Last week (or so), word came out that the rights to Jessica Jones and The Punisher had returned to Marvel Studios. With the entire Defender Family back under one roof (and away from Netflix’s grasp), fans are obviously curious as to when they might get to see Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones cross paths with the MCU versions of Spider-Man and She-Hulk.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is no longer allergic to television. WandaVision, no matter your opinion on the show, has proven to be another successful entry in the MCU creating plenty of discussion with each new episode. With more Disney+ streaming series and theatrical films on the way, fans have begun debating just which property particular TV characters have the best chance of appearing in. Some of their guesses could very well be right as Kevin Feige has admitted that the cancelled Marvel TV shows are on the table for a proper MCU reintroduction.
Feige was recently speaking at Disney+’s virtual TCA press tour where he was questioned about the possibility of characters from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Luke Cage, Cloak & Dagger, and more making official appearances in works produced by Marvel Studios. He response should offer us fans some hope:
“I think we probably could do it, I think a lot of that stuff comes back to us… There’s always rumors online about things reverting, sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not, but I’m not exactly sure of the exact contracts but perhaps someday. My history at Marvel is vast and involved zero control for a long time so I paid more attention to the things I gained control over rather than the things I didn’t have control over. TV at that time was just one of those things that we didn’t, just like when Fox was doing X-Men movies or Sony was doing Spider-Man movies without us. That was just the rules under which Marvel was operating at the time. It was much more of an opportunity and something that excited us at Marvel Studios when Bob Iger started asking us to work on shows for Disney+. It wasn’t a disappointment or something we thought much about when Marvel Television was doing their series.”
Not a straight debunk, but not exactly the response I’m sure we were hoping for. However, Feige did admit that he is aware that the shows have their own successful fanbases:
“I think there are legions of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans and Daredevil fans and Jessica Jones fans and Luke Cage fans. There’s a very big fanbase for those shows.”
When asked about the rumors of Charle Cox appearing in Spider-Man 3 or Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet appearing in Secret Invasion, Feige kept tight-lipped and offered us only this:
“There are often rumors that are true and there are often rumors that are not. It was great fun to have Clark Gregg come back to the MCU in Captain Marvel. Everything else, we’ll just have to see.”
It would be great to see Phil Coulson back in the MCU on a permanent basis, but I understand how that might be confusing for the fans who only watch the movies. Until the films introduce Life Model Decoys to the audience I guess Coulson will stay stuck in hibernation.
Of course, given how long the Marvel/Netflix films have been off air, it wouldn’t be hard to reuse the same actors for the characters and give them a slight reboot. All of the Netflix shows are set pre-snap, so we would be picking back up with these characters five or more years later. A lot could have changed in that time. And the past could stay in the past.
Honestly, if Cox’s Daredevil is set to appear in Spider-Man 3 and She-Hulk that would be awesome. As for the rest, I’d relaunch Jones, Cage, and Iron Fist with a Heroes for Hire Disney+ series. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters can appear as members of S.W.O.R.D. or working for Fury in secret (I don’t know how you’d get around the continuity issues of season 5-7, but the Multiverse could be a MCU thing in a few years). Lastly, leave the Inhumans in the past. No one cares about that show. Just remove it from the canon and reboot it whenever Feige sees fit.
Which Marvel TV character do you want to see brought back into the MCU first?
