Marvel Television has had some success on its original home at the ABC Network, with five seasons of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and two seasons of Agent Carter. But it had its first misfire with last year with Marvel’s The Inhumans, which might heave been stealthily canceled recently.
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But that’s not going to deter the network from pursuing more superhero shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though it will change their strategy, according to a comment from ABC Entertainment Group President Channing Dungey.
“The question really is more: What kind of superhero show?” Dungey said to Bloomberg. “What’s the tone and how are we doing it? I would never say we’re through with superheroes.”
Inhumans was produced in conjunction with IMAX, with the first two episodes shot using the large-format cameras and aired in theaters. But lackluster trailers served detrimental for the show’s buzz, and it never was able to bounce back in ratings after premiering on ABC.
The network has yet to announce their decision on whether the series will be picked up for a second season or canceled, but most mentions and promotion for Inhumans has been scrubbed from the network’s site.
Agents of SHIELD is in the middle of its fifth season on ABC, and despite the move to Friday nights it has been received well by fans. The series actually became the highest rated Marvel Television program on Rotten Tomatoes.
But the Bloomberg story cautions the risk of abundant superhero shows and the resultant superhero fatigue. The CW currently has seven comic book-based shows, including all of the DC Comics programs, iZombie, and Riverdale. Fox has three with The Gifted, Gotham, and Lucifer. Netflix has six, including last year’s new series The Defenders and The Punisher. FX and Hulu joined the fray last year with Legion and Runaways, respectively, while Freeform is poised to follow suit with Cloak and Dagger.
ABC has mostly stuck to the procedural format for its Marvel shows, but Inhumans was its loftiest attempt to play in the MCU. If they do take another stab at superheroes, it will likely be a back-to-basics approach.
