Marvel Studios’ diverse lineup of original Disney+ television programming, including upcoming spinoff series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision, will expand the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe to “even bigger and better heights,” says Marvel Studios president and Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige. For the first time, the shows will be intertwined with the movie side of the franchise — Marvel Studios has so far largely ignored the multiple MCU-set productions backed by Marvel Television — with characters crossing in and out of both the big and small screen to tell “even deeper” stories with familiar characters like Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany).
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“I’ve been [at Marvel] for almost 20 years. And being able to build the MCU, and build a 23-movie Infinity Saga was great,” Feige said during a presentation at CCXP in Brazil. But after Avengers: Endgame — which wrapped up most of the long-running story threads in Marvel’s movie universe, some introduced as far back as Iron Man in 2008 — Feige was left thinking, “What can we do next?”
The answer to that question: Phase 4 films Black Widow, set in-between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, and expected franchise launchers The Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But Disney’s streaming service “gives us this opportunity to tell even deeper stories on characters that you already know and love, like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, like WandaVision, like Loki, in a new type of cinematic way that we haven’t done before.”
“We’ve already started shooting two of them, and they’re very, very special,” Feige added of WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the latter following a since-retired Captain America’s (Chris Evans) allies Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). “And will all, for the first time, interlink. So the MCU will be on your TV screen at home on Disney+, and interconnect with the movies, and then go back and forth. It’s exciting to expand the MCU to even bigger and better heights.”
In August, WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer said Marvel Studios’ ambitious, big-budget television programming promises to bring the big screen experience to the small screen.
“I mean, first of all, with Marvel doing Disney+, it’s not at all the small screen, you know? It’s still the big screen, but streaming,” she told Variety at D23 Expo. “And so there’s still the same sense of grandeur and the same scope and the same opportunities and the same resources, so it just really feels like an enormous movie. We say it’s like a run of a comic, which is just really exciting to do.”
Series entering into production in 2020 include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight and She-Hulk, all featuring characters who will one day cross over into the movies.
Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.
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