The MCU’s next saga-capping ensemble epic is starting to take shape as Marvel Studios hastapped Michael Waldronto write the screenplay forAvengers: Secret Wars. As the head writer of the first season ofLokiand the scribe behindDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Waldron is no stranger to translating Marvel characters to the screen. But his work on the latter project has some fans worried that the ambitious multiversal storytelling ofSecret Warswill suffer from the same problems that dragged downMultiverse of Madness.
When Sam Raimi’sDoctor Strangesequel arrived in theaters earlier this year, it was praised for many aspects: the performances, the visuals,Danny Elfman’s oom-pah musical score. Just about the only thing in the movie that fans and critics didn’t like was the screenplay. There are no clear internal conflicts, so the audience has nothing to relate to beyond the characters’ standard external goals (escape the witch, protect the kid, etc.), and huge stretches of the film are bogged down in on-the-nose exposition explaining concepts like “dream-walking.” Waldron included plenty of fun Easter eggs and spectacular action beats, but struggled to thread a cohesive narrative through it all.
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The movie has its fair share of memorable individual set-pieces likethe Illuminati massacreand the musical note fight, but its emotional storytelling is seriously lacking. It begs a couple of interesting dramatic questions – like whether or not Strange is truly happy in spite of having saved the universe – but the answers to these questions are relegated to a couple of throwaway dialogue soundbites.Multiverse of Madnesshas plenty of time for Wanda murdering people, but anything to do with Strange’s quest for happiness feels shoehorned in.
It didn’t help thatMultiverse of Madnessarrived in the same summer asEverything Everywhere All at Once, a movie thatmanaged to tackle its premise a lot better.Everything Everywhereis an action-packed sci-fi epic that never has a lull in its nail-biting journey across the multiverse, but it also has plenty of dramatic depth and time to explore its questions about nihilism and optimism and the roads not taken. By comparison,Multiverse of Madness’ emotional storytelling feels threadbare – and, despite the “madness” promised by its title, it explores a fraction of the alternate universes that the Daniels explored in their own multiverse movie.
As the Avengers team-up that willclose out the “Multiverse Saga,”Secret Warshas a lot riding on it.Secret Warsneeds to live up to the double whammy ofInfinity WarandEndgame, which both struck a perfect balance of superhero action and moving character work, and Waldron might not be able to pull it off. Strange, Wong, and America Chavez barely had room to breathe amidst all the exposition and worldbuilding inMultiverse of Madness, andSecret Warswill have both a lot more characters who need room to breathe and a lot more exposition and worldbuilding to get out of the way.
TheSecret Warscomic book storylines have seen the entire Marvel multiverse being folded into a patchwork planet called “Battleworld,” where almost every superhero in existence and their alternate selves are pitted against each other in a big battle royale. Waldron had too much on his plate with Strange, Wanda, America, and Wong in a story that extended across Earth-616, Earth-838, anda universe destroyed by an incursion.Secret Warswill collapse every established universe into Battleworld and could bring in every living Avenger in the MCU – Strange, Wong, America, Sam Wilson, Thor, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel,both Hawkeyes, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk, whichever Guardians of the Galaxy surviveVol. 3, the list goes on – as well as variants, alternate teams like the Squadron Supreme, and previous incarnations of characters like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Wesley Snipes’ Blade, andTobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parkers. It might be too much movie for Waldron to tell the story with any kind of coherence or emotion.
Based on his work onMultiverse of Madness, Waldron will nail all the fan-pleasing cameos and action sequences inSecret Wars, but the emotional arcs will leave a lot to be desired andthe overall plotting will be a complete mess. If there’s any truth to the rumors that Waldron only had a few weeks to rework theMultiverse of Madnessscript, then there’s still hope forSecret Warsafter all. Unlike with theDoctor Strangesequel, which required hasty rewrites in pre-production as it changed hands between filmmakers, Waldron has plenty of time to make sure he getsSecret Warsright.
But he needs to find the room to flesh out dozens of protagonists who all develop over the course of a big, ambitious, action-heavy plot when he barely managed to string together coherent character arcs for three protagonists inMultiverse of Madness.Secret Warsis one of the MCU’s most exciting upcoming projects, but it’ll have a much larger cast to juggle thanMultiverse of Madnessand even more ambitious multiversal antics to thread a story through, and Waldron might not be able to stick the landing with the script.
Avengers: Secret Warsis scheduled to be released on July 14, 2025.
