Why Marvel is releasing fewer Disney+ shows after 2023

Marvel Studios became one of the most powerful entities in the world of entertainment as the company brought together a combination of grossing hits and an interconnected storytelling. With the 2019 launch of Disney+, new opportunities were created in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that saw the introduction of original content such as WandaVision, Loki, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. These early shows were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, and captured the interest of both Marvel diehard fans and the general streaming audience. This, however, later changed as the studio expanded its content production and people started receiving the content in a different light.

By 2023, weaknesses started to emerge. Marvel could only do so much to continue issuing a plethora of content in great quality. The very idea of a constant stream of MCU shows and films began to feel like a chore to a considerable number of the audience members, and the retention went down.

First, the viewership of some of Disney+’s Marvel series was already declining, and some of the newer ones could not replicate the box office successes of earlier phases. After being met with an increasing level of doubt, Marvel and Disney needed to re-evaluate their approach toward the creation of new material.

What comes after 2023 is a calculated strategic shift. This involved fewer shows being published on Disney+ per year, a refinement of the creative focus, and a desire to improve the quality as opposed to quantity.

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Audience fatigue and oversaturation: The backlash to too much content

Among the factors that contributed to the reduction in the pace of production at Marvel was audience fatigue due to oversaturation. Following several years of aggressive growth into both the theatrical and streaming formats, Marvel has released far too much entertaining content.

A recent report by the Wall Street Journal highlighted that Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, said watching all Marvel content felt “more like homework than entertainment.”

To maximize the potential of captive audiences at home, the strategy set by Disney was to ramp up the content and fill up Disney+. Early performances were extremely successful, but dozens of films and new series did not make a good impression on viewers. There were too many interconnecting scenarios across movies and shows that demanded serious following to understand what was going on.

This fatigue among many people contributed to the decline in levels of involvement. Research by Parrot Analytics showed how demand for Marvel shows on Disney+ had dropped by a significant margin between 2022 and 2024, and fewer Marvel series showed up as high performers compared to in previous years. More specifically, the demand dropped from ~19.4% (Q2’22) to ~12.8% (Q2’24).

Marvel responded by shifting its focus to lessening the strain on viewers by carefully arranging the releases and cutting back on the overall number of series. This reorganization gives the viewer breathing room after getting overwhelmed by the multitude of content offered.

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Quality control and resource strain: The cost of quantity

In addition to audience saturation, the demand for quantity took a toll on quality. The cost of producing some of Marvel’s shows reached $200 million or more due to the amount of coordination and creative resources needed, the A-list actors, and the expensive visual effects, as per What’s On Disney Plus. This vast expense increased expectations that were getting hard to fulfill on a large scale.

In a report by SFX Magazine last year, it was confirmed that smaller, focused units and showrunner-led productions resulted in more consistency in television. The original concept, whereby Marvel employed a head writer but not a showrunner, was not enough and was retrofitted in subsequent media.

Notably, Agatha All Along marks a departure from this paradigm as Marvel shifts to appointing full showrunners to their Disney+ series, granting these executives more creative freedom and command over the plot and production.

During 2024 Disney’s quarterly earnings call, CEO Bob Iger confirmed that the company was actively limiting the number of Marvel projects made (with only two series a year) to stabilize quality and viewer reception, as reported by Hype Beast.

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Creative overhaul and audience accessibility improvements

The other notable aspect is that Marvel has reconsidered the story and the theme of the Disney+ projects. There were a lot of cross-connects between early Marvel+Disney+ shows, meaning that the viewers needed to follow various series and movies to be in touch with the story progress. This complexity made viewers feel more obligated than free to enjoy their entertainment.

To solve this, Marvel Studios has embarked on a creative redesign to make Disney+ shows that can be enjoyed independently. It also released individual production logos such as the Marvel Television, Marvel Animation, and Marvel Spotlight logos, implying to viewers that individual projects do not need to be understood with a wide knowledge of the MCU.

Marvel also made a change to a full showrunners system where creative oversight and consistency of a show is achieved through the eyes of a sole controller, starting at script and going all the way to the screen– a move also attributed to successful television shows like House of the Dragon or Yellowstone. This structural reorganization will increase the quality of storytelling and relieve the pressure on the leadership of Marvel Studios.

This makes the show generally easier to watch, aiming at reestablishing lost trust in and pleasure among viewers.

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What is next for Marvel?

Now, the future of Marvel Studios is set on a new line of Disney+ shows that are more geared toward correcting the problems of oversaturation, questions of quality, and accessibility to the audience. The major ideas of these new projects are to reduce the number of live-action series each year, adding showrunners to provide greater creative unity, and making a more multi-season narrative to allow story lines and characters to evolve more gradually.

These are some of the most notable Marvel Disney+ projects that will be released in the near future, reflecting on the concern of quality, creative leadership, and accessibility of the company to the audience:

Marvel Zombies (Upcoming September 2025): A spin-off of What If?, this animated series does its own thing: visually wild, totally different vibe, and it’s not here to mess with the main MCU plotline. You can bet it’ll cover all sorts of themes instead of sticking to the same old superhero formula.

Wonder Man (Scheduled December 2025): A live-action series featuring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II portraying Simon Williams, and will feature new characters and tone with showrunner oversight. This show will be expected to be eight half-hour episodes reflecting a more focused and varied format on the part of Marvel.

Vision Quest (Scheduled for 2026): Created by Terry Matalas, the Vision series seeks to adopt more of a traditional television production set-up with an intense focus on story and character over potential successive seasons.

Daredevil: Born Again – Season 2 (Scheduled for 2026): Matt Murdock is back as Daredevil, having allied with his comrades, like Jessica Jones, to fight an anti-vigilante task force conducted by Mayor Fisk. The season consists of eight episodes, directed by Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and others, and helmed by showrunner Dario Scardapane.

X-Men ’97 – Season 2 (Scheduled for 2026): The animated revival is back in 2026, picking up at the Season 1 cliffhanger. There are hints of mutant action across timelines, from ancient Egypt to a distant future, and the story arcs are teased as an homage to The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 + maybe Season 3 (Scheduled for 2026): Set in an alternate timeline where you see Norman Osborn as a mentor to Peter Parker, this animated series is more grand, more tragic, and more funny, voice actor Aleks Le told The Direct.

Untitled Punisher television special: Jon Bernthal reprises his titular role in an action-packed Special Presentation depicted as a gritty, visceral look at the Punisher in his quest to avenge the murder of his family. Shot in New York in 2025 under the title Jolly Roger, it features such names as Dennis (Roe Rancell) and Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore). It is planned to be released together with Daredevil Season 2 in 2026.