DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET
THE ‘M’ IN the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s official acronym is a contender, for obvious reasons. And where would Thanos have been without the ‘U’ to snap away? But actually it might just be the ‘C’. “Cinematic” is a word that conjures thoughts of scope, of scale, of moving images and imagination that could only work on a big screen, and which were far beyond the reach of the small.
For years, it seemed that that’s how Kevin Feige, the man who is president of Marvel Studios and chief architect of the MCU, felt. Feige’s purview was simple: he was the custodian of the cinematic. The TV side of operations was delegated to others.
The results of the latter have been the very definition of a mixed bag. There were total misfires like Inhumans. Well-liked but little-watched spin-offs, like the Hayley Atwell-starring Agent Carter. Netflix shows such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and the one about that other bloke, which started strong but became increasingly plodding. Even the most successful, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., began in a blaze of glory, but by the time its seventh and final season ticked around in August, it had become a much smaller, weirder affair, divorced from the mothership of the MCU.
In fact, none of the shows, bar an odd cameo or throwaway comment here and there, plugged directly into the MCU; and even if they did, the door only swung one way. When, at the, Doctor Strange assembles every hero in the MCU to kick Thanos’ arse, the likes of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and that other bloke were conspicuous by their absence. None of those shows, in short, was considered an essential part of the MCU. Perhaps it’s because they weren’t cinematic enough. Perhaps it’s because, crucially, none of them had Feige.
