The TV show culling continues at Marvel. Kevin Feige dropped the axe on Howard the Duck and Tigra & Dazzler, two of the four animated Marvel shows in development for Hulu.
Even though Feige was only appointed in October as Chief Creative Officer for the entirety of Marvel, the company has been paring down its TV offerings for a while starting with the phase out of the Defenders series on Netflix. We at Warp Gate News really hated saying goodbye to Netflix’s gritty heroes, but we feel the selective pruning of Marvel’s TV universe is a good thing.
For example, Agents of SHIELD is another casualty, but it had a really good run. Seven years is a long time on TV, especially a show involving supers on a major network. Thankfully Agents gets to bow out gracefully while it’s still good. Despite being Marvel’s longest running TV series, it was the right time for the show to end.
Speaking of the right time to go, Marvel Television head Jeff Loeb decided to “retire” at the end of 2019. Loeb has done amazing work throughout his career in the comics industry and in TV. However, Disney apparently didn’t like the direction he was taking Marvel Television.
The appointment of Feige as the chief of all things Marvel and the folding of Marvel Television into Marvel Studios (and then renaming it Marvel TV Studios), makes it clear that Disney wants to a new direction for Marvel’s TV offerings. The focus seems to be to create fewer, but better quality shows.
This is similar to their business decisions with the Star Wars franchise. Disney wants to avoid money-losing debacles like Solo: A Star Wars Story, which earned only $393 million worldwide, yet cost $275 million to make. That makes it one of the most expensive films of all time and the lowest-grossing Star Wars live action film. That’s not good business.
Marvel Television apparently ignored the memo and was plowing ahead with a number of Marvel properties in recent years including Ghost Rider, Cloak & Dagger, Inhumans, New Warriors, Damage Control, and several other untitled series. Even though Disney is directing its units to focus their resources on developing content for the Disney+ streaming service, that’s not the only reason for killing off so many Marvel shows.
Case in point, Howard the Duck and Tigra & Dazzler were part of a quartet of Marvel animated series coming to Hulu, which Disney owns. The surviving shows M.O.D.O.K. and Hit Monkey are still a-go. Marvel/Disney still wants to create TV shows (mostly on their own platforms of ABC, Hulu, and Disney+), but only if they show promise.
The overarching concept for the Hulu shows was to eventually team up the characters in a crossover show titled The Offenders. C’mon, really? That’s terrible.
However, Marvel fixed this with pruning shears instead of a machete. There’s obviously promise in the two survivors. In fact, M.O.D.O.K. has secured a stellar voice cast with Patton Oswalt as the title character, along with Aimee Garcia (as M.O.D.O.K.’s wife), Ben Schwartz (as M.O.D.O.K.’s son), Melissa Fumero (as his daughter), Beck Bennet (as Austin Van Der Sleet), and Wendi McLendon-Covey (as Monica Rappaccini).
The concept is hilarious and definitely geared for a more adult “Rick-and-Morty” audience. Here’s the description provided by Marvel TV:
In Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., the megalomaniacal supervillain M.O.D.O.K. (Patton Oswalt) has long pursued his dream of one day conquering the world. But after years of setbacks and failures fighting the Earth’s mightiest heroes, M.O.D.O.K. has run his evil organization A.I.M. into the ground. Ousted as A.I.M.’s leader, while also dealing with his crumbling marriage and family life, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing is set to confront his greatest challenge yet: a midlife crisis!
Despite a smaller group of Marvel TV shows, we’re excited for the upcoming shows. Feige has proven himself over and over with the MCU, so we’re confident Marvel TV can only go up from here.
