Beginning just a week before the MCU's Phase 4 kicked off with WandaVision, Marvel and Disney+ rolled out the first episodes of Marvel Studios Legends on January 8, 2021. The series, which saw its release of new installments timed ahead of new MCU projects, was intended as a recap, a condensed, audiovisual lesson on what key heroes, villains, and objects had been up to before their next adventure.
In the intervening years, though, the House of Ideas' priorities have shifted dramatically. No longer is Marvel concerned with filling Disney+ with the maximum amount of fresh content. Kevin Feige and his team have instead added additional weight to the scales in the eternal debate between quality vs. quantity, and the balance has tipped toward the former. Marvel is now making fewer films and even fewer TV shows. Anything outside of that perimeter is beginning to find itself on the chopping block. Case in point: A new Marvel Studios Legends episode has not been added to Disney+ since December 15, 2023, effectively rendering Marvel Studios' first-ever television series canceled.
Marvel Studios Legends, while presumably well-intentioned, was always a curiosity. The bean counters at Disney+ were likely well aware that the series, whose episodes were no longer than a few minutes and functioned as extended trailers, were not going to pull subscribers. The program was, by definition, supplementary material designed to fill the gaps in viewers' grasp of MCU history.
Adding to that perplexity was the fact that Marvel Studios Legends shared a name with the long-running collection of Hasbro action figures, Marvel Legends, with an extra word sandwiched in. The Disney+ series' logo even used the exact font as Hasbro.
The bottom line seems to be that Disney+ and Marvel desired to have fans fully caught up before they leaped into the latest MCU thing. This could even be seen as slightly prescient on their part, given the growing outcry that the MCU is too much "homework." That did not change the notion that Marvel Studios Legends was probably perceived as homework, too. And so, it was inconspicuously canceled.
Adding insult to Marvel Studios Legends' injury is that the official Marvel YouTube channel has uploaded the nearly the entire Legends catalog, free of charge. This act can be surmised as the ultimate nail in its coffin as it implies that Disney+ can no longer wring anymore cashflow from its carcass.
The last piece in Marvel Studios Legends' puzzle was its last episode: "Guardians of the Multiverse." It arrived just before What If...? Season 2 as a quick explainer on What If...?'s team of motley multiversal Marvelites thrown together by Uatu the Watcher to deal with an Ultron Variant who got way too big for his metal britches. For all intents and purposes, the episode is Legends' closing curtain call.
Marvel Studios Legends is not the first Disney+ Marvel show to have the axe fall upon it. The vibrant and lovable Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur had the rug yanked from underneath when Disney+ canned it in late 2024 (but not before the streamer's harmful scrapping of a trans girl-focused episode.)
Could Marvel Resurrect Marvel Studios Legends?
Even though Marvel Studios Legends has been canceled, is it possible that, in the parlance of the "other guys," Marvel could drop the series into the Lazarus Pit and breathe new breath into the idea, if not the format?
MCU fans have become increasingly fickle since Avengers: Endgame. It seems that the release of every project flips the switch between its two positions: "The MCU is back!" and "The MCU is dead!" Whether or not this is true lies in the heart of the individual. But just as persistent as this continual waffling between death and rebirth, is the complaint that the MCU is "too much homework." This accusation is more well-founded. The MCU has been around for 17 years and has amassed over 50 live-action projects. And with even more Marvel movies and shows coming up, for neophytes, breaking into the franchise can be both disorienting and overwhelming.
It's logical that Marvel wishes to educate audiences on the story so far, but Marvel Studios Legends' cancellation might be proof enough that it isn't practical, since viewers aren't sufficiently incentivized to tune in. It may be that the studio concocts another speedy administration method for injecting backstory into newcomers, but any such plans have not yet been announced.
Every episode of Marvel Studios Legends can be streamed on Disney+.
