Marvel's Disney+ TV Shows Are Key to MCU's Post-Endgame Future

Kevin Feige talks about the importance of upcoming Marvel TV shows on Disney+ to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Avengers: Endgame. The MCU's mastermind is currently busy doing the promo rounds for their latest project, Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers - the first solo female headlining hero who is also the most powerful one in the decade-old movie series. However, with the culmination of 10 years worth of storytelling inching nearer with Avengers 4, many are also looking forward to what lies ahead for the beloved franchise.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Endgame will cap off the 22-film arc that the MCU has been telling since 2008's Iron Man. But aside from Feige and his team's upcoming big screen projects, they're also busy working to launch their official TV branch. Unlike the Marvel TV division headed by Jeph Loeb and comprised of projects available on various platforms such as ABC (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Netflix (nearly defunct) and Freeform (Cloak & Dagger), the new shows that will be exclusive to Disney+ will be better linked to their film counterparts. And the producer teases that these side stories are going to be pivotal with where the MCU is heading post-Endgame.

Speaking with Collider for Captain Marvel, Feige was also asked about their plans for their upcoming TV projects, which will be kicked off with a show centering on fan-favourite Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who met his end at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Not much is known regarding the series, and Feige remains tight-lipped about specifics, but he teases how these small screen shows will differ from their movies, and for him, it all boils down to being able to do a deeper dive with these characters - especially supporting ones.

“I think it’s gonna be story dependent, and that’s what’s so exciting about the streaming platform, is there aren’t any rules necessarily. For us to have another outlet to tell stories, and to play with medium, and to do, not just deeper dives on characters that we’ve seen many times in the MCU, but haven’t been able to devote six, seven, eight, nine, 10 hours to, is amazing, and is something that we’ve been working on for a while now. And still aren’t gonna announce outside of the Loki series with Tom Hiddleston.”

In the bigger scheme of things, Feige added that these shows are going to be significant to building the MCU's overall lore, especially with the state of the franchise after Endgame. He said:

“It’s been extremely additive to the entire creative arc, not just of the Disney+ programs we’re working on, but on the entire post-Endgame MCU. Because we’ve been able to weave them. We’ve been able to, for the first time, conceive of them together, and they will be intertwined with each other.”

Much has been said about how the arrival of these MCU shows may have contributed to the death of the Netflix/Marvel series. While Marvel TV has always emphasized "it's all connected," previous Marvel shows were never really intricately linked to the MCU. They usually adapted to the events happening in their movie counterparts, but their existence hasn't been acknowledged on the big screen.

Feige's comments about the MCU's Disney+ shows playing a major role in their world-building after Endgame is interesting considering that most of the heroes rumored to be starring in their own shows met their end in Infinity War. There isn't an official lineup yet with regard to spinoff characters other than Loki, but there have been rumors of a Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) spinoff, as well as a Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) show - all of which died in Avengers 3. Aside from these heroes, Feige can also slowly start incorporating the mutants to the MCU via their Disney+ division once the Disney and Fox deal is finalized.