Marvel Zombies is doing numbers on Disney+ right now, but it might've been a different story if the project had been released as a film as originally intended. Since the launch of Disney+, there's been a lot of debate over which MCU projects are best formatted for film versus as a series. As it turns out, quite a few Marvel projects transitioned from being films into TV shows over the years, including Marvel Zombies.
Marvel Zombies was released as a four-part miniseries on Disney+ on September 24, but Variety's interview with the director, Bryan Andrews, revealed that a movie had been on the cards at one point. "We were going to make it a movie and have it released," Andrews shared. The roadblock that got in the way was "contractual issues" with including Spider-Man, meaning the movie idea was shelved, and a miniseries became the new game plan.
Bryan Andrews: "We were going to make it a movie and have it released. It should be an epic, it’s gonna be two, two and a half hours long. It’s gonna be amazing. But, there were contractual issues because of Spider-Man in it."
Marvel Studios Animation has never released a film, instead opting for recurring or short series arcs like What If...? and I Am Groot. It's unclear what kind of reception Marvel Zombies might have received if it had been formatted for film instead of a miniseries. The show's current short but sweet runtime has performed well on streaming, and the cliffhanger ending has left fans calling for a second season (which may already be in the works at Marvel).
Still, Marvel Zombies is far from the first Marvel project to be reworked during the development phase. Several other Marvel titles were initially envisioned as films before they were transitioned into television shows.
The Marvel Movies That Became TV Shows
Inhumans
Marvel Studios once had big plans for the Inhumans, with studio head Kevin Feige confirming a movie about the supernatural human race was in the works for the MCU's Phase 3 slate back in 2014. The film was initially intended to be released in November 2018, and would've been the MCU's 20th film.
However, that was not what transpired, with Marvel Studios' focus shifting to the introduction of Spider-Man in the MCU following a successful licensing negotiation with Sony.
Instead, Inhumans was reworked as a television series at ABC, which also housed Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD. Upon release, the series was received poorly and did not live past a first season. The series sits in a gray area among the MCU's canon, although Inhumans' Black Bolt did make an appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Runaways
Runaways, the young adult Marvel comic book team created by Brian K. Vaughan, was initially pitched as a movie, with Vaughan hired by Marvel Studios to write the script in 2008. It was intended to be a coming-of-age team-up film, one of the MCU's first at the time. A director, Peter Sollett, was even hired on the project, until development stalled in 2010 and Marvel shifted focus to a different ragtag team: the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Vaughan's vision eventually came to pass when Runaways was reworked as a TV series at ABC Studios. The show eventually released on Hulu, with some of the stars being Rhenzy Feliz, Virginia Gardner, Ariela Barer, and Gregg Sulkin. Runaways lasted three seasons and even had a crossover with a fellow Marvel show, Cloak & Dagger.
Daredevil
Netflix's Daredevil was the start of a major Marvel universe on the streamer. Three seasons and five additional spin-off series followed, and after its cancellation, the series continued into the official MCU as Daredevil: Born Again.
It's somewhat surprising to learn, then, that Daredevil was originally pitched by creator Drew Goddard as a movie. Goddard told IGN he "went into Marvel and talked to them about making it as a movie" a couple of years before the show's eventual TV release. Eventually, it was agreed that the project was best suited to television because it wasn't big enough to fit the multi-million dollar budget of a Marvel Studios film:
Drew Goddard: "I went into Marvel and talked to them about making it as a movie a couple of years ago, long after the Affleck movie. But what we all sort of realised is that, this movie doesn’t want to cost $200 million. The thing about Matt Murdock is, he’s not saving the world. He’s just keeping his corner clean. So it would feel wrong to have spaceships crashing in the middle of the city. But because of that, Marvel on the movie side is not in the business of making $25 million movies. They’re going big, as they should."
Hawkeye
Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye was the only member of the original Avengers team (Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Black Widow) not to receive a solo movie in the MCU. This wasn't always the plan, however, with a report from Bloomberg (via Slash Film) revealing that Marvel reportedly had a deal in place for Renner to star in a Hawkeye film, but the idea of making this a series for Disney+ was much more interesting to both Kevin Feige and Renner.
Hawkeye was one of the first shows in Marvel's initial year of release on Disney+ and was well-received. It followed Renner's Clint Barton in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, exploring the Avenger's trauma and his mentorship over a new protege, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). Despite the show's success, a second season hasn't happened for Hawkeye, although Renner seems eager to return.
BONUS: Moon Knight
Unlike other entries on this list, the links between the movie and television incarnations of Moon Knight are a bit more tenuous.
After being considered for appearances in other Marvel shows, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn revealed in 2017 that he had pitched a film version of Moon Knight to Marvel Studios but didn't have time to commit to such a project.
Marvel Studios would eventually get around to developing their own take on Moon Knight, announcing a series was in the works in 2019 before the show eventually landed on Disney+ in 2022. The question now is whether Moon Knight will finally get his cinematic debut after it was promised by Kevin Feige several years ago.
