Kevin Feige, the main architect behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was recently promoted
to oversee everything Marvel-related for parent company Disney not just his traditional territory
of Marvel Studios.
And that promotion means that Feige is wresting full control of the television side of Marvel
from the company's CEO Ike Perlmutter and Head of Television Jeph Loeb.
Loeb's departure from the company has just recently been announced, as new reports indicate
that Marvel hasn't been pleased over recent developments on the company's television side.
Specifically, Marvel Television executives were reportedly "shocked and embarrassed"
that Hulu decided to cancel the planned live-action Ghost Rider series before a single episode
had aired, according to a report from Variety.
The streaming platform pulled the plug on Ghost Rider in September 2019, just a few
months after it was announced in May 2019 that the project was in development.
"I don't know who the hell you are, but you just made a big mistake."
"Funny, I was going to say the same thing, without the accent."
Ghost Rider was meant to be an off-shoot of the long-running ABC show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,
arguably the most successful live-action Marvel TV series to date, but wouldn't actually have
any ties to that series' storyline.
The only connection it would have to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was through Gabriel Luna,
who was set to star on Ghost Rider as the namesake flaming-skull-headed hero, which
the actor had previously portrayed during a number of guest appearances on Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.
According to Deadline, Hulu and the creative team behind Ghost Rider hit, quote, "a creative
impasse which could not be resolved."
Since coming to an agreement was apparently impossible and the differences between the
streamer and the show's team were evidently irreconcilable, Hulu executives decided not
to move forward with the series.
That happened in late September 2019, and a month later, it's still unclear what exactly
the creative roadblock entailed.
The intention was to totally revamp Ghost Rider for the Marvel-Hulu series, and have
him stand as a new version of the character, separate from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
narrative.
That's a confusing setup at best, and it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that
Hulu executives grew unhappy with how the Ghost Rider team planned to portray the antihero.
It seems the failure of Ghost Rider should have been the writing on the wall that big
changes were on the way for the Marvel Television team, and now those changes have arrived.
But what does this all mean for the future of Marvel Television?
If you've noticed that Marvel movies have become more diverse and taken bigger risks
over the last few years, that's no coincidence.
Prior to 2015, Feige and CEO Ike Perlmutter shared control over Marvel Studios, meaning
both executives had say over what ultimately ended up on the screen.
The problem with that set-up was that the two rarely agreed on anything, and in 2015,
Disney head Bob Iger made the decision to effectively split Marvel in half.
The movie side of the business, Marvel Studios, would be handled by Feige, with zero input
from Perlmutter.
Likewise, Perlmutter maintained control of the comic book and TV businesses, without
input from Feige.
One event that drove the split was apparently the steadfast refusal from Perlmutter and
his team to allow Feige to pursue films with female and non-white leads.
After Feige gained full control, one of the first things he did was put Black Panther
and Captain Marvel into production and the two films both made more than $1 billion at
the box office and now rank as the two highest-grossing solo franchise-starters in the MCU.
The TV side of the business, however, has not had the same kind of success as the MCU.
While Marvel's MCU movies are now the highest-grossing franchise of all time, Marvel TV has failed
to make much of an impact.
With Feige running the show, and with series like Ghost Rider no longer in the hopper,
what will the future of Marvel TV look like?
Odds are, it's going to look an awful lot like the MCU.
Even before Feige inherited the TV side of things, he was already spearheading Marvel
Studios' invasion of the medium via a number of upcoming Disney+ series with more direct
MCU connections.
But other networks also have Marvel TV series namely ABC, Freeform, and Hulu.
So what will become of them?
Well, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is ending on ABC of its own accord in 2020.
Hulu's The Runaways was renewed for a third season prior to the Marvel TV shakeup, while
a third season for Freeform's Cloak & Dagger has yet to be announced.
There's also a slew of leftover Loeb projects in development at Hulu, including five animated
series and the live-action Helstrom, but it's unclear if Feige will keep them around.
One defect that has plagued all of Marvel's previous TV efforts was the tenuous connection
to the MCU.
Though most of the series were meant to exist in the same universe as Feige's films, they
never felt like it.
But with Feige now running Marvel TV, too, you can bet that will change.
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