The next era of Marvel Studios' storytelling on Disney+ is set to begin with the recently announced MCU show, Zodiac. Throughout the year, Marvel Studios has announced several cancellations of its MCU shows, raising questions about the studio's television strategy. At New York Comic-Con, Marvel executive Brad Winderbaum unveiled an upcoming live-action series titled Zodiac, which is set to launch a new strategy for the studio's TV arm.
There's been a lot of secrecy around Zodiac and exactly what it will entail, with the announcement only confirming that it will be a spy thriller and that production will begin in the new year. A new report from The Wrap has shed further light on Zodiac and how the series marks a new era of television storytelling for the MCU.
Marvel Studios has already seen several distinct eras of television. When the MCU launched in 2008, it was a film-focused endeavor. However, it did spawn a couple of television spin-offs on ABC featuring characters from the mainline films, like Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter in Agent Carter, and Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson in Agents of SHIELD. These series were kept mostly separate from the storytelling in the films and were long-running, with multiple seasons and large episode counts.
Then came Marvel's Netflix era, which included five solo-character series (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and The Punisher) and culminated in a miniseries crossover, The Defenders. When Marvel Studios regained the rights to these characters, the Netflix shows were steadily abandoned and have since been revived on Disney+ in Daredevil: Born Again.
The launch of Disney+ in 2019 then required all of Disney's subsidiaries to provide content, including Marvel Studios, which offered a new era of storytelling for the MCU, as characters from the mainline films moved to lead their own shows, like WandaVision and Loki, and new heroes made their debuts in origin stories, like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. These live-action shows were considered canon in the MCU and often built upon or tied into the films' storytelling.
This era has had mixed results and, most recently, has seen Marvel Studios pull back completely from its television output, canceling live-action shows and putting more focus on animation. Daredevil: Born Again was the last existing live-action show on the slate, so when Zodiac was announced at New York Comic-Con, it came as a surprise, and also a sign of what Marvel Studios is looking to do with television now.
Marvel Television's Next Era Revealed
According to The Wrap's report, Zodiac is designed to be a new era for TV in the MCU, and will serve as a "jumping-on-point" for fans following Avengers: Secret Wars, the events of which are expected to have huge ramifications for the entire MCU and act as something of a "reset".
The outlet reports that this new era will be completely overseen by Winderbaum, will be less connected to the MCU movies, and will allow new audiences to engage with Marvel television and for mistakes made in the previous era to be rectified.
What exactly this looks like in Zodiac is apparently a show made on a more modest budget, with space for known MCU actors and characters to appear, without necessarily shelling out millions of dollars to secure A-list stars for a season. That cheaper budget will also set the series up to return for multiple seasons, as to date only three of the MCU's Disney+ shows have received multiple seasons (Loki, Daredevil: Born Again, and WandaVision, with Agatha All Along and VisionQuest).
Several have noted that Zodiac's reveal could hint that Marvel Television is returning to an earlier era and looking to emulate Agents of SHIELD's success. The ABC title was Marvel TV's longest-running live-action show and featured an ensemble of spies who operated alongside the events of the MCU, with occasional appearances by known MCU characters. It didn't require the massive budget of an MCU film, yet it still managed to operate within the genre with high production values and engaging characters.
The MCU Is Evolving in Both Film and TV
This new era of Marvel Television coincides with a new frontier for MCU movies, as the studio prepares to launch its next storytelling saga after the Multiverse Saga concludes in 2027.
The end of a saga has often been a good chance for Marvel Studios to reset and try new things. The Infinity Saga includes Marvel Television's ABC and Netflix eras, where TV shows weren't as numerous or as connected to, or dictated by, the wider MCU story.
The Multiverse Saga brought many problems for Marvel Studios, as the studio tried to follow up on the highs of the Infinity Saga without its core Avengers heroes and without a clear storytelling throughline. The glut of television shows on Disney+ has been blamed for some of these failings, as Marvel Studios tried to expand storytelling across a huge volume of content, but the Phase 4-6 MCU films have also contributed to a share of fans' disappointment.
Now, as Marvel Studios prepares to enter Saga 3, it appears to be taking this opportunity to reset things on both the film and TV fronts, using Zodiac to test the waters for a new kind of TV story, and introducing long-awaited characters like the X-Men and Ghost Rider as headliners for its new saga.
