RUMOR: Marvel’s TV Division May Move Back Into Marvel Studios After Fox Merger
The Kevin Feige-run Marvel Studios split from the Ike Perlmutter-run Marvel Entertainment back in 2015, which gave Marvel’s movie division a greater degree of creative freedom than they had previously while Perlmutter would continue to run the TV division. Now, a new rumor suggests that the upcoming Disney-Fox merger may be used as an excuse to put all live-action Marvel content under Feige’s supervision.
According to an anonymous source on 4Chan (as covered by ComicBookMovie), Marvel Entertainment executives on the TV side of things working to use the reorganization happening as a result of the Disney-Fox merger as an excuse to get their division away from Perlmutter and back into Feige’s control. They also reveal that this is one reason why New Warriors hasn’t moved past filming beyond the pilot stage yet, in spite of said pilot apparently testing very well and Disney executives being happy to greenlight the series; the ten-episode show should arrive in the middle of 2019 on Hulu or Disney’s streaming service (with the former looking more likely) around the time that the Disney-Fox merger is expected to complete.
Before you roll your eyes and close this page because the source on this is an anonymous imageboard, keep in mind that there’s actually evidence that this might be in the works. For one thing, Marvel TV executive Jim Chory recently left his role with no replacement officially hired. In addition, Forbes contributor Merrill Barr has also stated that the Disney-Fox merger is actually stalling that development of Marvel shows that aren’t already on the air, which is why New Warriors is currently in limbo (in addition to the show requiring a bigger budget than many of Marvel’s current televised offerings):
Seconded. This has a lot to do with the shuffling that comes with a big merger like this. Whole sets of personnel will be dropped but no one knows from which side.
— Merrill Barr (@MerrillBarr) May 30, 2018
If this ends up being true, then you might wonder why would this be a big deal. Let’s start with it meaning that Perlmutter should have little influence over Marvel movies and TV going forward. He’s not a particularly popular figure among Marvel fans, given how he nearly blocked development of Captain Marvel and more infamously denied audiences a Black Widow movie for years out of belief that audiences wouldn’t interested in female-led superhero movies (Wonder Woman and her $800M+ global box office haul say “hi”). Furthermore, Perlmutter has also been associated with some rather… Unpleasant social views, shall we say, particularly with certain comments he is said to have made when Don Cheadle took over the role of War Machine from Terrence Howard. Beyond the movies, he’s also known for attempting to phase the X-Men franchise out of Marvel merchandise and supplant it with Inhumans, a decision that was quickly reversed after the complete failure of the Inhumans show (which was rushed when Feige removed the movie from Marvel’s schedule) and the Fox deal was announced.
But beyond ousting an unpopular executive in favor of handing creative control over to someone whose work most fans are incredibly happy with, this news presents an exciting opportunity for Marvel to finally commit to doing substantial crossovers between the movies and the television shows. So far, it’s been largely one-sided on that front, with smaller names from the movies appearing in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and various characters, locations, and events being mentioned from time to time. With everything under one roof, that would mean that there’s more room for that kind of synergy and room to do much more – Spider-Man could team up with Daredevil, Luke Cage could meet Black Panther, and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could meet with their superiors on the big screen.
We won’t know the full story about Marvel Entertainment until after the Disney-Fox merger completes, but for now, this is an interesting lead to consider. This is definitely something that would be in Disney’s best interests, as Marvel Studios is about to get a lot of great IP that was previously licensed to Fox – a unified vision for what they’re working on, across all mediums, is important for the development of the shared universe as time goes on.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
