With ABC’s Agents of SHIELD on the way out, Disney’s biggest TV network will soon be without a marquee superhero show. The network hopes to change that soon though and knows just the man to speak to about it.
“We love our partners at Marvel and we’re sad to see [Agents of SHIELD] go, it’s been a big part of our history,” ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke said this week. “We’re looking forward to working with Kevin Feige and we’re at the very beginning of conversations with him now about what a Marvel and ABC show might look like.”
Feige, of course, is not just the president of Marvel Studios anymore, but also the Chief Creative Officer for all of Marvel. So TV, movies, comics—he now has a hand in all of it. And at the moment, his TV focus is on Disney+ “as it should be,” according to Burke, with at least seven shows coming to the streaming services in the coming years. However, Burke’s quotes and desire to talk to Feige make it seem like broadcast will get back in the mix at some point.
ABC had been developing at least one Marvel show before Feige took over the reins and consolidated everything, but that show—about a female superhero—is reportedly off the table for now.
You have to think the powers at be at Disney will, eventually, make sure not just Marvel, but possibly even Star Wars and other brands, have shows on traditional TV.
Right now, they don’t need it because ABC is its own thing and Disney+ needed names like The Mandalorian to bring in subscribers. But as the world continues to cut its cords, eventually bringing Marvel shows to ABC could encourage people to come back to TV, or at least buy the associated streaming service. It’s all in its infancy though, as Burke’s quotes suggest.