When the movie season ends this year, Disney+ heats up. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced today that Marvel Studios’ first streaming show, The Falcon and Winter Soldier, will debut in August. It’ll be followed by season two of The Mandalorian in October, and WandaVision in December.
As part of a Disney earnings call, Iger also revealed that there’s more Mandalorian to come after season two, which could very well include spinoffs for other characters. He added that, for the time being, television is the focus of the Star Wars universe. As for Marvel, he said there were seven Marvel shows in various stages of development in addition to the three that were featured during the Super Bowl this year, making 10 total. Since we only know of eight right now (The Falcon and Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If…, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel), that leaves two unnamed.
Lots to unpack there so we’ll break it down fact by fact.
The release months are welcome news, but are about what was expected. We knew The Falcon and Winter Soldier was coming this year and would be the first show out of the gate. It also was likely to come out sometime between the big-screen premieres of Black Widow in May and Eternals in November. So August makes sense.
Jon Favreau already said The Mandalorian would be back this fall, and while some took that to maybe mean November like last year, October makes even more sense”both to give more of a lead up to the holiday shopping season, and because of the two Marvel shows it’s sandwiched between.
WandaVision was originally scheduled to be released in 2021 so when it got moved up to 2020, inching into the year at the very end seems logical. As I said, all of this seems logical, but it’s at least nice to have specific windows.
As for the continuing adventures of The Mandalorian beyond season two? Ummm, duh? The show is a massive hit and expanding it potentially with more seasons and/or spinoffs (either for new characters that are introduced or ones we’ve already met) are the most logical ways to keep that momentum. It’s anyone’s guess which characters could get their own spinoff but the first one that comes to mind is Cara Dune, simply because she can talk. (Sorry, Baby Yoda.)
Television being the focus of Star Wars is, also, not a surprise. There are three live-action shows in game show. There are zero new movies coming until at least December 2022. That means we’re about to get three full years of Star Wars TV (all of 2020, “˜21, and “˜22 until that December release date) before a movie. Anyone making a big deal of this isn’t thinking it through.
Then, finally, there are the other Marvel shows. Whether Iger is referring to new, major characters getting their own shows or potential non-fiction series related to the Marvel brand itself, anything could happen. Speculate wildly but we tend to believe we’ll have seen at least three or four shows in full before we know what else might be coming.
Long story short, Disney+ is going to be where it’s at in 2020 for Disney’s geekiest properties. And the foreseeable future too.