colliding posted...
Phase 4 was all about taking pieces off the board (Spidey, T'Challa, Wanda, Thor (to an extent)) and replacing them with new pieces. But they don't let the new pieces do anything interesting, and that's a large reason why the brand is in trouble.
Yeah, this was a really bad decision. You don't take away the characters people know and love without having someone equally awesome to replace them. It's a very hard thing to do, but it's often necessitated by aging/retired/deceased (ugh, RIP Chadwick :( ) actors. You can't have rehashed characters that feel like a poor man's version of the last one, since in that case they'll ALWAYS be compared to the original. The new actor needs to own their role and not imitate the predecessor. People don't care for imitators.
The other issue is that Disney releases four Marvel movies a year alongside numerous TV shows and it's intimidating to catch up on it all, and since they're just rehashing the same stuff, it's getting dull. Superhero fatigue is most assuredly a contributor to why people were looking for an excuse to get off the Marvel train. Love & Thunder most certainly gave them that.
I say all this as someone who got off years ago. I tried revisiting it all when the COVID hit - rewatching in timeline order - and got bored shortly after the first Avengers.