I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but Kevin Feige is a genius. If you told me over a decade ago that Marvel would be at the forefront of entertainment, and that Disney would be spearheading it, I would have laughed at you. (Did you see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance?) But here we are, and Marvel is killing it in the cinema, and will soon be killing it at home on Disney+. That said, a lot of people like to downplay that Marvel already had TV shows on ABC, most notably Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Inhumans.
And now there’s word that Kevin Feige will be working with ABC to make a new show. Now, I’m sure a lot of naysayers will ask “Why?” What’s the point of making a new show on ABC when we’re already getting all these new shows on Disney+ like Loki and She-Hulk? Well, I have an answer to that question. A few answers, actually.
This Might Broaden the MCU Even More
Some may disagree, but I’m pretty sure that most will tell you that the greatest thing about the MCU is that it’s all connected in some way. The events in The Avengers spilled over into Iron Man 3, and the events in that movie spilled over into later movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. There’s already word that the new Disney+ shows will be considered canon and will spill over into the movies, so now, we’ll most likely have another property that will leak into the MCU.
But here’s the exciting part—we don’t know what it will be yet. Kevin Feige has hinted that the next two phases will splinter off into a cosmic side and an earthbound side, with characters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel being in the former, and characters like Black Panther and Shang-Chi being in the latter. And we already have an idea of what Phase 5 will be like. Or so we thought. Now, with Feige taking on a new television project, this changes everything.
Sure, there is the possibility that Kevin Feige could decide to make this project a standalone, but given his track record, I have a hard time believing that he wouldn’t want to also connect this new show into the MCU somehow. And we have no idea who the character or group could possibly be. It’s exciting just thinking about who could turn out to be the next Guardians of the Galaxy or the next Ant-Man. Which brings me to my next point.
This Show Could Breathe New Life into an Obscure Character
There is already a lot of speculation on the internet about who or what this character or characters could be for this new ABC show. The Cosmic Wonder suggests it could be the A-Force, which is like an all-female Avengers. Others suggest that the Defenders could be somehow brought into the MCU now that Kevin Feige is the chief creative officer at Marvel and can find a way to retool the characters.
The important thing to remember though is that it could be somebody new, and even somebody completely obscure. Part of the genius of Kevin Feige is that he realized that it didn’t matter how low on the totem poll the characters might have been in the Marvel stable. If the stories were written well enough, then the character could find new life in the movies. When it was revealed that The Guardians of the Galaxy would be introduced into the MCU, I was flabbergasted. As a comics fan, I knew that the Guardians of the Galaxy were D-level Marvel at best. But now look at them. The whole world knows who Groot and Rocket are.
All eyes are now on any comic character Kevin Feige decides to introduce to the world, and that’s super exciting. I never imagined that my favorite Marvel character, Moon Knight, would get his own show, but here we are. Who could we possibly get next for this new show on ABC? ROM? Arabian Knight? Will freaking Angar the Screamer be brought back to television? The truth is, it could be anybody and people will watch it if there’s some kind of connection to the MCU. It wouldn’t even have to be good. But that brings me to my final point.
It Will Almost Certainly Be Good
A lot of people will argue that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. sucked because nothing on the show influenced the movies, and on that front, they’re right. None of it did (though, what happened in the movies did influence the show, but that’s another matter entirely). They’ll also use Inhumans as an example of how another network Marvel show is a bad idea. And yeah, Inhumans was godawful. But you know who also thought that Inhumans was bad? Kevin Feige. In fact, during a 2017 interview, he jokingly deflected a question about the show.
That's because Kevin Feige really had nothing to do with the television wing of Marvel until now. That was Jeff Loeb’s baby. And while you can say what you will about some of Marvel’s TV shows (I will agree with you that Cloak and Dagger, Iron Fist, and Inhumans weren’t some of their most shining moments), Jeff Loeb steered the ship well when it came to things like Agent Carter and most of the Netflix shows. But they were scattered and rocky when it came to consistent quality because they were on different channels and platforms. Kevin Feige won’t allow this new show to be scattered. He also won’t allow it to be bad.
This new show is bound to be good or Kevin Feige wouldn’t attach his name to it. One look at the Disney+ shows he has cooking, like WandaVision for instance, and you can tell that the same care that goes into the movies will go into the shows, and this ABC project will be no different. In fact, I’m interested to see how a network TV show, which has to run longer than the Disney+ shows have to run if The Mandalorian is any indication (8 or so episodes) will fit into this timeline. Feige has never tackled a network TV show, so it will be fascinating to see if he can stick the landing when it comes to 20 or so episodes in a season.
All in all, I don’t see how in any way this could be a bad thing. Kevin Feige has a track record for over a decade of quality projects with the Marvel name attached to them. And network TV isn’t all that much different from Disney+ when it comes to what it can and can’t show. So whatever comes out of this will likely be a great thing and must-see TV. But what do you think? Are you already dismissing this new project from Kevin Feige? Do you think he already has too much on his plate for him to concentrate on yet another project? I mean, the dude is dipping his toe into Star Wars now for crying out loud. Sound off in the comments section below.
