The Marvels has failed to make an impact at the box office and is likely to go down as Marvel Studios' biggest commercial failure. Addressing that at the New York Times' Dealbook Summit earlier this week, Disney CEO Bob Iger blamed the movie's underperformance on a lack of supervision.
"The Marvels was shot during Covid," he explained. "There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day."
It's an explanation which has raised eyebrows across all corners of the internet, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse director Peter Ramsey has chimed in to describe Iger's remarks as an "astounding level of bullsh*t."
The filmmaker, who has helmed episodes of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka for Disney, would go on to share his belief that Iger "has to sound like he's got an answer." When one fan pointed out Thor: Love and Thunder could have done with a little more supervision on set, Ramset countered with, "How do you know that it wasn’t 'supervision' that caused what you don’t like about it?"
Later, he'd share his opinion that, "Nothing happens on those movies [without] lots of scrutiny from Feige and co. Marvel’s issues seem to go deeper than that."
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is only one of two superhero movies to be considered a financial success this year (the other is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). Ramsey's perspective is interesting and, given how much blame has unfairly been laid at the feet of his fellow filmmaker, Nia DaCosta, it's easy to see why he came to her defence here.
After all, how many movies do we know of that have been improved by on-set supervision from studio execs?
In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse saga. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.
But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.
The movie stars Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Karan Soni, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Greta Lee, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Shea Whigham, and Oscar Isaac.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now available on Digital and Blu-ray.