Just a few days after Captain America: Brave New World hit theaters, the small-screen corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was dealt a devastating blow. A report emerged confirming that a trio of Marvel Cinematic Universe TV shows had been shelved for the moment. This included an adaptation of the comic series Strange Academy, the proposed horror show Horror Inc., and the long-in-development Nova program. Nova had previously garnered enough momentum not only for Kevin Feige to talk about it publicly, but for Ed Bernero to be hired as showrunner for the project.
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Those plans will not come to fruition, at least in the near future. Though it’s been stressed that all three programs could totally come back someday (and it’s hard to imagine a major character like Nova staying out of live-action forever), it’s doubtful MCU fans will be seeing them in the 2020s. Some may be devastated by this news, especially die-hard Nova fans who were eager to see this character finally come to live-action. However, in my own estimation, delaying these programs can only be a good thing for the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Too Much MCU, Too Few Classics
On July 9, 2021, after COVID-19 endlessly delayed all Marvel Studios movies, Black Widow hit theaters. From there, Disney and Marvel Studios ran at light speed to make up for 24 months with no new MCU films hitting multiplexes. In the span of 365 days, audiences were hit with six new Marvel Cinematic Universe movies; Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder.
This was by far the most MCU movies hitting theaters in a 52-week period, beating out a chunk of time from May 2017 to April 2018 that comprised five features. That earlier stretch of time had inundated audiences with Marvel classics like Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther. Between 2021 and 2022, moviegoers were hit with more divisive titles like Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder. Don’t forget about all the Disney+ shows dropping simultaneously. From June 2021 to June 2022, five seasons of television hit Disney+ adorned with the Marvel Studios label. Audiences had gone from being starved for MCU productions to swimming in them.
The result was immediate tangible fatigue, as seen by Ms. Marvel’s drastically lower ratings in June 2022 and the severe second-weekend declines of movies like Love and Thunder. Post-2023, when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion nearly tanked the entire MCU brand, Marvel Studios has overhauled its creative process, especially when it comes to television. These projects were now listed under the Marvel Television banner, would have showrunners handling day-to-day creative operations, and there would be a greater emphasis on multi-season productions. Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror Inc. were clearly championed in an earlier era of MCU small-screen ambitions that emphasized quantity over quality.
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We don’t want to go back to that July 2021-July 2022 period. That means chopping some shows on the docket, including these three casualties.
MCU TV Shows Are Getting More Grounded
Pausing these three shows doesn’t just help combat MCU overstauration. It also ensures that the upcoming MCU TV programs have a consistent grounded approach that can lean into the budgetary restrictions of television. The days of CG-heavy, costly MCU Disney+ productions like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Loki are over. Smaller-scale outings like Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, and Wonder Man are now the standard for the MCU on streaming. This can help these projects offer something different (and not detract from) theatrical films offering lots of costly spectacle.
A sci-fi program like Nova or a fantasy-oriented show like Strange Academy would’ve gone directly against that new ethos. Marvel Television truly has to commit to smaller-scale TV programs if it wants to survive long-term rather than get bogged down in more excessively costly and minimally viewed disasters like Secret Invasion. Shelving this trio of potential MCU shows also reflects an exciting commitment to more intimate programs that lean into TV’s storytelling virtues.
On top of all that, do MCU fans really think this franchise needs to add in Nova and Terror Inc. lore considering the overabundance of new characters and mythos only fleetingly seen in this franchise throughout Phase Four and Five? With Clea, Starfox, Hercules, and so many others waiting to get fleshed out beyond post-credit scenes, there are already too many balls juggling in the air in the MCU. Axing these three shows lets the artists at Marvel Studios and Marvel Television play with the toys they have rather than throwing more items into the box. Take heed, Nova fans, there are endless upsides to the Nova show and other programs getting paused as Marvel recalibrates its television ambitions.
Daredevil: Born Again starts airing on Disney+ on March 4th.
How do you feel about the shows being delayed? Let us know in the comments below!
