Posted in: ABC, Disney+, Hulu, Marvel, Marvel Studios, Movies, Netflix, streaming, TV | Tagged: kevin feige, Marvel Studios, mcu, opinion

Kevin Feige's MCU Timeline Comments Offering Fans Hope or Heartbreak?

Did Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige offer fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. & other shows hope or heartbreak in a soon-to-be-published book's intro?

If you're a fan of ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hulu's Marvel's Cloak & Dagger and Marvel's Runaways, Netflix's suite of series (Daredevil, Punisher, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist & The Defenders), or other Marvel projects, we feel your pain. Once Marvel Studios won the reported behind-the-scenes battle with Marvel Television for control, the former began developing series set within Marvel's big-screen adventures. It wasn't long before fans of the shows we listed above and more realized that they weren't going to be invited to play in Marvel's new & growing live-action sandbox. Or if they are invited, it's just certain actors being asked to return to play the same roles for Disney+ that they played on the Netflix series (like Charlie Cox returning as Matt Murdock/Daredevil for Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again) but without the Netflix canon. Now, we might have some "clarity" from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige regarding his MCU timeline and what's included. But there's a reason why we put quotation marks around "clarity"…

In his introduction to the book Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe – An Official Timeline, Feige addressed the issue of MCU canon as it currently exists. Keep "currently" in mind because we're going to get back to that in a second. "On the Multiverse note, we recognize that there are stories – movies and series – that are canonical to Marvel but were created by different storytellers during different periods of Marvel's history. The timeline presented in this book is specific to the MCU's Sacred Timeline through Phase 4," Feige writes – but then there's this last part: "But, as we move forward and dive deeper into the Multiverse Saga, you never know when timelines may just crash or converge (hint, hint/spoiler alert)."

After reading it back over a couple of times, we're realizing that there's more than one way to read into that section from Feige's intro. In the short-term, Feige seems to be saying that only the feature films from Iron Man through next month's The Marvels are part of the timeline – along with the Disney+ series lineup and two "Special Presentations." That's not exactly great news for the Marvel-related shows that aren't in that lineup when it comes to being part of the action moving forward. On the other hand, that last line from Feige seems to be doing more than teasing the upcoming phases and projects. It reads like a "wink, wink. nudge nudge" to all fans that as things reach "Secret Wars,' all bets are off when it comes to what could be possible. Is that Feige leaving the MCY door open just a smidge? Stay tuned…

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