The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been designed as one big playground, but it hasn’t really worked out that way. The movies are interconnected, but when it comes to television, the shows have largely stayed on their side of the field. You don’t need to watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to understand the Marvel movies, and watching the Marvel movies won’t really enhance the experience of watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It becomes even more distracting on the Netflix side where the Battle of New York is simply referred to as “The Incident” and we’re left to wonder why the Avengers wouldn’t want the help of someone like Luke Cage, who’s basically like Captain America except he’s also bulletproof.
During the recent press junket for Marvel Studios' latest feature Doctor Strange, Collider's own Steve Weintraub asked Marvel head Kevin Feige about when we might see some crossover between the studio’s Netflix series and the MCU.
What do you think of the Netflix MCU and do you think any of those characters are going to make the big screen transition?
KEVIN FEIGE: I think it’s extremely impressive what Netflix has done and it will be the same answer I always give, which is, “It all depends on timing.” It all depends on how to do it because I don’t think what anybody wants to do is have such important characters show up for one second. Black Panther and Spider-Man to me are the high bar in Civil War of how you can bring in new characters into something. Vision and Ultron, Wanda and Pietro in Ultron. And it takes a lot of screentime, and it takes a lot of work. Infinity War has a lot of people in it already. So it just depends on how we could figure it out.
I understand his reasoning, and I certainly wouldn’t want Jessica Jones to show up for two seconds or even a minor scene. When you bring in characters and it’s just for a walk-on, the moment becomes distracting. The character isn’t there to service the story or the themes. They’re there to service the fans, and that doesn’t make for good storytelling. While I do want to see some crossover between the MCU and the MTU at some point, I respect Feige’s argument on the matter.
For more on Doctor Strange, click on the links below:
- First ‘Doctor Strange’ Reactions Praise Standout Performances and Stunning Visuals
- ‘Doctor Strange’ First Clip: Benedict Cumberbatch Has an Out-of-Body Experience
- ‘Doctor Strange’: Marvel Confirms Dan Harmon Made the Film Funnier
- ‘Doctor Strange’: Listen to Michael Giacchino’s Psychedelic Score; Plus New Images
- ‘Doctor Strange’ Opening Weekend Box Office Tracking at $55 Million—$75 Million
