Marvel Studios Head Kevin Feige says some of the upcoming MCU Disney+ series are planning for two or more seasons, but it won't be that way for all of them. Feige, who has been president of the studio since 2007, is the key architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and continues to be the definitive voice on its development. The MCU's official expansion into the realm of television began this year with WandaVision, which ended its 9-episode run last Friday, and will continue next week with the premiere of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
As these first two titles demonstrate, Marvel sees a Disney+ series as a way to expand on characters that may have been underserved by the feature films, and the deep-dive into Wanda's damaged psyche was one of the biggest reasons for WandaVision's success with both fans and critics. However, the reverse is also true, with upcoming shows like Ms. Marvel intended to introduce new characters that will then go on to appear in the films. With the interconnected nature of the MCU, fans have some questions about how exactly these shows will work: Are they all miniseries, or will some have multi-season arcs? Will continuing seasons require watching the movie that was in-between, or vice-versa? And, most pressingly, is WandaVision Season 2 happening?
Feige's latest comments in an interview with SciFiNow+ at least address, if not answer, all those questions. In the wake of WandaVision's success, he elaborates on Marvel's multi-platform strategy for MCU Phase 4, which involves a more speculative approach to their TV shows:
The fun of the MCU is, obviously, all of the crossover that we can do between series, between films. It will always vary based on the story – sometimes it will go into a Season Two, sometimes it will go into a feature and then back into a series. We’ve announced that Ms. Marvel, after her debut on Disney+, will be going into the second Captain Marvel film. But we are thinking of and planning second seasons for some of the upcoming series. [...]
I’ve been at Marvel for too long to say a definite no or definite yes to anything in regards to your question about another season of WandaVision but some of the shows that we’re about to start filming, we are keeping in mind a structure that would lead into a Season Two and a Season Three in a more direct way than, say, a show like WandaVision which clearly goes into a feature. But it is new. That’s part of the fun, exciting, adrenaline-boosting creativity that we’re able to do, thanks to Disney+, and really to figure out new ways of storytelling. Perhaps someday we’ll chart out five seasons of a show, but really we’re focusing on delivering the best seasons we can one at a time so far.
This seems to clarify that the MCU TV shows will be a mix of miniseries that feed into features and multi-season arcs that could dip into movies in-between. WandaVision was definitely intended as the former; elsewhere in the interview, Feige confirms the show sets up Wanda's appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and though he leaves the door open for WandaVision Season 2, it's clear the show was not structured to have one. The demand might be high enough for Marvel Studios to bend over backwards to make it happen, but a return to Westview anytime soon is difficult to imagine.
Feige also explains the plan for Doctor Strange 2 is to make it equally accessible for those who saw WandaVision as for those who didn't, allowing for "different layers of understanding" without creating a "barrier for entry." Given that Marvel movies attract audiences far larger than the number of Disney+ subscribers, this strategy makes some sense, but having to keep the character development of a series essentially unimpactful could hamstring the larger storytelling moving forward. Then again, this might only be a big-screen problem - if the studio believes its TV audience will watch the movies, but not vice-versa, Marvel's Disney+ series could soon become the richest parts of the MCU experience.
Source: SciFiNow+