Posted in: Movies, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: agatha all along, daredevil, ironheart, Marvel Television, marvel zombies, opinion, what if

Is Marvel Television Making MCU Promises It Already Can't Keep?

Marvel Television will spotlight shows that viewers won't need a course in "Marvel 101" to enjoy, but is that possible with what's lined up?

In case you missed the news, Marvel Television has returned (minus Jeph Loeb), and Marvel Studios Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation Brad Winderbaum wanted to make it clear that the banner is looking to address viewers' concerns that they have to do way too much "homework" watching previous MCU shows and films to understand what's going on. "We want to make sure that Marvel stays an open door for people to come in and explore," Winderbaum shared during a recent interview with Comic Book. "On the heels of 'Endgame,' I think there was, maybe, a little bit of an obligation to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything. "As you know, as a comics fan, they're designed to just pop in, find something that you like, and use that to enter you into the universe, and then you can explore and weave around based on your own preferences."

That doesn't mean that the shows aren't connected to the MCU – Winderbaum makes it clear that they are. But the Marvel Studios executive wants viewers to know that these will be shows that they "can jump in anywhere " and still enjoy – without needing to take a course in MCU history. "Part of the rebranding of Marvel Studios, Marvel Television, Marvel Animation – even Marvel Spotlight – is to, I think, try to tell the audience, 'You can jump in anywhere,'" he explained. "They're interconnected, but they're not. You don't have to watch A to enjoy B. You can follow your bliss. You can follow your own preferences and find the thing you want within the tapestry of Marvel.'" But is that realistically possible? Or has Marvel Studios painted itself into an MCU canon corner that it won't be able to get itself out of?

Let's look at the upcoming slate as it currently stands as of this writing: "WandaVision spinoffs"  Kathryn Hahn-starring Agatha All Along and Paul Bettany-starring Vision Quest; "Black Panther" spinoffs Dominique Thorne-starring Ironheart, animated Eyes of Wakanda, and live-action Untitled Wakanda Series; Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio-starring Daredevil: Born Again; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II-starring Wonder Man, live-action Untitled Nova Series; and animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies, What If…?, and X-Men '97 (and we apologize in advance to any projects we missed).

Just from the descriptions above, you can already see where there could be some major issues – what with two WandaVision spinoffs and three "Black Panther" spinoffs that already make it tough to argue that no prior knowledge will be needed. Let's not forget Daredevil: Born Again – now embracing its Netflix roots, it would be tough to argue that checking out the original Netflix run isn't necessary. And with Jon Bernthal returning as Frank Castle, we have a second Netflix series to add to the list. Even with Wonder Man, we have Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery reportedly set for an important role in the series – and he's been in Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – along with his own featurette, "All Hail the King").

And those are just some surface examples – doing a deeper dive into those shows would reveal a number of other strong connections to the MCU that would be tough to get past. Look, we hope Winderbaum is right because getting new viewers to check out both the live-action and animated worlds that Marvel Studios has to offer is a good thing. We're just not seeing the clear, non-MCU path that he's seeing.

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