Marvel Television: Born Again
Marvel Studios be like: “Perhaps I absorbed you too harshly” after having done so in 2019
Marvel Studios is getting label-happy, and for the second time, they’re bringing an identity back to what they absorbed. Three years after making their own jump into television, and two months after X-Men ‘97 heralded the return the studio is now bringing back Marvel Television, and Agatha All Along will be the first to carry the revived banner when it premieres in September.
Marvel Television was the production company, a branch of the company under Marvel Entertainment that produced all TV series from Agents of SHIELD-onward until Marvel Studios began their dive into television with WandaVision. This included Agent Carter, the Most Wanted spinoff that didn’t go to series, Inhumans, the Netflix “Defenderverse” with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders, but collaborations to make the X-Men-based series The Gifted on Fox and Legion on FX, back when the property was still under Fox-controlled 20th Century Fox. Freeform series Cloak & Dagger and the Hulu series, the animated MODOK and Hit-Monkey and Helstrom were too. Marvel Television was officially absorbed by Marvel Studios in December 2019, two months after being placed in its purview. Hit-Monkey is now under 20th Century Animation.
This will be Marvel Studios’s third label launch this year after Marvel Spotlight launched with Echo in January. Marvel Studios Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation Brad Winderbaum recently spoke with ComicBook, claiming this will help viewers know they can “jump in anywhere” in the MCU and not be lost. “We want to make sure that Marvel stays an open door for people to come in and explore,” Winderbaum told. “On the heels of Endgame, I think there was, maybe, a little bit of an obligation to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything.” He would continue, rather counterintuitively “Part of the rebranding of Marvel Studios, Marvel Television, Marvel Animation, even Marvel Spotlight is to, I think, try to tell the audience, ‘You can jump in anywhere. They’re interconnected, but they’re not. You don’t have to watch A to enjoy B. You can follow your bliss. You can follow your own preferences and find the thing you want within the tapestry of Marvel.’” This is especially confusing as especially with the animation, half of the known animated projects are not MCU or MCU-based, and a third is very pointedly not Sacred Timeline.
Daredevil: Born Again, thought to be on the Spotlight banner (unless it’s going to use both Television and Spotlight), and Ironheart are expected to follow with the Marvel Television banner.