Marvel Television: What Now?
To the surprise, shock, or perhaps relief of many people, ABC announced that Agent Carter won’t be renewed for a second season, and Marvel’s Most Wanted would not be picked up to series. As of the fall season, Agents of SHIELD will likely be the only Marvel series on primetime networks. And that’s only guaranteed for one more year. After that, what?
To be honest, the ending of Agent Carter was a while coming. Although Peggy Carter is one of the better characters in the Marvel universe, the show could never measure up to her level with uninteresting characters and even less interesting plots. The fact that it survived to a second season was a miracle blessed by the fact that each season was ten episodes or fewer. When the second season just got weirder without getting better, it was definitely time for it to end.
Then there’s the apparent spin-off Marvel’s Most Wanted featuring the impressive Bobbi Morse and the eh-okay Lance Hunter. Despite the fact that they are actually both from the comics, this was probably the first project where people’s first response was “why?” Agents of SHIELD had some support as the first Marvel series, Agent Carter had Peggy Carter even if it didn't work, and the Netflix shows had superheroes. This pilot looked to be taking the less interesting concepts of SHIELD with less impact on anything. And that was the biggest problem behind SHIELD in the first place.
Of course, Agents of SHIELD is the one that will last at least four years when all is said and done. That’s why I can’t exactly call it a failure. It’s been grating at times, especially in this most recent season, but it still remains to be a staple for hos to do Marvel shows on the network for better or worse. Even so, it’s the only show that even pretends to make a difference in anything. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons it’s lasted this long. Well, that, and the syndication value.
Just to be fair, even if SHIELD is the only show on the network market now doesn’t mean it will be forever. After all, there’s still the already optioned Cloak and Dagger series which is set to air next year should it get off the ground as planned. After another year, there could always be other options Marvel decides to do to corner the television market. An Avengers Academy show could be a good possibility. The MCU still owns the rights to hundreds of characters who could carry a show outside the X-Men. Not to mention outside the MCU the already casted (if you can believe it) Legion and currently in-development Hellfire based on the X-Men characters. Then again, those are the X-Men which are pretty hit and miss for Fox at this point.
Where it stands now, like those shows, prospects are slim. We have no guarantee on those X-Men shows, and Cloak and Dagger is still ways away. For the MCU, it will likely have Bobbi and Hunter returning to SHIELD even though the show could really benefit from fewer cast members and characters. Eventually, Marvel will probably want to phase the series out altogether which means not only fewer opportunities for a decent network show but also a waste of the show we already had. That’s actually worse for people who liked the show.
In the long run, we still have the Netflix series which, ironically, have become more popular than people expected. Daredevil just aired its second season with the Punisher promised his own solo run. Jessica Jones has been promised another season as well and is expected to air after The Defenders. The fact that The Defenders is actually looking like a show that will happen instead of a show that might happen proves how successful this whole idea has been. Maybe this will be the future for Marvel outside movies because it’s starting to look like that now.
Is this the end of Marvel Television? On network…probably. We still have a good year to see if it will be declared dead, but the recent pulling the plugs on some shows makes the genre less optimistic. Even if that dies, the Netflix universe can only get stronger. This could be a win for all of us.
