Continued from part 1, about Star Trek/Star Wars

Last, but far from least is the multi-billion-dollar mega-franchise of Marvel’s cinematic universe. Unlike the others, where expanding the universe means coming up with new characters and new stories (backstories) around existing characters, Marvel Comics already has a decades-long backlog of some of the most epic characters and story events on the printed page. The key to the MCU’s success has been adapting those graphical tales and fulfilling the dreams of our inner 10-year-olds by bringing our superheroes to vivid life. While the movies of the MCU have had wide, mainstream appeal, their plans for TV expansion on Disney+ appear to be a bit more experimental and quirky.

After the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame, some of the secondary characters (who didn’t get their own movies) were destined to continue their adventures on the smaller screen. Falcon and the Winter Soldier brings together two of Captain America’s side-kicks to take up his heroic mantle (while he enjoys timeless romantic bliss with Peggy). Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprise their movie roles as the respective title characters. I love that they will be picking up some super-spy overtones and plot threads from the Captain America films — can never have too much spy-fi, in my opinion. It’s also cool that this show will probably have the most hooks into future movies. While this series was to debut in 2020, apparently that has been delayed indefinitely, for now.

Another Captain America/Avengers offshoot is the Hawkeye series coming to Disney+ late next year. Clint Barton is training his successor in Kate Bishop (presumably so he can retire in peace, not go hunting more samurai in Japan). That’s pretty much all we know. I always enjoyed the Hawkeye character in comics for his fancy, trick arrows (which were kind of downplayed in the films in favour of his whole farm-retreat, family backstory). I don’t feel super-excited about this show and I don’t really see what kinds of stories they’re going to tell.

Another spin-off follows Loki, another fan-favourite secondary character: Thor’s scheming half-brother from the Thor and Avengers movies. As you will recall, we are not talking about the same Loki from the main timeline, but a second Loki who got pulled into the main reality through all the time jumping and portals that the Avengers were messing with in Endgame. Having escaped custody, the trickster is now free to get into all kinds of trouble (but since he’s going to be the lead on this series, I suspect he’ll find some cause where he can still be secretly noble and play the anti-hero). Rumours have it that Loki’s magical abilities will allow him to jump through time and influence historical events. So we might be getting an MCU take on Forrest Gump in early 2021.

A show that’s flown a bit under the radar so far has been Helstrom, which is going to be on Hulu (not Disney+). Like many of the other Marvel TV shows which were also on other networks (e.g. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Runaways, Cloak and Dagger, and arguably Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD) which are abandoned to their own corner of the Marvel Universe, this one looks to be less tied to the storylines of the main MCU. It has a creepy supernatural vibe and focuses on Damon and Ana Helstrom, who are possibly children of the Devil himself (in the comics, Damon Helstrom is also known as Son of Satan). We can probably expect all kinds of demonic elements to this show when it debuts in October. I’m not too excited. I feel like we’ve been down this road a few times with the long-running series Supernatural, the short-lived DC Comics series Constantine, and the Netflix-adopted series, Lucifer, to name a few.

On to the quirkier stuff: WandaVision is apparently going to continue the stories of Wanda (the Scarlet Witch) and the Vision from the Avengers movies as they live in domestic bliss now that Thanos has been defeated. Only, Vision died in Infinity War, so his being featured in a mock Brady Bunch style family sitcom (in black and white in parts) will be a bit weird, to say the least. Thankfully, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are back to continue these roles, but it’s really not clear what we’re going to be getting. Maybe this sendup of 50s television is only a small part that has been deceptively featured in the previews shown so far, but given the title of the series (and how it’s meant to be read as a single word that rhymes with “television”) I am guessing we’re going to get some more satirical strangeness. I’m going to be wary of this one when it debuts this fall.

Finally, a bunch of new shows (yes, even more shows!) were announced as being in the works. What If? brings to life the alternate-reality comic book series which poses questions of how things would have changed in well-known storylines if events had played out differently. I’m not sure how this is going to work without the full catalog of comic book stories having been adapted to screen yet, but I guess there’s enough in the decade of MCU movies to work with. I love that they’re going for some off-beat projects for Disney+.

Speaking of off-beat, MODOK (aka Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) features one of Marvel Comics’ weirdest looking characters and puts him into an animated family show. MODOK was created as the malformed (he’s a giant head with baby limbs in a floating tech suit) leader of AIM (Advanced Ideas Mechanics) a criminal organization in the Marvel Comics universe. I didn’t think this character even had a wife and kids, so I really don’t know why producers would think that we’d be interested in watching a show (even on Hulu) about his family issues. That being said, it’s genius that comedic nerd Patton Oswalt is cast as the lead.

Another bunch of shows featuring well-known Marvel Comics characters have also been announced for Disney+ over the next few years, so the rumours have been flying furiously. Supposedly these characters might also appear in future movies, so there’s a cross-pollination planned between the TV and film productions. She-Hulk is a long-time fan favourite character. The equally green female cousin to Dr. Bruce Banner has had many comic book series of her own over the decades, and now she’s finally making it to the screen. Alison Brie (from Community) is supposedly taking the title role — I wonder if her recent turn as a female wrestler in the Netflix series GLOW helped make that happen.

Moon Knight always seemed to be Marvel’s answer to DC’s Batman. A stolid vigilante with a mask and cape, fighting villainy in the streets at night, could easily be the job description for either. However, Moon Knight has mystical overtones associated with Egyptian mythology, and also a touch of madness, to distinguish him from the Dark Knight. Not much is known about this series, but there are rumours (or maybe wishful thinking) that Dan Radcliffe might be up for the job. I wonder if a Marvel superhero is weird enough a role for the former Harry Potter.

Lastly, a newer character, Ms. Marvel, is a big fan favourite and one of the first Muslim superheroes from Marvel Comics. She has the ability to manipulate her body molecules to shrink and grow. A new series featuring this character seems more squarely aimed at a younger audience, but hopefully it will have wider appeal to the broad MCU fanbase. Many young actors have been wish-cast for the role and many may be lobbying for it as well.

Marvel has a great big universe on their hands, and there’s definitely not enough resources to bring it all to the screen, but still there are new plans and rumours of plans constantly in the wind. There is a healthy slate of movies coming as part of MCU phase 4 to feature many of the new headliners that we all have to look forward to. Looming out there on the horizon is also the reintegration of former Fox properties such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into the MCU that we are all eagerly anticipating. As a Canadian myself, I would also love to see an Alpha Flight movie at some point too (a Canuck can dream, can’t he?).

With so many projects in various stages in all these three big cinematic universes, not only is there a lot to be excited about for fans, but also a long time for us to wait. Hopefully a few of these series will be airing soon (Lower Decks has begun, and Discovery season 3 and Helstrom are on their way). Now I want to urge more franchises to take advantage of the bottomless well of streaming TV to expand. Let’s get more series from Harry Potter’s Wizarding World, right? How about going back to Buffy’s Whedonverse? Wouldn’t it be awesome to explore Hayao Miyazaki’s anime creations as a shared world as well? It’s a fun time to be able to enjoy this kind of entertainment and it looks like the sky (and the space beyond) is the limit.