On this Star Wars Day, it seems appropriate to take the time to note the brilliance of Disney's decision to begin creating television shows set in the Marvel and Star Wars universes that intersected with their movies. It wasn't a completely unheard of risk. After all, DC had shown that superhero TV shows could work with a modern audience with the Arrowverse (and Smallville before that) while Marvel had the fantastic collaboration with Netflix that brought Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the Punisher (as well as some other guy) critical as well as popular success.
The direct ties to the movies was a new risk. There had been a few attempts with Agents of Shield (an underrated wonder), but nothing on the scale of WandaVision when it came out. WandaVision not only brought in storylines and characters with their original actors from the movies, it clearly was setting up direct tie-ins to future movies as well. This was followed by hit after hit with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye, culminating in the recently concluded (but currently unconnected) Moon Knight.
Similarly, the Mandalorian has become many people's favorite Star Wars stories. Not only does it have direct ties to the movies, but it also linked to the cartoon series of The Clone Wars and Rebels that preceded it. We are well beyond my ability to hold a marathon of all of the Star Wars content at this point.
This magical move to television shows also happened at a time when, due to COVID, movies were largely on hiatus. There was a two year gap between Far from Home and Black Widow where no MCU films made it to the big screen when there had previously been an average of two movies every year. Meanwhile, Star Wars, which had been gearing up to presenting nearly a movie every year, has now not seen one in three years.
The TV shows stepped in and filled the gap, and they seem to be coming on strong. Star Wars has three more limited series and Marvel four (well, three and a Christmas special) still due out this year. At least so far, it seems that Disney+ made a great decision. I hope that they can maintain the quality (perhaps even improving upon it) as time goes on.
The direct ties to the movies was a new risk. There had been a few attempts with Agents of Shield (an underrated wonder), but nothing on the scale of WandaVision when it came out. WandaVision not only brought in storylines and characters with their original actors from the movies, it clearly was setting up direct tie-ins to future movies as well. This was followed by hit after hit with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye, culminating in the recently concluded (but currently unconnected) Moon Knight.
Similarly, the Mandalorian has become many people's favorite Star Wars stories. Not only does it have direct ties to the movies, but it also linked to the cartoon series of The Clone Wars and Rebels that preceded it. We are well beyond my ability to hold a marathon of all of the Star Wars content at this point.
This magical move to television shows also happened at a time when, due to COVID, movies were largely on hiatus. There was a two year gap between Far from Home and Black Widow where no MCU films made it to the big screen when there had previously been an average of two movies every year. Meanwhile, Star Wars, which had been gearing up to presenting nearly a movie every year, has now not seen one in three years.
The TV shows stepped in and filled the gap, and they seem to be coming on strong. Star Wars has three more limited series and Marvel four (well, three and a Christmas special) still due out this year. At least so far, it seems that Disney+ made a great decision. I hope that they can maintain the quality (perhaps even improving upon it) as time goes on.
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