http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/heat-vision/hulk-heading-back-tv-cloak-29093
Here was the list of stuff they considered for TV development.
Hulk, Cloak and Dagger, and an adaptation of Bendis'
Alias were the ones they actually started developing, with the
Alias show probably being closest to potentially going ahead.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118029209
To answer your first question, we have no idea if this stuff takes place in the shared universe of the films. That's problematic. If it doesn't, they have two options when putting these shows together: avoid using any character Marvel's seriously interested in for feature development (pretty much Warner's approach to
Smallville) or introduce "TV" versions of those characters played by different actors. The former is extremely unsatisfying, the latter would confuse most people.
Consider a show based on
Alias: Jessica Jones' "origin" is inextricably tied to the Avengers and she hangs out around Matt Murdock, Danny Rand, Luke Cage. Do you use these characters? If the Avengers are in it, are they the same Avengers from the film or TV versions? Do you delete most other Marvel characters and replace them with new characters who serve the same functions? You can mangle these things to the point that they neither resemble the comic you're adapting nor do anything to strengthen the Marvel brand in a broader sense.
I know they're developing Hulk because Hulk was already a successful show, but you can't paint a big dude green and call him Hulk in this decade; if you're trying to design something for a network TV budget, the expense of merely portraying him and creating action scenes that utilize his abilities make him one of the worst characters you could possibly pick.
Is this show supposed to star Mark Ruffalo?
Have they talked to Mark Ruffalo about this?
If the Hulk show is intended to be a spinoff from the
Avengers film, it's an ambitious move that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
If the Hulk show is intended to be completely separate from the films, I wonder if Marvel are considering this from the audience's perspective: four different actors playing three different Hulks since 2003. No one has the patience to figure this out.
Grab someone you know who doesn't follow these movies that closely. Did they see 2008's
The Incredible Hulk? If they didn't, is it because they assumed it was a sequel to 2003's
The Hulk? I'm still encountering people who can't tell these things apart and aren't willing to spend any more time or effort trying.
Having nearly all of the Marvel characters under the Marvel Studios umbrella presents an opportunity to create a brand which is clear, consistent, and coherent, as opposed to the relative anarchy of Marvel-branded New Line, Fox, Sony, Universal, Artisan/Lionsgate films intermingling through the last decade. I hope that Marvel, faced with this opportunity, aren't deliberately making choices that create further confusion about their brand.
