Like Thanos, a Howard the Duck movie seems inevitable. What's that? A Howard the Duck movie already exists? No, you must be mistaken. 1986? Tim Robbins? Animatronic ducks? Nah. Not real. You've made it up mate. I'm telling you, it's not real. Please don’t make me look at the pictures… Okay, fine. There is a Howard the Duck movie, but it was made not only before the MCU, but before superhero movies themselves were even understood. There are some decent superhero movies pre-Raimi's Spider-Man and Singer's X-Men, but they aren't really 'superhero movies' so much as they are good movies with superheroes in them. Of all the misfires in the superhero movie canon, few deserve a second chance as much as Howard the Duck.
Indeed, the original film is not even a superhero movie. While Howard is a Marvel character, the film was little more than 'what if E.T. was a duck,' having been made in a vain attempt to cash in on the family-friendly schmaltz that took the box office by storm four years earlier. Howard the Duck, however, was a box office bomb – so bad that producer George Lucas, already in debt from building his $50 million Skywalker Ranch mansion, had to sell off his assets. This included his fledgling CGI studio, which was purchased by Steve Jobs and soon became world famous as Pixar. When you consider that Howard the Duck not only cost Lucas the money the film lost, but potentially all the subsequent profits of Pixar, it's a contender for the most disastrously expensive flop of all time.
Related: The Discourse Around Queer Characters Doesn't Need To Be This ExhaustingThe film is not so bad it's good. It's so bad it's unwatchably terrible. But the mythos around it is so huge that Howard has grown into a cult icon; his sarcastic and much better written comics have played a part in that too. He first appeared in the MCU as a gag in Guardians of the Galaxy. This was little more than James Gunn thinking "Who's the silliest Marvel character I can include?" but the character's cult status meant it was greeted with fervour. This saw him return in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and again in the final battle of Avengers: Endgame. The recent trailer for Marvel's What If…? contains brief footage of Howard the Duck, although exactly which story he's in remains unclear.
You would guess it's the T'Challa as a Ravager story, given that Howard has always been Guardians-adjacent, but that's not a done deal, especially in What If…? It's worth noting that the Guardians in the Battle of New York scene shows a masked Star-Lord, so it could be T'Challa or Peter Quill, meaning there are two Guardians episodes and therefore two episodes likely to include Howard.
That question doesn't really matter. The fact is, he's in one, and Marvel clearly understands his cult status – having him in Guardians as a gag is one thing, but bringing him back for Endgame and putting him in the trailer for the MCU's first animated show is another thing entirely. The MCU is at the stage now where it can take risks. Arguably Guardians itself was the first risk it ever took, and it paid off handsomely. Since then, we've seen the series toy with time travel, make stars out of comic book C-listers, reinvent the dour Thor movies as a comedy, branch into television to seemingly set Wanda up for a villain arc, and more.
Marvel has earned this luxury. Superhero movies are harder than they look – the MCU had to recover from a rocky start immediately with The Incredible Hulk. But playing with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the aforementioned Hulk gives you a stacked deck. It wasn't until lesser known characters came into the fray, like Guardians or Ant-Man or Doctor Strange, that the MCU's cohesive storytelling became a masterstroke. It doesn't matter if you don't care about Ant-Man and the Wasp; you need to go and see it because it's the next episode in the MCU. You need to see them all – you need to. Marvel tying all of its films together could have led to a complicated, unresolvable tangle of messy plots that was impossible to follow or introduce new characters to, but instead it became an evolving, endlessly entertaining Rube Goldberg machine.
Marvel isn't gambling anymore – it bought the casino. Giving Howard the Duck his own movie would be a huge flex, but Marvel has that sort of ambition these days, and it seems to be grooming Howard for a leading role. Even if his own movie never materialises, he'll have a much bigger part in Guardians 3. Few characters are in need of – or have earned – cinematic redemption like Howard the Duck. Surely someday soon he’ll get his chance.
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