Within the larger umbrella of
multiple media companies that is Disney today, its subsidiary Marvel
Entertainment still has quite the complex content-producing organization under
its own corner. Marvel Comics is still chugging away with new issues, Marvel
Games co-developing videogames and Marvel Television is producing TV series.
Some of these shows happen to take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
franchise run by former division and now distinct entity Marvel Studios, while
others take place separately. But a shift in production duties seem to indicate
a reduced role for Marvel Television as Marvel Studios begins doing more TV
series itself.
Comic Book Resources tells us that Marvel Studios is now moving to
shoulder a larger volume of Marvel-related TV production, especially in
live-action, compared to Marvel Entertainment’s Television arm. It is known
that the studio headed by Kevin Feige is cooking up several TV-length shows
that will become exclusive streaming content on the Disney+ platform. At the
same time Marvel Television is seeing its own series beginning to wind down on
their respective home networks. With the MCU-connected Netflix collaborative
shows all ended, Marvel TV’s last major work is the ABC-running “Agents of
SHIELD,” which will end with its seventh and final season next year.
On the other hand, the Marvel
Studios series, most of which connect to the MCU as well, are priming to be big
hits particularly because they feature MCU movie characters in leading roles.
As a television analyst tells Variety,
"[Kevin] Feige’s shows are so far beyond anything Marvel TV has been able
to do. He has access to all of these MCU characters that the other Marvel
live-action stuff just doesn’t, not to mention way bigger budgets." Aside
from “SHIELD,” Marvel TV’s only other running programs are Freeform’s “Cloak
and Dagger” and Hulu’s “Runaways,” soon to be joined by “Helstrom.”
Another possible explanation for
the waning of Marvel Television over Marvel Studios is dibs on characters to
adapt. Marvel TV had been planning to make a spinoff for “Agents of SHIELD” on
ABC based on “Ghost Rider,” as interpreted in the series’ fifth season. When Marvel
Studios expressed plans on adapting Ghost Rider themselves, the TV arm scrapped
their efforts. It was just as well; back when Studios was part of Marvel
Entertainment overall, the MCU tie-ins were consistent. When Marvel Studios was
spun off into a separate company, the MCU “synergy” became downplayed in “SHIELD,”
barely mattering any more.
Season 7 of “Agents of SHIELD”
premieres on ABC on 2020. Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series, many of which tie
into the MCU, will arrive anytime from late 2020 to 2021.
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