Ms. Marvel Star Iman Vellani Says SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY’s Massive Success Proves Superhero Fatigue Isn’t Real

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has turned into a monster at the box office, and Iman Vellani thinks its success punches a pretty big hole in the ongoing argument about superhero fatigue.

The Ms. Marvel and The Marvels star recently weighed in on the latest Spider-Man movie and the way audiences have responded to it.

With Brand New Day already heading toward an incredible $2 billion worldwide haul, Vellani believes moviegoers clearly haven’t lost their appetite for superheroes. They’re simply becoming more selective about which superhero movies deserve their time and money.

Superhero movies aren’t the automatic theatrical events they were during the genre’s peak years. There was a stretch when putting Marvel or DC characters on a poster was practically enough to guarantee a huge opening weekend. T

hat isn’t the case anymore, and recent disappointments, including Supergirl, have inevitably brought the familiar "superhero fatigue" conversation roaring back.

But then Spider-Man swings into theaters with a movie people actually want to see, and suddenly audiences are showing up in massive numbers again.

During an appearance on Revenge of the Podcast, Vellani explained why she doesn’t buy the idea that audiences have simply grown tired of superheroes.

"People showed up on the first week," Vellani said. "Nobody really believed in superhero fatigue. Nobody really believed that this movie was going to fail and they were over [superhero movies].

“They wanted it to succeed. I think we’re so used to being cynical and assuming that everything new coming out is going to suck and it’s all propaganda, or people’s attention spans are low. No, we can appreciate a good thing when we see it."

Vellani makes a good point, although superhero fatigue probably isn’t quite as simple as either existing or not existing.

There absolutely can be superhero fatigue when audiences are hit with a bad streak of movies they aren’t interested in watching. Marvel Studios has experienced that firsthand.

When several projects arrive close together and audiences walk away disappointed, enthusiasm naturally starts dropping. People become less willing to buy a ticket simply because the Marvel or DC logo appears before the movie.

That’s a form of superhero fatigue, but it doesn’t mean audiences are permanently sick of superheroes. The bigger issue seems to be fatigue with mediocre superhero movies.

Give audiences something exciting featuring a character they love, and plenty of them will still head to theaters. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a pretty spectacular example of that.

Spider-Man is also one of the biggest characters on the planet, so he obviously has an advantage that many other comic book heroes don’t. A new Spider-Man movie already starts with an enormous built-in audience.

That also complicates the argument that a "good" superhero movie will automatically become a blockbuster. Quality alone doesn’t guarantee people will leave the couch. Thunderbolts is a perfect example of that, that was a freakin’ great movie, but it wasn’t a runaway hit.

Some viewers will happily wait a couple of months for a well-reviewed superhero movie to arrive on streaming, while Spider-Man still has enough cultural weight to make seeing his latest adventure on the big screen feel like an event.

The important part is that audiences haven’t abandoned superhero movies altogether. Their standards have changed.

After years of Marvel and DC dominating Hollywood, viewers have become much more comfortable skipping projects that don’t grab them. That puts more pressure on studios to make superhero movies that feel worth seeing theatrically instead of assuming brand recognition will carry them.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day shows just how huge the audience can still be when everything clicks.

So yes, superhero fatigue has been real at various points, particularly when audiences have been subjected to one disappointing comic book movie after another.

Marvel has definitely gone through stretches where enthusiasm cooled considerably. But fatigue isn’t a death sentence for the genre. A badass superhero movie with the right character, a story people are excited about, and strong word of mouth can still become a genuine theatrical phenomenon.

If anything, Spider-Man: Brand New Day suggests audiences aren’t done with superhero movies. They’re just done showing up for every single one the studio throws at them.