Should Marvel Studios make live action non-MCU media?
When it comes to non-MCU media, Marvel Studios has done it half way — for the most part. They've done multiverse stories set outside of the MCU 616/199999, but still as a part of the MCU as a franchise (Deadpool & Wolverine, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps) — yet there is an exception: X-Men '97.
X-Men '97 is the only completely non-MCU thing Marvel Studios has ever done, and it's wonderful, among the best of the best when it comes to Marvel media in general.
However, in the future of non-MCU Marvel projects, there's not that much. We have Sony's third and final Spider-Verse film, Beyond The Spider-Verse, as well as two spinoffs at some stages of development — Spider-Women and Spider-Punk. There is also next year's Spider-Noir, which seems to be promising, but we don't know that much yet, as well as the next two seasons of X-Men '97.
There's a lack of live action non-MCU Marvel content, and I doubt Spider-Noir is going to fill that properly, after all it is just eight episodes, and assuming it gets renewed, it would probably take another two years for another season — after all, they don't make shows like how Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was made anymore.
So, should Marvel Studios make live-action content which no connection to the MCU at all?
X-Men '97 is the only completely non-MCU thing Marvel Studios has ever done, and it's wonderful, among the best of the best when it comes to Marvel media in general.
However, in the future of non-MCU Marvel projects, there's not that much. We have Sony's third and final Spider-Verse film, Beyond The Spider-Verse, as well as two spinoffs at some stages of development — Spider-Women and Spider-Punk. There is also next year's Spider-Noir, which seems to be promising, but we don't know that much yet, as well as the next two seasons of X-Men '97.
There's a lack of live action non-MCU Marvel content, and I doubt Spider-Noir is going to fill that properly, after all it is just eight episodes, and assuming it gets renewed, it would probably take another two years for another season — after all, they don't make shows like how Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was made anymore.
So, should Marvel Studios make live-action content which no connection to the MCU at all?
Commentaires
The problem is that people will expect it to be connected (which turns some people away because of "homework") but even when it's not, if they succeed and get popular, fans will want them to appear in the MCU or have another MCU character cross over.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
None of these were Marvel Studios
Joker movies and The Batman Part 1 were not made under DC Studios because prior to late 2022, DC did not have their own studios and a Kevin Feige-like figure like Marvel. All DC movies up to Joker: Folie à Deux were made under WB's main studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, for decades. Starting from Superman (2025) including The Batman Part 2, all DC movies are now made under DC Studios while Warner Bros. Pictures distribute DC movies as usual.
With a seperate team of showrunners and overseers like marvel animation and tv. I just think it would be cool to explore certain stories that feature obscure characters, stories that are too contrerversial or stories that might be creatively unpalatable in other universes.
After all, if disney can greenlight projects like Star Wars: visions, why can’t the mcu try doing that.
The MCU loses a lot of its appeal when it puts out films/media that fail to interconnect meaningfully.
If they can get their shit together and put out a cohesive universe again and have time in the schedule and competing with itself isn't an issue, then sure.
I think it is safe to say that the main MCU has already lost it’s appeal to general audiences based on the recent Box Office returns.
>If they can get their shit together and put out a cohesive universe again and have time in the schedule and competing with itself isn't an issue, then sure.
That isn’t the issue. The issue was the MCU is that the popular characters were gone, the universe became like homework, and a lot of the projects weren’t that good.
Brave New world and Thunderbolts have no logical connection: we don't know how or why Bucky became a congressman (insane idea given his mental health), Loki has been off on his series isolated for years, secret invasion basically declared a world wide civil war but Brave New World, Thunderbolts and Marvel's aren't aware , somehow, when they deal with the president/government, Fury, skrulls, secret government agency/super soldier.
As for Doom, he is not even from the 616 MCU. So that point is also moot. Not to mention he was only in a post-credit scene, not featured in any of the marketing for F4. Casual viewers (who make up the vast majority of Box Office revenue) don’t know who Doom is.
I don't understand your comment about doom. He was in the post credit scenes to link FF to the upcoming Doomsday project. Also, he was in both FF franchises by Fox, so audiences would know him as much as FF themselves.
Doomsday doesn’t even have a teaser trailer out yet. So the vast majority of casual viewers don’t even know about the film’s existence yet. It is only known to geeks online who follow news on Marvel Studios.
The previous F4 films by Fox came out over a decade ago and weren’t all that popular. The two Tim Story movies came out 18-20 years ago, before many movie goers were even born. The Josh Trank movie came out 10 years ago and was a massive Box Office bomb that only made 100+ million. Casual audiences don’t remember them or know about them.
If you have a specific show in mind that just cannot work at all with current MCU cannon, then let's hear it. But doing it just because there aren't many shows that do that sounds... pointless? It's not an issue that needs to be solved.
Marvel can be "stand alone" or MCU but the business case is " How does this movie sell more toys?" That's been the philosophy since the first X-Men movie.
With Disney, it's also "How does this movie build attractions to sell more Disney World tickets, concessions and hotel rooms." "How can we license this product for additional revenue?"
It's all about money.