The Disney + series WandaVision is the first property to launch the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that will fit between large-screen features and streaming series.
But is it an embarrassment of wealth if Disney plans to make as many as ten Marvel Disney + shows in the next few years?
Following WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a spin-off series of Captain America debut this year on Disney + followed by Loki, based on Thor‘s bad seed brother.
It’s not long ago that Disney’s Lucas film wants to emulate Marvel’s strategy with its spin-off Star Wars movies. Unfortunately, it was discontinued after the gloomy BO results of Solo: A Star Wars Story; a situation of too much, too soon. In the wake of Alone, Disney builds the deeper universe of Star Wars by streaming, with future programs like The book by Boba Fett and Ahsoka, among others, while hatching Star Wars movies in new worlds, of which Marvel Boss boss Kevin Feige oversees one Loki EP Michael Waldron).
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‘WandaVision’ team discusses MCU connections and how Disney + series “is cute-cute until it is not”
The deadline this afternoon landed with Feige to ask him about how this new symbiotic relationship between his valued $ 1 billion comics and Disney + streaming series will work, and whether the theater is likely to fail in the long run.
WandaVision, which falls on January 15, is the first time a Marvel stream series has centered around two Avengers, in this case Scarlet Witch and Vision (ABC TV series Agents of SHIELD played Clark Gregg’s agent Phil Coulsen from the earlier MCU films. He dies in Avengers and was brought back to life for the show. For the most part, except for Captain Marvel, he largely stayed out of the last MCU movies while the series was airing).
Using a popular franchise simultaneously between TV and film is nothing new, although it is not a perfect science. In 1998, Fox released the big screen movie X-Files: Fight the Future ($ 189 million) which was the last TV season of the show. And in 1999, Paramount had the movie South Park: Larger, longer and uncut ($ 83 million WW) while the animated series aired on Comedy Central. There were also no major blockbusters, nor total damage to their respective franchises. X-Files would be four more years in the making after the 1998 movie which yielded a 2008 series and two revival series in 2016 and 2018. South Park, first launched in August 1997, was contracted to be on the air in 2022. It is said that the legacies of both IPs are defined by their TV runs.
Yet Marvel has managed to swing to the fences and not be deterred from executing them. Therefore, this new call and reaction between Marvel movies and streaming series could very well be the next big thing if we get out of the pandemic.
DEADLINE: Sidney Poitier is known to have given Denzel Washington the following advice: “If they see you for free all week, they will not pay to see you this weekend.” This brings me to: Is there any concern about the over-expansion of the MCU for streaming, that it will affect the movies at the box office?
KEVIN FEIGE: Well, it’s not free. And this is no different from the worries I had my first few years at Marvel. Since the Marvel rights are separated between several studios, there will be several Marvel movies per year. There was a year when there were three in one summer. The question was’ Whoa, how’s it going to hold up? How will it survive? “And when I could not control anything, my answer was, ‘As long as they are different, as long as they are unique and can cross some of the characters and have the Marvel logo on the front.’ But if it’s unique and interesting stories, it’s not going out of fashion. Finding something interesting and unique to watch at home, and finally be in a movie theater again, is how we escape, it’s how we learn and how we grow. It’s our job as storytellers to use the format and tell interesting, different stories that happen to be based on 80 years of amazing narrative fiction from the Marvel comics and that can be used in all the different genres. A half-hour black-and-white sitcom is very different from anything we’ve done before. It’s a coincidence with two Avengers stars and the Marvel logo on it, but it’s completely unique, and that’s what we’ve been working on Disney + and Phase 4 features until we’ve done. Endgame.
Deadline: What is it so wonderful about? WandaVision is that it is so avant-garde. You know there’s something going on under the veneer, but its satirical approach is completely different. What gave you and Marvel creators the confidence that fans would go with you in this rabbit hole? These are two very serious characters, and I would never imagine them in something satirical.
FEIGE: Confidence is – I do not know if I’m the most confident man in the world. I think we always question things, but we also do not allow fear to lead us. So I believe there is a healthy balance somewhere. From the beginning of Marvel Studios we have always said that we do not want to make one kind of movie. When Ysterman worked, the first thing we announced was a WWII movie (Captain America) and a Norwegian God Alien movie (Thor), and then a team film (Avengers). So we always want to take the success or the benevolence we deserve, and use it to expand to grow. Guardians of the Galaxy, and in Black panther and Captain Marvel. And WandaVision was just an extreme version of it and do it in a way that will have answers and take the confusion, or the weirdness or avant-garde nature of it, and start putting it in the piece as each episode is introduced week by week . But we have always been rewarded for tackling big swings and not necessarily repeating ourselves. And we had a lot of confidence in the two actors playing the two characters and that they could absolutely make it.
DEADLINE: We know with Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, her character connects in Captain Marvel 2, and that the series joins Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Is WandaVision a ramp to the revival of X mans are you planning
FEIGE: Afterwards, in five years’ time, if we talk about everything that happened, everything could be a rampage to everything, specifically all, yes, Monica in Captain Marvel 2 and specifically to Wanda to work with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of madness.
DEADLINE: On Disney Investor Day it was announced that you will not be reviewing another actor in the role of T’Challa for Black Panther 2 after Chadwick Boseman’s death. Can you tell us more about it? Will it be similar to what was done in Tron where a younger Jeff Bridges was repeated via CG? Or is it a completely different angle? Black Panther 2? There are rumors that it will have a female angle.
Disney
FEIGE: So many of the comics and the first movie are the world of Wakanda. Wakanda is a place to explore further with characters and different subcultures. This was always and initially the primary focus of the following story. We are not going to have a CG Chadwick and we will not restructure T’Challa. Ryan Coogler is currently working very hard on the screenplay with all the respect and love and genius he has, which gives us great comfort, and so it has always been about promoting the mythology and inspiration of Wakanda. There is also the task of respecting and respecting the ongoing learning and doctrines of Chad.
Deadline: do you think Black widow would you stick to a theatrical release or go to Disney +? And what do you take from sending certain movies to streaming? Does it hurt the brand, or do you think the audience is smart enough to determine that we are an exception to a pandemic and that we will eventually return to the movie?
Marvel Studios
FEIGE: If I had a crystal ball, I would look at it and tell you. I do not. All I can tell you is that Bob Iger has been bringing me to his office for the past three years and talking about a streaming platform that would become Disney + and asking us to start working on programs for it. Our long plan was to weave the MCU and the storytelling between weekly episodic big swings at Disney + and record the big swing in theaters. It is my great hope that it continues. Do not ask me week by week what is going to happen in this world, I have no idea and do not want to guess. Everything we did at Marvel Studios is based on “Okay, if everything goes perfectly, that’s what we want to do.” And until last year, things went remarkably well. And it’s my hope that the world gets back on track and we all go to theaters again, and that people will see and experience week after week for the low monthly fee of Disney + of what we bring there, and then be excited to to get back together with people in real life and sit with strangers and share an experience on the big screen.
DEADLINE: Will you ever revive one of the Netflix Marvel series? Luke Cage, of Jessica Jones, etc. or is that era completely over?
FEIGE: Well, you definitely saw what we announced at Comic-Con a year and a half ago and at Disney Investor Day a few weeks ago, so that’s our focus. But I was at Marvel long enough to never say anything about it.