Beginning with Agatha All Along, Marvel Studios has taken a new approach to developing its episodic TV shows on Disney+.
Since Marvel Studios began releasing shows on Disney+, it implemented an important strategy of not attaching a showrunner to any of its projects. This was done in an effort to make the projects more closely resemble the feature films of the MCU and better connect with them.
However, Marvel Studios' Disney + strategy was recently abandoned, leaving Marvel with new ideas on how to make its TV shows more engaging for fans.
Marvel Studios' New Ideas To Fix Disney+ Shows
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation Brad Winderbaum revealed how the company's approach to creating Disney+ shows is changing.
One of the biggest changes fans will see for the first time when Agatha All Along is released is that MCU Disney+ shows will include a showrunner from now on.
This means that one person will oversee the creative process of the project, from script development in the writer's room through filming. Marvel is trying to make its Disney+ shows more like traditional television.
In the interview, Winderbaum explained some of the other major changes that Marvel Studios is making regarding the development of Disney+ projects, specifically revealing that the company is "developing a lot of shows now simultaneously."
Winderbaum then stated that the creative teams "are going to write multiple pilots and show bibles" and then see what works the best:
"One thing we are doing is we're developing a lot of shows now simultaneously. So, in a way, we're making television more in a traditional style where we are going to write multiple pilots and show bibles before we decide what we want to produce and actually bring to the screen, which gives us an opportunity to experiment and also to plan all sorts of different Marvel sandboxes."
As mentioned, one of Marvel Studios' main goals for its Disney+ shows in the early years was for them to directly tie into the MCU films and be a direct branch for characters and stories that had already been established.
For example, it would be difficult for a non-MCU fan to turn on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and fully understand everything that was going on and the weight that some scenes held since Sam Wilson's story and journey to becoming Captain America was set up so heavily in multiple films.
However, according to Winderbaum, Marvel Studios is now going to focus more on "traditional television" and creating stories that "could last for multiple seasons" and be more independent as opposed to having to tie into something else:
"Now we are thinking about television really more like traditional television where they could last for multiple seasons, where we can see the characters brew in the culture for hopefully many years."
How Marvel Studios' New Plan Will Change Its Disney+ Content
Until Marvel Studios releases a few Disney+ shows that follow the company's new plan, it will be hard to get a good idea of what the future of Marvel Television will look like. Still, one would have to assume it will be more accessible for the casual fan.
As mentioned, some of the previously released shows could be quite difficult for viewers to fully understand and follow if they are unfamiliar with the MCU films.
Based on Winderbaum's comments, it seems that future MCU shows could be entirely disconnected from everything else in the franchise. This would obviously appeal more to casual fans who just want to sit down and watch a new show rather than over three dozen interconnected projects.
More casual viewers will likely lead to higher streaming numbers from a business standpoint. Most MCU fans will watch new shows regardless, but casual viewers will be likelier to watch something they know stands on its own.
Adding a showrunner with more control and freedom with their creative team could also lead to projects being objectively better in quality, especially compared to other TV shows.
At times, it was hard to judge Marvel's Disney+ releases because they didn't feel like TV shows or movies, but the company's new plan could quickly fix that.
In general, the MCU's future Disney+ releases will likely feel different from projects released on the platform in the past. Fans will have to wait to see just how well the new strategy pans out, but many will likely see it as a positive that Marvel Studio is now planning out its TV releases so carefully.
All MCU TV shows are streaming on Disney+, with the next Marvel Studios-produced series releasing later this month.
