Marvel TV Being Folded into Marvel Studios

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the Marvel TV unit will be folded into the larger Marvel Studio as the company restructures.

This of course does not come as a surprise as recently Kevin Feige ascended to the top of the Marvel creative corps and now oversees all aspects of the entertainment giant, including publishing, television, and of course the movie studios.

This move makes it easier to consolidate everything everything under his purview and should in theory streamline production.

The article did mention that those projects that were already in the works would still continue.

Jeff Loeb will stay on through the transition phase but is expected to leave at some point, but members of the executive team at Marvel Television will join Marvel Studios. However, some workers will be let go as they consolidate resources.

This provides a path for Marvel Television to continue as they've been in a bit of a limbo.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a moderate success. And they found their stride with the Netflix shows. Daredevil had a great 2.5 seasons. The first season of Jessica Jones was very good. The first half of Luke Cage was enjoyable. I liked the Punisher a lot. And there's Iron Fist.

Well, the less said about Iron Fist the better.

But those shows were unceremoniously cancelled last year, partly because of poor performance as well as tensions between Netflix and Disney as the Mouse readied its own streaming service.

Thus, the new slate of Marvel shows that are coming out on Disney+ have been much more connected to the movies than the previous iterations.

Before, there might be a low level cameo, and a mention or reference here or there, but Tony Stark was never going to show up. Now, the new shows have characters from the main cast, like Loki, Falcon, and Scarlet Witch.

This new move gives Feige access to all the tools in his toolbox instead of the forced division between the movie and television that existed previously.

This is pure speculation on my part but I could imagine Feige making this part of the conditions for becoming Chief Creative Officer.

Moves like this signal that the line between movies and TV get thinner each year and now with studios releasing much of their content directly to consumers through streaming services it makes sense to bring the executive teams together. The move and TV departments need to work together as one unit because that's essentially what they are.

Netflix has already started releasing feature length movies. I can't believe that Disney will that far behind.

It will also give them unparalleled flexibility. Imagine if they could spread the Avengers experiment across multiple levels of entertainment.

Or you could do a better version of the The Defenders. With everything under one roof, you could have four or five different TV shows and then release a movie where everyone joins together.

Star Wars tried something similar when it announced that all avenues would the same canon as the movies. This didn't work so well, because spreading it across so many properties was too much. Plus, with Disney+ Marvel would be in a better position instead of spreading content across different channels and streaming services.

But, if Marvel did something similar but only the TV shows and movies it could work.

I know this is technically what they did with the Netflix shows and the MCU but those connections were tenuous at best.

So, it's a time for change as media giants figure out what they want to do and structure themselves for the streaming wars to come.