Kevin Feige Breaks Silence on Why ‘Thunderbolts*’ Didn’t Click with Audiences

The MCU recently faced a big challenge with the 2025 film Thunderbolts*, which didn’t do as well at the box office as many expected. Despite having a strong cast led by Florence Pugh and positive reviews from critics and fans, the movie struggled to bring in enough money.

As of July 18, 2025, Thunderbolts* made about $382 million worldwide. But according to Variety, it needed to earn at least $425 million just to break even, a goal that now seems out of reach.

Thunderbolts* tells the story of a group of antiheroes forced to work together on a risky mission. The film features an ensemble cast, including Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and it’s the 36th movie in the MCU.

While critics were mostly positive, with Rotten Tomatoes showing an 88% approval rating and audiences giving it an “A–” from CinemaScore, the box office numbers tell a different story.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently opened up about why Thunderbolts* didn’t perform well. He pointed to the rapid expansion of the MCU, especially on Disney+, as one of the main problems. “We always had more characters than we could possibly make because we weren’t going to make a movie a month. Suddenly, there’s a mandate to make more,” Feige said, explaining how the studio’s creative resources have been stretched thin.

This flood of new content, Feige admits, has caused some audience fatigue. Fans sometimes felt they needed to watch many other Marvel shows to fully understand what was happening in Thunderbolts*. “Some audiences were still feeling that notion of, ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is,’” he explained.

Because of these challenges, Marvel is now scaling back its output. Feige confirmed that the studio will limit itself to releasing no more than three feature films a year and will cut down significantly on live-action TV shows.

These shows will mostly be standalone stories with less connection to the movies. “We’re returning to allowing a TV show to just be a TV show,” Feige said, clarifying that events in Thunderbolts* wouldn’t affect other projects like Daredevil: Born Again, even though they share the same New York setting.

Looking ahead, Feige shared his excitement for Fantastic Four: First Steps. He highlighted the film’s retro-future look and said it’s designed to be easy for all viewers to enjoy, even those who don’t follow the wider MCU. “We always were planning, even before that became a talking point, to introduce them in their own world in which they are the only heroes,” Feige said.

“It is a no-homework-required movie. It literally is not connected to anything we’ve made before.”

This approach shows Marvel’s plan to focus on simpler, more accessible stories, stepping back from the heavy interconnectedness that may have overwhelmed fans. Feige’s honest take on Thunderbolts* and the future of the MCU reveals that the studio is learning from recent setbacks and adjusting to keep the franchise strong.

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