Report: Marvel Has Overworked VFX Artists So Severely That The Entire ‘Burnt Out’ Industry Is ‘Depressed’ About Their Phase 5 Plans

Marvel Studios has overworked the visual effects industry to such an extreme extent that there is a sense of “burnout” settling in and a sense of “depression” about working on the MCU’s upcoming slate, according to a new report from Defector.

For the report, Defector spoke to one show coordinator who said “the whole [VFX] industry seems a bit depressed on the heels of Marvel’s Phase 5 & 6 announcement, specifically because of the insane amount of work it’ll be on its own.” The source then capped of their comments by saying that Marvel Studios is “not the appealing client they used to be.”

The VFX industry is reportedly “depressed” about Marvel Studio’s upcoming projects

The report comes on the heels of Marvel’s latest franchise announcement at San Diego Comic-Con, which saw the powerhouse studio announce a bevy of film and TV projects, including two new Avengers films that many believe will be the two biggest movies ever made in terms of cost and scope of characters.

Taika Waititi, director of Thor: Love and Thunder, is specifically mentioned in the article as the 46-year-old filmmaker went viral earlier this summer for brazenly criticizing the VFX work in his own film.

Producers aren’t the only ones to both acknowledge the problem and let it slide. Oscar-winning writer/director Taika Waititi recently felt free to mock the visual effects in his own movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. That Waititi would so playfully deride work done by his people, in a film he directed, shows how strangely disconnected he is to those people and, by extension, to the work they do that eventually bears his possessory credit. That disconnect is rampant. Not just at Marvel, but everywhere. [via Defector]

In addition to Wakanda Forever, which releases in November, Marvel Studios currently has four films scheduled to release in 2023: Ant-Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Captain Marvel 2, and Blade.

On the television side of things, Marvel Studios will release She-Hulk, I Am Groot, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and a still-unannounced untitled Halloween special, which will likely be Werewolf By Night. Next year will then see the release of further series such as Secret Invasion, Echo, Ironheart, and the second seasons of both What If…? and Loki.

All of these aforementioned projects are in addition to movies such as Captain America 4, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Avengers: Secret Wars, Deadpool 3, a Shang-Chi sequel, an Eternals sequel, and an eventual X-Men project, and TV shows such as Daredevil: Born Again, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Armor Wars, Spider-Man: Freshman Year, Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, an untitled Wakanda series, and an untitled Nova series.

So, yeah — quite a lot.

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