Umberto Gonzalez aka El Mayimbe, recently launched his own genre movie/tv focused website, HeroicHollywood.com. The self professed fanboy journalist recently posted an article focusing on the development of Marvel TV/Netflix Phase Two
Marvel is planning a Phase II that will include Defenders, however this won’t take place until 2017. As of right now, the plan is for two or three Netflix series a year, which means that we won’t get Defenders until 2017.
Daredevil season 2 is coming, but won’t air for a while. As for those Elektra rumors and the leaked audition tapes? They’re real. Elektra is coming.
The powers that be at Marvel have also been toying with the idea of adding characters like Punisher, Blade and Ghost Rider, but there are risks with each of those characters. Not only are they darker and more violent, but two of them require supernatural elements in order to tell their stories. The inclusion of these characters could send Netflix over to the goofy side, which is something they’re very afraid of Ghost Rider would also rely on CGI too much for the studio’s taste.
It would also be difficult to incorporate the stories of these characters smoothly. Blade and Punisher are perceived to be rather one-note to carry a series on their own. The heavy level of violence is also perceived to be a risk. They want a “hard PG-13,” instead of an R. And since none of the Defenders actively kill, throwing Punisher into the mix could be a challenge.
There have been rumors of Blade/Ghost Rider or even Midnight Sons television series for a while now, but nothing really substantive or physical to show for it. The reasoning listed above makes sense; they aren’t that dynamic a character and have had prior exposure in multiple feature films. There is also the CGI requirement for doing a character like the Ghost Rider.
Since the release of DareDevil, there has been renewed call for a Punisher series. It has been a call I’ve never quite understood. The Punisher while having several excellent runs, I’m partial to the MAX series, is a very dourer and very violent character and that doesn’t make for the most watchable episodic content. DareDevil featured a level of violence, not in terms of choreography but in its effect on the body, not seen in a Marvel property. It was breathtaking but even that couldn’t keep that pace up for the 13 run. Television is about the slow change over time and one of those changes was the transition from a vengeful solo view of violence too one that was a bit dryer and acrobatic. The Punisher by its nature can be nothing less than summary execution.
Gonzalez description of the television landscape within Marvel is also interesting
There’s no doubt that TV is in a weird place. Feature films have become king, and are only grudgingly cooperating with their counterparts on the small screen, leaving them mere scraps to work with. Instead of being in on the entire process, television programs are forced to adjust their series in order to keep up with the movies.
Some people have come to believe that the TV side of big superhero franchises’ are being pulled along for the ride. According to some of the latest chatter, they may have a point. Studio execs and writers have begun to feel as though the television side of the interconnected universe is more akin to an anchor than anything else. Their hugely successful cinematic universe and brand took years to build up. Rumor has it that Kevin Feige over at Marvel looks down on the TV side of the franchise, but has come to accept it as somewhat of a “necessary evil,” since Disney demands it. And with ABC insisting on getting their words in, it appears that there may be too many cooks in the kitchen for everyone’s tastes.
The tense negotiation between various corporate entities within a larger umbrella corporation isn’t surprising. It’s the idea that TV as a anchor for the cinematic side of things. I’ve never been much of a continuity minded person, broad strokes sure but otherwise I like good storytelling. As I’ve grown increasingly disinterested in Marvel’s big budget feature output, their television arm has grown more and more intriguing. Agents of SHIELD is still not interesting television and clearly the red headed step child of the film side, Whedon saying Agent Coulson is still dead in the “Movies” shows how disconnected they are. But Agent Carter and DareDevil both came out last year and they are something different from the normal formula. Yes, Carter still played with the basic tonal set as the films but its time period and protagonist was like nothing Marvel had produced before. Most importantly these two products feel disconnected from the convoluted year spanning cosmic myth the films are trying to tell at the same times as 10 other stories. They are allowed to be their own thing and only interact in small meaningful ways.
Television has increasingly become the cultural marker of quality and experimentation that studio film making used to be (ok not really but let’s wax nostalgia at the thought) and what indie stuff is now. With the diversification of delivery systems so to has its voices diversified, leading to a cornucopia of offerings compared to the same safe large bets the studios place every year. Television is the place Marvel could really expand its universe in good character driven ways.
I am Michael Mazzacane you can follow me on Twitter and at ComicWeek.org
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