No way home numbers was an exaggeration on my part, but I do think that higher ups probably expect this movie to do quite a bit over a billion, or at least hoped the hype would help it get that far. I think they thought of the use of Patrick Stewart as Xavier and showing him in the marketing would be enough to reach different generations, just like NWH did - not to mention the fact that there’s a multiverse angle and Wanda having a CONSIDERABLE surge in popularity since Wandavision
Pairing a substantially lower box office (we all understand why, but again, I’m unsure Chapek and others do) and a fairly mixed reception for the studio, I just wouldn’t be surprised if Feige faced pressure from his bosses about certain aspects of the franchise going forward.
And yes, Feige and co do decide on their next movies obviously, but seeing as he doesn’t seem to have final say over aspects like marketing nowadays, it is not impossible that he could be strong armed by the current head of Disney. Bob Iger seemed very personable and supportive with the creatives, especially with Feige, however his replacement Bob Chapek seems to run things far less risk based and far more profit based. He was infamous for being “cheap” when running Disney parks
I’m obviously not saying it’s a definite, but I just wouldn’t be surprised if some people saw it as a comparative failure to other aspects of the franchise, and try to encourage movement away from anything like that again. Again, I’m not saying it’s definite, and I really hope it isn’t as I’d love Raimi to have another go at it, but you can never guess the way any company’s gonna go when something isn’t as successful as they’d like. Sony did the same thing to Raimi after Spider-Man 3… it does happen