In an age of superhero fatigue, Marvel’s best shot is to think small – and outside the box

Sebastian Stan says he pitched Marvel a mid-budget thriller starring his Winter Soldier character. Perhaps the studio should give it – and other modestly scaled vehicles – the green light Blink a little and you might think we are back in 2019. The latest Spider-Man film, Brand New Day, has just passed $2. 4bn at the global box office, to become the third-highest grossing film of all time behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.

Meanwhile Avengers: Doomsday is reported to have already earned more than $50m in US ticket presales alone, despite the fact that it doesn’t come out until December. Clearly we are in the middle of a superhero renaissance. And yet it doesn’t really feel like it, largely because it is something of a turnaround for Marvel, after a pretty disappointing 2025 in which all three of the studio’s releases underperformed. Captain America:…