2024 Is the Superhero-lite Year Cinema Needs

I love superhero movies, so you’d think this year’s relative dearth of flicks headlined by costumed crimefighters would have me bummed out. But the opposite is true – in fact, I’m convinced 2024 is the superhero-lite year cinema desperately needs.

How Many Superhero Movies Are Coming Out in 2024?

Of course, it’s worth noting that 2024 isn’t even that short on superhero movies. At least five cape-and-tights adventures are hitting the silver screen this year. Madame Web dropped this month, with Deadpool & Wolverine (July), Kraven the Hunter (August), Joker: Folie à Deux (October), and Venom 3 (November) set to follow. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse could also drop this year, too (but probably won’t).

Related: Madame Web Reviews Hail It As One of the Worst Superhero Movies Ever

Even so, this line-up is decidedly smaller than in recent years. For example, 2022 had seven superhero films, while 2023 had nine. What’s more, only two of 2024’s superhero outings – Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker: Folie à Deux – qualify as legitimately big deals. Madame Web is already vanishing without making any real waves (glorious viral meme notwithstanding), and the rest of Sony’s Spider-Man-centric output is seemingly destined to follow suit.

Fewer Superhero Movies Should Be the Norm, Not the Exception

So, for your average moviegoer, 2024 will probably feel like a year in which only a couple of comic book-inspired films dropped. This will, in turn, create a vacuum, and the Hollywood machine (like nature) abhors a vacuum. Other genres will plug the gap. Think the likes of Dune: Part Two, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Fall Guy, and Wicked. Other, small productions may get a bigger look-in, too.

In effect, we’ll be running back 2023 all over again, except with far fewer superhero movies. That alone is worth celebrating, as last year was arguably one of cinema’s strongest in some time (and not just in terms of box office numbers). Indeed, in many ways, 2023 supplied the template the industry should follow moving forward. Why? One word: variety.

Related: Who Is Deadpool 3’s (Rumored) Main Villain, Cassandra Nova?

Variety was the underlying theme of the 2023 theatrical release slate. True, IP fare – including two superhero movies – was well-represented in the year’s Top 10 highest-grossing films. But crucially, a mix of genres shared the spotlight. It was a year in which we got we got Oppenheimer and Barbie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Past Lives, and John Wick: Chapter 4 and Killers of the Flower Moon.

Were there also a bunch of big budget flops? Absolutely – and many of them belonged to DC Studios and Marvel Studios. However, it was also the best year for cinema chains since before the pandemic. There’s obviously a raft of reasons why, but I’d argue superheroes loosening their spandex-covered stranglehold on the industry made moviegoing a novelty again – something we shouldn’t ignore.

Novelty Breeds Excitement Among Moviegoers

Now, the lesson here isn’t that studios should stop making superhero movies altogether. It’s that they should make fewer of them, as best as they can (the qualitative aspect certainly shouldn’t be overlooked). Because then, when a new DC or Marvel joint comes along, it’ll feel like an event, not an obligation. We’ll actually rush to go see it. We’re arguably seeing this in practice already.

In a year less cluttered with superhero films of varying pedigree and sameness, people are genuinely excited about Deadpool & Wolverine. Admittedly, that’s at least partly because it looks genuinely good, but the lack of noise helps. Together with the buzz surrounding the Fantastic Four cast reveal, it’s the most positivity the Marvel Studios brand has mustered since 2019’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Related: Marvel Studios Reveals Its Fantastic Four

Whether this enthusiasm holds as the 2025 superhero release schedule comes into focus remains to be seen, though. Aside from The Fantastic Four, Marvel has three more MCU installments headed our way next year: Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, and Blade. Toss in Sony’s Beyond the Spider-Verse and the Marvel-adjacent total swells to five.

Meanwhile, DC Studios’ first revamped DC Universe title, Superman: Legacy, also drops in July 2025. The upshot of this is we’re back to a six-superhero-movie calendar – all of them (except maybe Thunderbolts) heavy hitters. Will audiences’ apathy return? It’s hard to say, although if they’re decent films, perhaps not.

If nothing else, they’ve got the advantage of arriving at a time when moviegoers will feel starved for new comic book blockbusters (even if, in reality, they’re still well-catered for). And that, more than anything else, is why 2024 is the superhero-lite year cinema needs.