The MCU has been in the doldrums lately with a string of box office failures. According to a new leak, Marvel has opted to shelve plans for sequels to three less successful franchises, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and The Eternals.

As Forbes reported, industry insider Daniel Richtman this week on his Patreon that "Eternals 2" is no longer in development, and other possible upcoming projects like a third Captain Marvel film and a fourth Ant-Man film shared reports of being scrapped.

Of the trio, the news that Marvel will not move forward with a sequel to "Eternals" has drawn the biggest backlash from MCU fans online. Although the film did not perform well at the box office, grossing just over $400 million on a $236 million budget, some MCU fans were hopeful that a sequel would happen. Especially after it was announced that pop icon Harry Styles would be joining the MCU as Eros in one of the two post-credits scenes in "Eternals."

"Eternals" had the ignominious distinction of being the lowest-rated MCU film until "Ant-Man and the Wasp" took its place last year: until "Quantumania" took its place. Currently, the movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes has "Eternals" at 47% and "Quantumania" at 46%. Of the three films, "The Marvels" was the least successful at the box office, grossing only $206 million on a budget of about $270 million. This is five times less than the original "Captain Marvel," which opened in 2019. Brie Larson also expressed hesitation about returning to the role of Carol Danvers, telling Variety when asked about it: "Who would you like to see do [Captain Marvel] again? While Disney has never officially confirmed plans for sequels to [Eternals, Ant-Man, and Captain Marvel], it now seems almost certain that these films will not be part of the perpetually revised Marvel Phase 5 or Marvel Phase 6 plans. Of course, this should be taken with a grain of salt, as it is all speculation at this point. But for MCU fans looking forward to them, this news is sure to be disappointing regarding the future of these franchises.