While Netflix may have just cancelled all of its Marvel TV shows, Marvel is gearing up to launch its most substantial TV endeavors yet. We learned last year that as part of the upcoming Disney streaming service Disney+, Marvel Studios is creating a number of brand new series that may be limited in nature. The only one confirmed thus far is a show centered around the character Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston, but other series reportedly in development are a Vision and Scarlet Witch show starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany and a Winter Soldier/Falcon team-up series starring Sebastan Stan and Anthony Mackie.
These shows are shaping up to be a departure from the existing Marvel shows in a big way. For one, they’re going to star the actual movie stars—likely due to the fact that they’re going to be limited series runs, so the actors only have to commit to anywhere from six to 10 episodes at a time. For another, they’ll be run by an entirely different creative team.
Indeed, shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s Inhumans, and the Netflix series like Daredevil and Luke Cage were overseen by Marvel Television, which is run by Jeph Loeb. That arm of Marvel is separate from Marvel Studios, which is run by Kevin Feige and oversees all the movies. This is why there was little to no crossover between those Marvel shows and the films—the creative teams working on each were literally separate.
But that won’t be the case with the Disney+ shows, which will fall under Marvel Studios’ purview. Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently spoke with Feige at the press day for Captain Marvel and asked about the Disney+ plans, specifically how many episodes each show will be. Feige says they will vary in length depending on story, which he finds mighty exciting:
“All the above, yeah. I mean, I think it's gonna be story dependent, and that's what's so exciting about the streaming platform, is there aren't any rules necessarily. For us to have another outlet to tell stories, and to play with medium, and to do, not just deeper dives on characters that we've seen many times in the MCU, but haven't been able to devote six, seven, eight, nine, 10 hours to, is amazing, and is something that we've been working on for a while now. And still aren't gonna announce outside of the Loki series with Tom Hiddleston.”
Most intriguingly, Feige underlined the fact that these Marvel Disney+ shows will be very connected to the MCU and integral to what’s going to happen after Avengers: Endgame:
“It's been extremely additive to the entire creative arc, not just of the Disney+ programs we're working on, but on the entire post-Endgame MCU. Because we've been able to weave them. We've been able to, for the first time, conceive of them together, and they will be intertwined with each other.”
Indeed, previously Feige and the Marvel Studios folks couldn’t necessarily plan out a big crossover with Captain America: Civil War and Marvel’s Jessica Jones because that film and the TV show were being developed by entirely different people in entreiyl different departments. But with the Disney+ shows, they’re all being developed in line with the timeline of events and films that Marvel Studios is plotting for the MCU, so they can more seamlessly integrate with one another.
So for those of you who were dismayed at never seeing Matt Murdock or Danny Rand make any sort of significant impact in the Marvel movie universe, rest assured the Disney+ shows will be a very different story.
For more from Feige, read our recent stories below. Look for the full interview on Collider soon.
- Kevin Feige Gives Update on 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3'; Confirms They're Using James Gunn's Script
- Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ Might Be an Epic Spanning “Tens of Thousands of Years,” Says Kevin Feige
- Kevin Feige Explains Why the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Title Was a Spoiler
