Marvel Studios has revealed (the beginning of) it’s Phase 4 slate, and there were a few major Marvel Cinematic Universe television series announced for the upcoming Disney+ streaming service. While shows like Loki, What If? and WandaVision certainly sound exciting, they also raise some major questions about how the continuity of Marvel TV works.
Now that question is getting even more intriguing (vexing?) as Marvel Television head Joeph Loeb has revealed that his division will join Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios in releasing TV series content through Disney+. What those projects are, though, is anyone’s guess!
Jeph Loeb was doing an interview with Deadline, in which he was asked the question of whether or not the Marvel movies and Disney+ shows are taking up too much space from Marvel Television. According to Loeb:
“Well, first of all, I have to make something very clear, which is those are shows that are created and run and the responsibility of the motion picture studio. Secondly, Marvel Television will be doing shows with Disney+, we just haven’t announced what we’re going to do there.”
The interviewer didn’t just let Loeb drop that massive grenade and just walk away; when pressed about when, exactly, Marvel Television will reveal its Disney+ slate, Loeb responded with “When we’re ready.”
If you’re wondering why this is a big deal, it has to do with the current wall of logistics that stands between Marvel Studios and Marvel Television – and how it could all be changing. Marvel Television has always been treated as a separate entity than Marvel Studios – no matter how the MCU tried to present itself as a union between film and TV. Marvel Television has been free to play with series that were only tangentially related to the MCU (the Netflix Defenders universe), and with characters that Disney/Marvel Studios couldn’t even touch (like X-Men TV series Legion and The Gifted). However, with the Disney-Fox merger now done, and Marvel Studios clearly taking more reigns over the TV content related to the MCU, Loeb’s place in the pecking order has become very unclear. Even with shows like Legion and Agents of SHIELD now ending, Marvel Television still has an expanding universe that’s being built. Hulu will be the new beachhead, with Runaways and new series like Ghost Rider and Hellstrom on the way. There’s also a new Marvel TV series coming to replace Agents of SHIELD – possibly one spun out of the concluding series.
So there is definitely a lot of questions left to answer regarding if/how Marvel Television shows on Disney+ connect to the MCU, or if/how Marvel Hulu shows will follow the same rules. The other immediate question that the Deadline interviewer was smart enough to jump on was if Marvel Television now has the chance to play with former Fox-owned characters in a fully interconnected universe. Loeb doesn’t have the answer to that yet, but he (and fans) are probably going to need the answer to that sooner before later.
Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.
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