The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the best media franchise formed by Marvel Studios that primarily takes place in a shared universe, with some installments also taking place in adjacent or branching realities. Beginning with Iron Man, the franchise is mainly made up of films produced independently by Marvel Studios, primarily set within the same universe as Marvel’s comic books. The franchise includes a series of short films called Marvel One-Shots, debuting alongside several films’ Blu-ray releases, beginning with Thor and ending with Thor: Ragnarok. The movies are based on Marvel Comics’ American comic book series characters. The franchise also has TV shows, film clips, virtual series, and literature.
About Marvel Cinematic Universe:
The shared universe was established by combining common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books. Marvel Television brought the Marvel Universe to network television in 2013 with Agents of on ABC before expanding to streaming television on Netflix and Hulu and cable television on Freeform. The franchise has been successful and has received generally positive feedback. Other film and television studios have been inspired to try to create similar shared comic book characters. The MCU has also inspired several themed attractions, an exhibit, two specials, guidebooks for each film, multiple video games, and commercials.
The initialization of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
By 2005, Marvel Entertainment started thinking about producing its films and distributing them through Paramount. Marvel had co-produced several superhero films, New Cinema, and others, including a seven-year development with 20th Century Fox. Marvel made little money from licensing agreements with other studios and wanted to make more money from its films while maintaining artistic control over the projects and distribution. Avi Arad, the head of Marvel’s film, was pleased with Sam Spider-Man films at Sony Pictures but not with others. As a result, Arad decided to establish Marvel Studios, the first major independent film studio in Hollywood since DreamWorks.
Marvel Television:
In October 2019, Feige was named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment, with Marvel Television becoming a division of Marvel Studios and executives from Marvel Television reporting to Feige. Marvel Television was folded into Marvel Studios in December 2019, with Marvel Studios taking over the production of the series at the time; no other Marvel Television series was being considered for development. In January 2021, Feige said “never” to reviving the Netflix series but added that Marvel Studios was focused on their new Disney+, which had been announced at the time. It was disclosed in May 2022 that Marvel Studios was working on a new Daredevil series for Disney+.
Media expansions of Marvel studios:
The first tie-in comic was published in 2008. Quesada stated that the comics would be set within the film’s continuity but would not be direct adaptations. Instead, they would delve into “something that happened off-screen” or expand on something mentioned briefly. Feige was involved in the creation of the comics and the film’s screenwriters at times. Marvel Comics collaborated with Marvel Studios’ Brad Winderbaum, Jeremy Latcham, and Will Corona Pilgrim to determine which concepts should be covered from the Marvel Comics to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and what should be shown in tie-in comics, and what should be left for the films. Marvel has revealed which of the tie-in comics are canonical MCU stories.
Comic books and TV Series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
Marvel Comics has published several limited or one-shot comics that tie in with the MCU films and television series. They are meant to tell new stories about existing characters or to connect MCU projects without expanding the universe or introducing new concepts or feelings. Agents of Slingshot is a digital series produced by Marvel Television for ABC.com that supplements Agents with the main cast reprising roles. The first two seasons of The Daily Bugle serve as a marketing campaign for the films Spider-Man and Spider-Man: No Way Home, with videos released on YouTube and TikTok.
The film and television scores of the films, television series, One-Shots, and other related projects have been created by composers. Songs have also been written for the franchise, and fanfares for the Marvel Studios logo have been composed by Brian Tyler and Michael Giacchino. For Television, Loeb explained that they saw themselves as assisting the showrunner: “whether it’s being in the writers’ room, editing on set, every step of the production goes through the Marvel team to tell the story that we can.” He said the studio can work on many different series across various networks to help.
