S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson is still alive in the Marvel Cinematic
Universe after his seemingly untimely demise in 2012’s The Avengers
and the secretive organization that he now runs still operates after
the crushing events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Coulson’s
team assists The Avengers; meanwhile, Inhumans are surfacing across
the globe with superpowers and more and more vigilante superheroes are
emerging in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.
All of these important events are happening but none of them are being
addressed in the connected Marvel Studios movies – at least not yet.
It was one of the more notable issues with Avengers: Age of Ultron and
certainly a point of contention for its writer and director Joss
Whedon who was very vocal about some of the obstacles he faced in
developing the Avengers sequel and the MCU’s first television program,
in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Speaking at an event last night to celebrate the in-home release of
Avengers: Age of Ultron, Kevin Feige – now the top boss at Marvel
Studios – admitted that the TV shows will have an increased role and
will be referenced more in the movies down the road.
“I think that’s inevitable at some point as we’re plotting the
movies going forward and they’re doing the shows.”
With Phase 3 Marvel Studios has had a clear plan from the beginning,
one that was flexible based on whether or not they could gain the
rights to certain characters (i.e. Spider-Man). They know the
production schedule and release slate from now until summer 2019 and
with that in mind they can plan ahead in deciding which Marvel TV
properties they desire to pull over.
To date, it’s been a challenge to take advantage of the TV stuff
partly due to the scheduling of these productions. TV episodes are
made relatively quickly and can react to the larger events of the
films, which in turn must enter development far before they release in
theaters. As Feige put it:
“It’s easier for them. They’re more nimble and faster and produce
things quicker than we do, which is one of the main reasons you see
the repercussions of Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron in the show.
Going forward and certainly as they begin to do more shows and cast
them with such great actors as they have — particularly Daredevil —
that that may occur. A lot of it is by the time we start doing a
movie, they’d be midway through a season; by the time it comes out
they’d be done with the second, starting the third season. Finding
timing on that is not always easy.”
We interviewed Kevin Feige while he was promoting the theatrical
release of Avengers: Age of Ultron back in April, the same week
Daredevil released on Netflix. At the time, he said there had been
discussions with the TV division and its head Jeph Loeb and that the
plan would be to establish these TV show characters and their origins
first – and then find out where they could make appearances in the
films.
Before that, when unveiling the Phase 3 schedule at a fan and media
event in October 2014, Feige spoke during a Q&A briefly about the
Netflix shows and said there are opportunities for crossovers – but
reiterated that his own interests and focus is strictly on the films.
That’s been an ongoing issue we’ve reported on since the beginning of
ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since we know the film creatives pretty
much ignore its existence.
Joss Whedon, who created it and helemd
Avengers 1 and 2, even said Marvel didn’t want him to do the show and
we know from our own chats with the writers, producers and directors
of Ant-Man, Captain America 2 & 3, Thor 2, etc. that they don’t even
watch the series.
Knowing that, the TV characters and stories aren’t – or at least,
haven’t been to date – in their minds when planning ahead, but things
are beginning to change thanks to the critical success of Daredevil.
We can argue that Marvel TV was better than the Phase 2 films.
With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s season 3 premiere earning much praise last
night, and continuing to improve in quality and in its relevance in
the MCU, there’s still a chance some of these characters would one day
make an appearance in the movies even if it’s a minimal cameo.
We wouldn’t be surprised that like the comics, some of the TV
characters eventually serve as Avengers. Netflix’s Defenders
characters (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist) all
fit the bill and even on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. we’re seeing potential
Avengers in Quake (Chloe Bennet), Mockingbird (Adrianne Palicki) and
Deathlok (J. August Richards). And it doesn’t just apply to the
heroes. When asked if someone like Kingpin (Vincent D’Onforio) could
make for a good Spider-Man movie villain, Feige responded with “That
would probably be the cool thing to do.”
Are you hoping to see more crossover between the films and TV shows?
What Marvel TV characters deserve movie appearances?
