For the longest time now, Marvel has been pushing a certain catchphrase for the Marvel Cinematic Universe — It’s All Connected. That catchphrase was used to help to sell their television and film properties as all taking place within the same universe and use the carrot of possible cameos and overlaps to overload fans’ collective imaginations. This was featured heavily into the build to The Avengers: The Age of Ultron where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. promised to provide integral backstory to the second Avengers flick that sole moviegoers would be missing out on.
But how connected is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, really? With tons of new Marvel television series popping up, even getting their own crossover shows, where do they play into the movies? Originally Marvel was pushing that #ItsAllConnected, but now, according to iO9, they are walking that back just a little bit. When pressed on the issue by /Film, Marvel TV president Jeph Loeb explained some of the logistics that come into play and why they can’t be all connected.
“I can tell you that part of the challenge of doing this sort of thing is that the movies are planned out years in advance of what it is that we are doing. Television moves at an incredible speed. The other part of the problem is that when you stop and think about it, if I’m shooting a television series and that’s going to go on over a six-month or eight-month period, how am I going to get Mike [Colter] to be able to go be in a movie? I need Mike to be in a television show.”
He continued with an explanation that everything is still all connected, but in sort of an abstract, they all “come from the same place” sort of way. If that means that Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher and Luke Cage won’t be making cameos in upcoming Marvel films it’s a bit of a bummer, but understandable considering they are two different mediums. Still, Marvel really was pushing this whole “connection” only for it to fall short in the end.
