Earlier today, it was reported that Marvel Studios would pause the production of Daredevil: Born Again, after the studio wasn’t pleased with Chris Ord and Matt Corman‘s vision for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, with plans to retool the entire series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the decision made the studio realize that they needed to change their approach to developing television series, starting with hiring showrunners for their shows moving forward. Before this point in time, Marvel relied on studio executives to oversee the development of any project that came out of their television division, relying on reshoots and post-production to fix what they didn’t like along the way.
Marvel‘s approach towards television was both different from the way they worked on feature films, and the way the development of a television series regularly works in the industry. Up until this point, the studio filmed entire seasons of television worth $150 million a piece without shooting a pilot first to see if they felt comfortable with the tone of the story and the dynamics between the characters. In addition to filming the complete seasons on a whim, the company fired creatives who had been working on any given project for about a year in favor of taking a different direction with the story.
For example, after fleshing out the story and characters of Moon Knight for over a year, Jeremy Slater was removed from the project, replaced by Mohamed Diab. And when Jessica Gao had finished writing She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, she was sidelined from the series when Kat Coiro was hired by Marvel. But the show that suffered the most from not going through a regular television production timeline was Secret Invasion, the Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) story about a secret group of Skrulls trying to take over the planet by replacing relevant political figures.
Just like it happened with Jeremy Slater during the production of Moon Knight, Kyle Bradstreet was let go from Secret Invasion after fleshing out scripts for the series during a year. But after Brian Tucker was hired to replace him, the production of the series fell behind schedule, and the studio risked losing some of its cast due to previously scheduled commitments with other productions. The result was the Marvel Cinematic Universe series with the worst reception by critics to date, with no one supervising the shows from their conception until the season is locked and ready for release.
The Future of Marvel Television
Jessica Gao‘s work on the post-production of She-Hulk has convinced Marvel Studios that hiring showrunners is necessary. When speaking about the strategy to work with showrunners that the studio will implement, Brad Winderbaum, Marvel‘s Head of Streaming, Television and Animation, mentioned: “It’s a term we’ve not only grown comfortable with but also learned to embrace.” The studio will also hire executives to completely dedicate their time to their television division, instead of borrowing their film executives for the job.
Marvel Studios is also reportedly moving away from creating limited series, opting for focusing on shows that could last for multiple seasons to allow its characters to develop properly. Winderbaum added: “(Television series should work) beyond the fact that it ties into (other projects) or if they are going to be in a movie or if it is setting up an Avengers film.” The studio is currently airing the second season of Loki, featuring the return of Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief.
via Collider