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Goodbye 2010s Internet, Please Take the MCU With You

Lord help me if the MCU stands find this headline

End of an Era

Two big shifts in the Very Online Person™️ ecosystem took place yesterday. BuzzFeed announced it’s shutting down BuzzFeed News, and Elon got rid of the blue checks for legacy verified users.

Charlie Warzel correctly identifies this as a serious vibe shift. Many motivating forces driving 2010s social media behavior and trends are gone. But the contours of this new era don’t feel fully defined yet. There’s an outline of it there. AI curated feeds vs a follower-focused social graph. Vertical video becoming the dominant visual format. For many companies, attempting to copy or join these trends feels a little forced and at odds with their services’ historic core product offering. I’m looking at you Reels. This feels like a transitional time on the web, which is both chaotic and fun tbh. 

The upside of today’s Blue moves: it’s now much easier to spot who was silly enough to pay for Twitter Blue. 

Platform Updates

Instagram 

The Rest of Meta 

TikTok

Twitter

YouTube

Reddit

LinkedIn 

Snap 

Imgur 

Twitter Alts

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

Music 

Other Media 

Creator Economy 

AI 

Scams

Franchise Fatigue 

I’m a big Marvel fan. I buy new digital comics weekly. I subscribe to Marvel Unlimited. I listen to an X-Men fan podcast that put out an 18-hour episode about Madelyne Pryor this week. I’m exactly who Disney wants to keep engaged with the MCU movies and shows. But I’m kinda over it. Like verified Twitter users mattering, I’d like to leave the MCU-style franchise in the past. 

It’s not just that the recent films haven’t been as good. Or that the actor anchoring this era’s conflict has been accused of domestic violence. I’m not just having this issue with Marvel. My eyes glazed over, looking at the recent Star Wars announcements. I haven’t seen Avatar 2 yet. New Star Trek keeps falling to the back of my to-watch queue. Did anyone even watch the Amazon Lord of the Rings series? All of these big multi-project film and TV universes have just felt less special recently. 

I remember when the Star Wars prequel trilogy came out. It felt like a global event on par with the Olympics. The toys and product tie-ins were omni-present, but there was also an interest in these stories. People wanted to sit down and rewatch the original films to immerse themselves in that world and its characters. Now it all kinda feels like homework. 

Epic stories need time to rest in the collective imagination. I think they are at their best when visited on a generational timeline. I think more IP owners need to adopt the Star is Born approach. 

There have been four different incarnations of A Star Is Born: 1937 starring Janet Gaynor, 1954 starring Judy Garland, 1976 starring Barbra Streisand, and 2018 starring Lady Gaga. Each version follows the same basic plot of a young performer's rise to stardom and tragic romantic loss but updated to reflect a contemporary entertainment industry. 

Batman and James Bond have followed similar approaches. What they lack in shared narrative continuity is made up for in the ability to flex into the filmmaking and cultural trends of a moment. I think it’s time to abandon the shared universe franchise. Or at least them rest a little. I’m tired. 

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