While Marvel’s cinematic universe is a pretty well-oiled hit machine at this point (a trend that is certain to continue with the terrific looking Thor: Ragnarok), their television division has suffered a few missteps of late. While The Defenders was met with good-natured ambivalence and Iron Fist was greeted with mostly derision, Marvel’s Inhumans weekend IMAX run only earned an estimated $1.5 million, despite airing on 400 IMAX screens.
Even so, the scope of Marvel television continues to grow, expanding to Netflix, FX, and Hulu. Despite this growth, Marvel’s Head of TV Jeph Loeb claims that ABC is still the “mothership” of Marvel’s television slate. He told Comic Book Resources:
“Absolutely. Absolutely. Obviously these aren’t things I can talk about. But look, as it is with every single one of the networks that we have gotten with that this is with, and whether it’s Fox or it’s FX or it’s Freeform, or it’s Hulu, or it’s Netflix, ABC is always going to be our mothership. It is a Disney-owned network. We are a Disney-owned corporation and we’re a good fit for each other.”
Loeb continued, explaining that ABC is still the best fit for the Marvel model.
“We speak a lot of the same language and the kinds of things that are important to them, which is people rising up again adversity; real emotion; a strong female character, but also a strong sense of family and questions of identity. All of those things are key to being a successful ABC show, but they’re also key to being a Marvel show. So in that way we’re going to go and see what happens along the way.”
Here’s hoping Marvel television evolves into something more akin to Legion.
(H/T i09)