A rumor running wild on the internet today claims that Marvel is shooting a whole mess of pilots for Netflix. And it might very well be true that Marvel is shooting a few short pilots, and one might even feature Hispanic mistress of kung fu, White Tiger. But whoever they’re shooting them for, they’re not shooting them for Netflix.
The rumor is pretty straightforward. Bleeding Cool has claimed to hear from production crews that Netflix has just wrapped shooting four short pilots, supposedly for Netflix. For those unfamiliar, a pilot is basically a proof of concept for a potential TV series, usually the first episode of the show. There’s just one teensy problem with this rumor: Netflix doesn’t commission pilots.
If you go through the steaming service’s history, it simply hands out full series orders or it doesn’t develop the series at all. For example, Netflix went into business with Marvel because Marvel came to them with a 60-episode television package. It makes sense, if you think about it: Netflix is in the business of binge-watching, and you can’t binge on one episode.
Nor does it makes sense from a release perspective. Marvel has, so far, put out two series of Daredevil and one of Jessica Jones, with the first season of Luke Cage coming September 30. Plus they’ve got a second season of Jones, the inaugural season of Iron Fist, the debut season of The Defenders, and a Punisher series. And don’t forget that Netflix almost always renews its shows for at least another season. They’ve got a huge pile of Marvel coming and while they’re interested in more spinoffs, it seems unlikely they’d demand a pilot out of Marvel at this point.
That said, it is perfectly credible that Marvel would be shooting pilots. Remember that Marvel is part of the Disney machine, and that Disney outright owns ABC, which has stated it wants more Marvel shows, and Freeform, which will be debuting its first Marvel show soon. Disney also owns stakes in a number of other networks and services, like Lifetime, which you might remember is a network that recently aired a sci-fi drama over who gets to have babies. So yes, we might see more of Marvel’s cult heroes on TV screens, just not on Netflix.
(Via Bleeding Cool)
