the centre. The same goes for Sons of Liberty, Snake Eater, and The Phantom Pain. Kojima understands the fundamentals of character, drama, and stakes that he is able to make anyone care. Marvel has forgotten that to its own detriment, and with the underwhelming reception to Brave New World, it might be too late to change course.
Shooter
Adventure
Stealth
- Released
-
August 28, 2025
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ // Blood, Sexual Themes, Violence