Fans look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the pinnacle example of how to build a successful superhero shared universe. Unlike DC, Marvel can seemingly do no wrong when it comes to launching movies and TV shows that all exist in the same universe, and things are looking better than ever in Phase 3, with Captain America: Civil War being a big success, while shows like Agents of SHIELD and the Netflix series Daredevil, Jessica Jones and recently Luke Cage all inviting impressive response from fans.
However, as glowing and cohesive as things appear to be in the MCU, hardcore fans know that, behind the scenes, things are not as cohesive as they seem. There’s long been an internal schism between what Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige does on the movie side, and what Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb does on the small screen. The two executives don’t exactly work together like you would think the MCU would require, and there’s always a little bit of tension when it comes to sharing characters.
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Agents of SHIELD has been used as a successful (and not so successful) tie-in to major Marvel movie events, but the Marvel Netflix shows have largely sequestered to their own little corner of the MCU – one that has little connection with AoS, and almost zero connection to the movies (other than Easter egg name drops and indirect references to the events of certain films). But as Avengers: Infinity War approaches – bringing with it an event that seemingly encompasses all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s become increasingly curious as to whether or not all of the MCU will truly be included.
In a recent talk with Collider, Feige remained vague about whether or not the Marvel Netflix heroes will be appearing in the films anytime soon, saying, “I think it’s extremely impressive what Netflix has done and it will be the same answer I always give, which is, “It all depends on timing.” It all depends on how to do it because I don’t think what anybody wants to do is have such important characters show up for one second.”
If you don’t speak the lingo of Marvel press and media trained responses, Feige is presumably saying that there is no current plan to have the Netflix characters in the films. If that reading of the quote seems presumptuous, then maybe his follow up will make things clearer:
“Black Panther and Spider-Man to me are the high bar in Civil War of how you can bring in new characters into something. Vision and Ultron, Wanda and Pietro in Ultron. And it takes a lot of screentime, and it takes a lot of work. Infinity War has a lot of people in it already. So it just depends on how we could figure it out.“
To keep things 100% honest, that’s not a hard “no,” but it is a pretty firm soft one. It sounds like Infinity War is already going to be crammed with characters, and trying to move over The Defenders squad would be difficult.
That’s a reasonable enough excuse, but it does create several problems:
- By the time of Infinity War, The Defenders miniseries will be putting the Netflix heroes on a much higher tier of MCU heroism. Hard to believe they could still be “flying under the radar” of other MCU heroes.
- Infinity War will presumably threaten all of Earth, the cosmos, maybe even the multiverse; it’s hard to imagine that even “street level heroes” like The Defenders won’t take notice of that, or want to do something about it.
In the end, though, Marvel has a procedure for these sorts of matters, built right into the comics: big event storylines often have “tie-in” stories featuring heroes not participating in the main event. So, even though if the Netflix Defenders don’t fight in the Infinity War, as long as their respective series show the impact of that big event, it would all be within the usual parameters of the Marvel Comics tradition.
…It would be a slight disappointment for fans though. A shared universe is supposed to be just that: shared. And seeing all the superheroes onscreen together is why we invested in the first place. Just saying.
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Daredevil seasons 1 and 2, Jessica Jones season 1, and Luke Cage season 1 are all available on Netflix. Iron Fist will premiere on March 17, 2017. The Defenders expected later in the year. The Punisher does not have a release date yet.
Doctor Strange opens November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017; Spider-Man: Homecoming– July 7, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017; Black Panther – February 16, 2018; Avengers: Infinity War – May 4, 2018; Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018; and Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.
