In 2008, Marvel Studios, then a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, brought us to theaters "Iron Man", starring Robert Downey Jr., the first film of what is now the most successful franchise of all time. On the other hand, in 2013, another subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment joined the game and released “Marvel's Agents of SHIELD” the first series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that promised what we had never seen before, a universe connected between series and movies, something that was further promoted with the launch of the Netflix series in 2015, with the premiere of "Marvel's Daredevil".
In the last four years, both Marvel Studios and Marvel Television have made numerous productions that, for the most part, have had a good reception by critics, but despite all the time elapsed the blissful "crossovers", that we were promised, have not happened. At least, not in its entirety, so several myths have been created such as Kevin Feige commenting that the Netflix series are non canon, when it has been the opposite. The boss of the franchise has said, indeed, that everything is part of the same universe, so why have we not seen Daredevil on the big screen?
Marvel Studios and Marvel Television, do they really collaborate?
The first TV Series
In the New York Comic Con 2012, Kevin Feige himself, along with Joss Whedon, was part of the Marvel Television pannel to announce the series “Marvel's Agents of SHIELD” confirming that Phil Coulson would appear in the series. (https://www.cbr.com/nycc-coulson-lives-in-whedons-s-h-i-e-l-d-updated-with-photos/) The series would be aired in 2013, and as we saw, Samuel Jackson, who plays Nick Furia in the movies, made his leap to the small screen in the second episode of, which confirmed that it was all connected, in the absence of seeing how the characters of the series were going to make their leap to the cinema.
Even so, what is Feige's role in Marvel Television productions? The real answer is that he has none, other than knowing what will happen in the stories, after the announcement of Phase 3 of Marvel Studios in 2014, Feige was asked about his role in the MCU series and how this was going to affect to the calendar already marked by the movies:
Marvel also has two TV shows and Netflix shows. How does that affect your end of things?
Well, it doesn’t affect my end of things much at all because my end of things is exclusively the features, and Jeph Loeb runs our TV division, which is overseeing Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, and of course all the awesome Netflix series. I have some smaller involvement in Agent Carter, because of Haley and because of Louis D’Esposito did the short upon which the show is based. He directed the pilot, just finished it. It’s awesome, even in its rough form, and I had asked to be a little more involved on that one, so I’m helping them out there. But primarily, and exclusively, I want to make the movies.
Also, in the same interview, Feige states that the MCU would gradually show different easter-eggs and references to the Inhumans before their individual film, confirming that Feige is aware of what storylines were going to be used on Marvel TV, but does not want to be involved as a producer. Something that he reaffirmed months before the former interview, when asked about Lorelei's character, and if this meant something about the appearance of Amora in the MCU (remember that in the comics Lorelei is Amora's sister), Feige said that series were being thought in order to exist in their own territory.
Additionally, he released something very important regarding the, back in the day, imminent connection between "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and the television fiction. Feige confirmed that the film was in development long before the series was confirmed; However, the people of the series were aware of what was going to happen and this was going to be seen once the film was released. (http://www.movies.com/movie-news/kevin-feige-thor-3/15189) This year, Feige reaffirmed that by talking about the Disney + series, commenting that for the first time, they would be able to intertwine series and movies within the MCU: (https://comicbook.com/marvel/2019/02/25/marvel-tv-shows-loki-connected-cinematic-universe/)
"We have been able, for the first time, to conceive them together, and they will intertwine with each other."
What does this tell us? That for issues of agenda and organization, as well as the fact that Marvel Studios cut ties with Marvel Entertainment in 2015, the effect of the series on the movies has never been planned, and there is no doubt that Feige does not want to harm the story of the movies for the simple motto that everything is connected. Even so, that has not prevented Feige from participating in the series, such as Jackson's participation in the first season of the series (https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/08/samuel-l-jackson-talks-agents-of-shield), as well as the appearance of Lady Sif or Maria Hill.
How to connect with a movie franchise that is planned years in advance? This is a question answered by Jeffrey Bell, a producer of “Agents of SHIELD”, who commented that writers were allowed to read the scripts of future films to know where the universe is heading, and probably fill in gaps in the story that movies didn't have time to comment, even maybe, directly affecting one (https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/09/marvels-agents-of-shields-executive-producer-jeff.html). This actually happened in "Avengers: The Age of Ultron", a fact confirmed by Feige himself (https://www.slashfilm.com/agents-of-shield-age-of-ultron-plot-hole/), which implies that the films guide the main narrative, while the series are those that run in a parallel story, without affecting , hugely movies. Joss Whedon commented that we should not expect crossovers (https://screencrush.com/joss-whedon-agents-of-shield-coulson-marvel-tv/), since the process that the MCU was going to follow with its series was the feedback of what one can do (series), and what the other will do (movies).
The Netflix Series
In 2014, Joe Quesada confirmed that the series would be within the film universe (https://comicbook.com/blog/2014/04/27/marvel-netflix-series-part-of-marvel-cinematic-universe-available-for-binge-watching-according-to-joe-quesada/), even with Kevin Feige commenting that there could be an opportunity to see Netflix characters in the movies saying the following:
Is there room for the Defenders to show up on the big screen?
The Netflix series are leading to a Defenders series, and Devin is asking about including them into the features at some point, because Infinity War is going to be big. There are a lot of people from the movies (chuckles) in Infinity War. A lot of it is about space, and a lot of it is about just what happens between now and then. But all of those things inhabit, however far on the outskirts, the same continuity. So certainly that opportunity exists. (https://www.slashfilm.com/marvel-phase-3-kevin-feige/)
Feige confirms the canon of the series, something he has done on other occasions and we will analyze them as we move forward.
A year later, shortly after the separation between Marvel Studios and Entertainment, Feige revealed that they were still in contact with the people of Marvel Television (https://www.cbr.com/feige-latcham-say-infinity-war-leads-to-the-end-of-the-avengers-as-we-know-them/), and that at some point there should be references to what happened in the series in the movies. At least, one way or another, we are left to understand that they were going to find a way to connect those bridges. This happened a year after the separation with Marvel Entertainment, since with the creation of the promotional campaign of the fictional news WHiH Newsfront, created by Marvel Studios in an alliance with Google to promote “Ant-Man” (2015), we saw in 2016 how the videos to connect with “Captain America: Civil War” had connections and references to the events seen in the third season of the agents series, a fun way to join bridges without affecting the already filmed movie. This was commented by Loeb, saying that in Marvel they did not want simple short-term cameos that downplay the characters and that they did not want to do it with the simple purpose of "everything is connected". (https://www.slashfilm.com/marvel-movie-tv-crossover/)
Other Marvel Studios producers, such as Eric Carroll, admit the existence of the series in the same continuity (https://screenrant.com/spider-man-homecoming-defenders/) and that they would like to reach a crossover, at some point. In October 2016, Feige commented, when asked about a reebot of Blade, that the possibility of the character being introduced to the MCU was carried out in the films or TV series of both ABC and Netflix, citing the example of Ghost Rider, who at that time was coming to the small screen in the SHIELD series. Feige's comments add Netflix in the same bag: belonging to the MCU. He has never said otherwise! (https://theplaylist.net/stop-speculating-marvel-studios-president-kevin-feige-says-nothing-imminent-blade-20161011/)
After the divorce
We can appreciate that the relationship between Marvel Studios and TV is mostly symbiotic. The rights of the characters are exclusively from Marvel Studios, and when Feige believes that there is no time for them in the movies, then the characters are moved to the small screen to be developed there. That is why if Marvel TV adapts to a character it is that their chances of appearing in the movies is not a priority for the studio.
In September 2015 there was an important change: Kevin Feige manages to get out of the situation caused by Ike Perlumtter and numerous changes occur in Phase Three, such as the cancellation of the Inhumans. However, as already mentioned, by then and more than a year later, Feige continued to communicate, in some way, with Marvel TV.
The doors were clearly open, but it must be admitted that there has been an internal change in this regard, probably as a result of the poor performance of both “Marvel’s Iron Fist” and “Marvel’s Inhumans”. Even so that in May 2017, Feige was open to having characters introduced in the series in the movies through a crossover or a repetition - the latter case is to have a character previously introduced with a new actor. (https://io9.gizmodo.com/kevin-feige-thinks-that-eventually-marvel-tv-and-movie-1794974004)
In the movies, we have seen few connections to television, already mentioned the case of “Era of Ultron”, the appearance of Metro-General Hospital (Netflix) in “Doctor Strange”, Victoria Alonso commenting on the appearance of Blackout in “Captain Marvel” (https://blogdesuperheroes.es/cine-victoria-alonso-no-descarta-el-regreso-de-lady-sif-avanza-que-se-definira-la-orientacion-sexual-de-carol-danvers-en-el-futuro-y-mas/), to share a set with the agents' series and somewhat keep track of the continuity, (https://comicbook.com/marvel/2019/06/13/captain-marvel-shared-a-set-with-marvels-agents-of-shield/) and finally, the appearance of Edwin Jarvis in the MCU movies, being the first time that a character in the series appears in the movies intentionally . But what is beyond that? Is there a retribution?
Actress and singer Nabiyah Be posted in a tweet in June 2017 announcing that she would play Tilda Johnson in the fiction of the King of Wakanda, and a month later, actress Gabrielle Dennis announced that she would play the same character in the second season of "Luke Cage". What happened? Nabiyah deleted his tweet and his character's name was changed to Linda.
Something similar happened when the “Marvel's Runaways” series was announced, and where it was said that Tina Minoru would appear, a new version of the character seen in “Doctor Strange,” Feige denied that Tina Minoru's character from the cinema was very relevant, calling it easter -egg, a small hand to avoid causing setbacks to Marvel TV. (https://comicbook.com/marvel/2016/10/14/first-look-at-major-runaways-easter-eggs-in-doctor-strange/)
Of course, although all this does not change the fact that since then the relationship of both companies has been distancing with the passage of time. Remember that it was commented that if there were to happen a crossover, the series should gain popularity, something that not many achieved. With a Kevin Feige open to repeating certain versions or hiring actors from the TV series, is there any hope to see crossovers? Only time will tell.
As an extra fact, we know that Charlie Cox's contract (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a790206/daredevil-in-the-mcu-charlie-cox-reveals-his-marvel-contract-includes-a-possible-movie-crossover/), Adrianne Palicki's contract (https://comicbook.com/2014/10/22/adrianne-palicki-says-mockingbird-could-appear-in-marvel-studios/) and Gabriel Luna's contract (https://comicbook.com/marvel/2016/11/09/ghost-rider-netflix-series-gabriel-luna/) include appearing in a Marvel Studios movie if necessary, will those parts of the contract be carried out? It seems that Feige has lost confidence that Marvel TV will always maintain a good reception with its products, but could it ignore how good they have achieved? If you ask me, I would say that a good producer, and more one like Feige, should know how to find the good in something not very well received. Also, the change of actor should not mean that something is taken out of the canon, let's look at the case of "The Incredible Hulk".
There is no doubt that Marvel has achieved is impressive, with the Disney + series on the way we will see how this universe expands further, now with some series that are designed to be part of the main narrative and not as a parallel story. If Luke Cage and Daredevil were considered for Avengers: Infinity War, and with the crossovers between TV Shows finally happening, what does the future hold for us? Quoting Kevin Feige: "It's just a matter of finding the right time."
The best thing now is, in my opinion, to accept the MCU as it is, everything is connected, but there are setbacks that simply cannot be ignored. Let's enjoy the products we've received since we saw Iron Man on the big screen eleven years ago, and hopefully Marvel will continue to do what it does best.
