What would Marvel Television look like today if Marvel Studios never took over

So, here is my prediction/concept of where Marvel Television would be if the Marvel Studios takeover never happened. Well, this is every show that was on in 2018-2019 that either ended or was canceled due to the takeover:

* Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
* Daredevil
* Jessica Jones
* Luke Cage
* Iron Fist
* The Punisher
* Runaways
* Cloak & Dagger
* Helstrom

So, here's where I think would've happened to each of these existing shows:

* Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have continued for another three seasons with Seasons 6-7 going differently to accommodate it, and wrapped up with a tenth season in 2023.
* Daredevil originally had a five season plan, so it would've ended in 2021 (Season 5 would be delayed due to Covid)
* Jessica Jones would run until Season 5 in 2022.
* Luke Cage would run until Season 4, and wrap up in 2020.
* Iron Fist would run until Season 4 in 2020.
* The Punisher would've had five seasons, and finish in 2023.
* Runaways would wrap up with Season 5 in 2023.
* Cloak & Dagger with finish with Season 4 in 2022, there would be an episode featuring the Runaways)
* Helstrom would have three seasons and finish in 2022.

As for newer shows, here's what I think would happen:

* Ghost Rider would run for four seasons and finish in 2025.
* Two other horror shows would both run for three seasons from 2021-2024, and both be part of Adventure Into Fear.
* There would be a crossover show between all four shows, it would have two seasons, one in 2022, and one in 2025.
* Luke Cage and Iron Fist have a shared sequel called Heroes For Hire, with Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing being the main characters, and that would start in 2020, and wrap up in 2024.
* There would be a second season of The Defenders in 2024.
* Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have an Agents Of S.W.O.R.D. spinoff, focusing on Daisy, Kora, and Sousa in Space, with occasional guest stars being the AoS cast, and this show would start in 2021, and still be running.
* New Warriors released in 2022, and would still be running.
* Most Wanted would be picked up in 2023, and still be running.
* Moon Knight (just like the show we got) would start in 2024, and still be running.

So, my idea of what Marvel TV would look like today if Marvel Television was still in charge:

* Concluded Shows:
* Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2023), Daredevil (2018-2021), Jessica Jones (2015-2022), Luke Cage (2016-2020), Iron Fist (2017-2020), The Punisher (2017-2023), Runaways (2017-2023), Cloak & Dagger (2018-2022), Helstrom (2020-2022), Ghost Rider (2021-2025), Two untitled Adventure Into Fear shows (2021-2024), Adventure Into Fear Crossover Series (2022; 2025), Heroes For Hire (2020-2024), and The Defenders Season 2 (2024).
* Ongoing Shows:
* Agents Of S.W.O.R.D. (2021-), New Warriors (2022-), Most Wanted (2023-), and Moon Knight (2024-)

Commentaires

darthyogi2025-10-07 13:16

Moon Knight, Ghost Rider and The Punisher would eventually crossover and then setup a Midnight Sons crossover series

marvelcomics222025-10-07 13:18

That would be pretty cool to see

darthyogi2025-10-07 13:19

Yeah it would. It would bring Marvel TV to a similar level to DC’s Arrowverse with multiple series on at once and then crossing over in a special series.

If Marvel still went forward with the idea of the TV Series being in the same universe then this is the best way to do it.

marvelcomics222025-10-07 13:28

I liked that with the Defenders shows and Runaways and Cloak & Dagger we had those crossover moments, even if it was just for a single episode (Like the Arrowverse's World's Finest in Supergirl or Duet in The Flash), and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter had some pretty great tie ins. It would be more on the Arrowverse crossover level as you have characters from all three (well four) groups of shows interacting, and I really like the concept!

darthyogi2025-10-07 13:30

The mistake that Marvel made was trying to crossover the series into the movies but if they just did it like this and crossed over the series into other series then i think Marvel could have a success TV Universe along with the movies. All of those characters have so much potential to cross over.

marvelcomics222025-10-07 13:35

There's not much interconnectivity between the movies and shows, because there's

* WandaVision > Multiverse Of Madness
* Ms. Marvel > The Marvels
* The Falcon And The Winter Soldier > Brave New World
* TFATW & Hawkeye > Thunderbolts\*

And that's about it, aside from characters being in places (Hulk in She-Hulk, etc.) but Marvel Television already had ties between their shows across the different networks during the Infinity Saga, and strengthening those ties during the Multiverse Saga, and then having both the movies and shows crossover in certain places during Phases 5-6 would be fun.

darthyogi2025-10-07 13:38

Thats true. Wandavision, TFATWS and Loki were the only ones that were a little important to movies. The rest weren’t really.

The Netflix series already crossed over and if they let a Netflix character appear in one of the ABC ones then i think they could establish that all of them were in the same universe. It would make them all so much more exciting knowing characters from another series could appear anytime.

hismario1232025-10-08 04:02

none of them would wear proper costumes though

indianajoes2025-10-07 13:36

I very much doubt Agents of Shield would've continued. They were ready to be done after 5 seasons. Disney asked to continue it so they made 2 more as kind of an add on but that was it. They were losing viewers and interest and season 7 works so well as a final season. Also I feel like some of the cast were ready to move on

Affectionate-Day83072025-10-07 13:50

Some characters would have continued in some form or another.

marvelcomics222025-10-07 14:10

They thought that they were going to get canceled, so that's why 5 kind of worked as the end, but then got two more, a decided to end it on their own terms, but those both released after the Marvel Studios takeover was announced, so I feel like if that never happened, it might have gone differently. Also, ratings and the dedicated fanbase would be enough to keep the show going forever.

PCofSHIELD2025-10-07 15:23

Marvel Studios had nothing to do with AOS ending, it got season 5-7 because of Bob Iger demanded it, Channing Dungly wanted the show gone that’s it had its budget slashed to the bone and it got moved to the Friday night(s5) and summer (s6&7) death slots

Scary-Command22322025-10-07 13:57

I remember for Daredevil, possibly Eric Oleson, showrunner of S3, saying he had plans for 5 where bullseye returns, and maybe they would have got a 6th. If he was right they would finished in 2022, the same year Disney+ announced DD BA. I know which I would have preferred.

marvelcomics222025-10-07 14:08

I love Born Again, but the original plans might have been better. Well, since Born Again is getting S3, that technically means Daredevil has six seasons, maybe more.

Bruhimonlyeleven2025-10-07 17:14

Netflix daredevil wasn't that popular, I dunno if all those marvel Netflix shows would have continued. Idk though, they were pretty cheap to make, so maybe they would have.

Lived_Orcen2025-10-07 19:11

At least back then we had 13 episodes consistently each year, instead of abridged series with one season and 5-6 episodes and back to limbo.

Bruhimonlyeleven2025-10-08 00:07

I honestly didn't care for the new series at all. They said it was a large budget, but 90% of it is just 1 to 3 people in a room, talking. Even the biggest episodes, were like a couple of people, sitting in a room... Talking....

Bernthal and Cox must be getting paid a fortune for it to be a high budget, there's barely any special effects.

The bank episode was the best out of the lot, and it was dull by the first series standards. At least the Netflix series had the long fight scenes to look forward to.

I'll probably get shit on for this, but I really didn't care for it at all. The blood dude was lame, DD fights him, knocks him out, and then just leaves him to get away? Then he takes a bullet to protect kingpin? A guy is is actively trying to stop, and has threatened to kill a hundred times? I could see Spiderman doing this, but daredevil? He has literally killed people, more then a few times.

Scary-Command22322025-10-07 19:15

That's not true. Netflix Daredevil was so popular it went up the ranks to top 10 several times on netflix after it was cancelled, and after streaming data started to be available which it wasn't back when DD came out.

There were rumours that turned out to be BS at the time that viewership had dropped, but an executive clarified much later that was 50% drop in new viewers, not existing, and new mattered to netflix especially back then when they were still relatively new.

DD was cancelled because they got wind of Disney+ starting, so it was pointless for netflix to spend the money on something they were going to lose distribution and library rights to.

ich-bin-on-that-shit2025-10-07 14:25

No crossovers and actors would be replaced with lookalikes once salary demands became too high.

The_Orgin2025-10-07 14:37

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was gonna end with S5 and got revived for 2 more seasons. The S5 finale is literally called "The End".

That show didn't end because of the merger. It came to a natural satisfying conclusion.

marvelcomics222025-10-07 14:38

No, they got picked up for S6 and S7, and decided to end with S7 to do it on their own terms instead of being canceled.

The_Orgin2025-10-07 14:38

Literally what I just said.

marvelcomics222025-10-07 14:39

It's not. They chose to end on S7 because of the merger.

The_Orgin2025-10-07 14:42

It was gonna end with S5. What makes you think there would be more than 7 seasons?

marvelcomics222025-10-07 14:46

Well, they chose to end on their own terms with Season 7, instead of getting canceled due to Marvel Studios. If that never happened, they might have continued. Anyways, this is just a prediction of what could've happened, why are you taking it so seriously?

The_Orgin2025-10-07 15:49

What part of "It was gonna end with S5" are you not getting? If it was gonna end because of the merger it would not have gotten the additional 2 seasons.

PCofSHIELD2025-10-07 15:17

Agents of SHIELD would not have continued especially not for 10 seasons the writers chose to end the show and a lot of the actors were moving on mainly Iain, Marvel Studios taking over had nothing to do with it, AOS’s main was ABC then-president Channing Dungly

All the Defenders shows would still have been cancelled, they were cancelled because Disney was making a rival streaming service not to because of Marvel Studios taking over

Daredevil, Punisher and Jessica Jones would eventually have been revived on Disney+

Runaways, Helstrom and Cloak & Dagger would continued for a few more seasons depending on viewership

Ghost Rider would have been made for a few seasons probably longer the other three because the AOS fanbase

Marvel would have tried Most Wanted again on Disney+ especially with Adriana and Nick available

Ansee2025-10-07 23:13

Probably would've also gotten an AOS spin off after it ended with SWORD.

PCofSHIELD2025-10-07 23:25

Probably not because they weren’t able to to use SWORD and the movies using it

I think it’s more likely they would do a SHIELD Academy spinoff, though I would love to see a Daisy & Sousa spinoff (without Kora hopefully TVA done there job) but it wouldn’t be called Agents of SWORD

ContentAssumption2042025-10-07 15:58

I’d expect them to try Shang Chi sooner or later

KelVarnsen_20232025-10-07 16:50

Agents of Shield would still be going and the most recent season would take place entirely in a walk in closet.

AdditionalBanana95852025-10-07 18:44

We'd have a few seasons of a Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider Hulu series by now.

CaptHayfever2025-10-07 21:34

A few things we know for a fact:

* 3rd seasons of Luke Cage, Iron Fist, & Punisher were planned.
* a 4th season of Daredevil was planned.
* Netflix cancelled the Defenders Saga shows because of the impending release of Disney+, not because of the divisional merger.
* the showrunner of Cloak & Dagger had 3rd-5th season pitches ready.
* Most Wanted was dropped by ABC *long* before the divisions were merged, because both the network & the production team were unsatisfied with the pilot, so that wouldn't have happened anyway.
* New Warriors got killed by some mid-level exec *before* the divisions were merged, so that wouldn't have happened either.
* the Ghost Rider spinoff was killed *by* the divisional merger, so that *would* have happened.
* Helstrom was effectively cancelled right when it started filming, so everybody on that set knew they were only getting 1 season while they were making it.

Beyond that, **I suspect** that:

* the Runaways showrunners had no plans at all past the Gibborhim arc & were flying by the seat of their pants every season.

coaldiamond12025-10-08 20:41

Agents of SHIELD would've ended anyway, that was decided way before Marvel Studios took over.

The Netflix shows probably wouldn't have lasted much longer if at all, Netflix cancelled them because of Disney+. Part of that was Marvel Studios making Marvel shows for Disney+, but in this version of things I'm sure Disney would've still wanted exclusive Marvel shows on their streamer if they were doing it on Netflix, so Marvel Television probably would've done that.

The Hulu suite of shows that never really happened would've happened, but I don't think they would've lasted much longer than the Netflix shows did because the superhero bubble would've burst and people would've lost interest.