Hey folks! Variety has big, big news: Disney's new streaming service will include limited series shows concentrating on a specific Marvel hero or villain. The buzz is that the same actors who play these characters in the MCU will actually play these characters in the new Disney streaming service limited series.
The possibilities here are outstanding. Fan-favorite Shuri could get her own adventure, given to a team Ryan Coogler helps select to give her an adventure worthy of T'Challa's sister. We could see a pre-death Loki getting into trouble. And other characters who might not survive the fourth Avengers film could come back in 'flashback' style missions. Could maybe even see a riff on the Captain America/Black Widow/Wolverine crossover that happened just after Wolvie entered the Siege Perilous.
The option that excites me the most is the potential to do stuff like a Doctor Doom limited series, now that it's out of Fox's hands... in a model that looks less like grueling years of commitment to a working actor and more like another big-budget film. (This could also be a good way to continue with "Agents of SHIELD" beyond this coming season.) It's suggested in the Variety article that Loki and Scarlet Witch are likely subjects for the first stage of this, but it's also said that core Avengers are unlikely to spin off this way... so, not sure how Scarlet Witch is being categorized, here.
This new platform could also be used to launch important Marvel characters that may not be able to support a complete series at the moment, like She-Hulk. Perhaps if his character is in high demand after CAPTAIN MARVEL, Jude Law could reprise Mar-Vell for an adventure in space, and run into a pre-GotG Drax (with a different actor than Dave Bautista).
This could even lead to trickier things, like Quake (Chloe Bennet) potentially teaming with, say, the new Wolverine, for a limited series. Planning this kind of concept in advance and committing to it means that contracts can be allocated for not just a three-picture deal, but also a deal to work on one or more of the new series specific to the characters.
Another thing I like about this is that it resembles the 4-issue limited series model Marvel was known for in the 1980's. (Wolverine rose to become the most popular mutant after his 4-issue jaunt in Japan.) Kevin Feige and company keep looking to the comics to tell them how to run a movie studio focused on comic book characters... and it keeps WORKING.
This is fairly ominous for the industry, to see Disney planning this kind of exclusive content, and could be yet another sign that we are reaching saturation point on superhero properties... or this could be the tip of the iceberg.
-- Precious Roy
