Marvel TV News

The rumoured purchase of Fox by Disney is now official and means that both the X-Men and Fantastic Four are returning to the MCU. This likely has no impact on the Netflix side of things, but certainly for TV in general it opens a lot of doors. As for the movies, presumably all the Fox films currently (or nearly) completed will come out as-is in 2018 (so New Mutants in April, Deadpool 2 in June, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix in November), with the reboots for the mutant franchises to come afterwards (the Channing Tatum Gambit movie, scheduled to start filming in March, may also go ahead). What will be interesting is: when will we start to get easter eggs for this stuff and how quickly will characters begin appearing in the MCU? The sale opens the door for changes to Captain Marvel (the Super Skrull is now available), although I don't think any other film on the current slate is likely to include elements of the returned properties (Jude Terror thinks it will be as early as a Avengers: Infinity War post-credit scene, but I see this as wishful thinking). In general I think we'll see The Fantastic Four first, but the idea floating around that mutants won't appear on film until 2020 or 2021 is, I think, absurd--there's no point in acquiring the IP and not getting out it ASAP.

This event has lead to people losing their minds--I don't mean the excitement amongst fans, rather it's entertainment pundits losing their senses and posing a variety of ridiculous theories about the purchase--ranging from the end of the Deadpool franchise (Disney won't allow an R-rated movie!) to keeping the X-Men completely separate and under the same auspices at Fox (John Campea suggesting this is understandable, but I have no idea what Charlie Schneider was smoking to suggest it--what would be the point of the acquisition if the status quo remains unchanged?). It's abundantly clear from how Marvel has hid its slate of films in Phase Four that plans for this possibility were long-considered (much like the inclusion of Spider-Man predated Civil War by a considerable margin--Kevin Feige made comments back in 2015 talking about their contingencies should things like this occur). Beyond the obvious point that we'll be getting a Fantastic Four reboot in the MCU, it also makes sense to reboot the X-franchises to avoid brand confusion and get away from Fox's nonsensical continuity and erratic quality.

Another interesting question is: how many MCU films a year will we get now? Each studio is releasing three movies in 2018--will that volume be maintained by Marvel or will they cut back? At minimum I think we'll get four Marvel movies a year, but more is certainly feasible.

We now have a date for Jessica Jones season two: March 8th, 2018. This is later than my prediction (January-February, favouring January), but fits in nicely with International Women's Day and previous releases (Daredevil season two and Iron Fist were also March releases). This also begins the framework for when the other shows will air. If it's a matter of symmetry then it will be a show at three-month intervals (Luke Cage in June, Daredevil in September, and Iron Fist in December). That said, there's nothing preventing Netflix from fitting them closer together if they wish (the original plan for The Punisher was October, just two months after The Defenders). The latter two shows (DD and IF) are filming at essentially the same time (with even more overlap than JJ and LC, which shared three months of filming vs the four DD and IF will have), making it easy to drop them within close proximity (there's been no hint that Luke will appear in JJ2, despite the parallel filming, incidentally). Indeed, with how closely together they are being produced it's possible we might see IF drop before DD (a precedent established by The Defenders vs The Punisher, granting very different circumstances). I think it would benefit the shows to cross pollinate more--it makes them more interconnected and would help with hype for The Defenders--while that's clearly the case for LC and IF, it will be interesting to see if either JJ or DD follows suit.

I thought the teaser for JJ season two was solid (the musical choice was great)--there was an emphasis on action, which seems like a direct response to the (albeit infrequent) complaints about the first season. The only revelation was that the Oscar Ramirez character is a love-interest (I'd mentioned previously that I thought the show would maintain an interracial relationship to mimic the absent Luke Cage--whose relationship with Claire Temple seems likely to continue--although I hadn't pegged Oscar as that person).

We still know very little about the plot, outside earlier comments that it would delve into the IGH story teased in season one (leaving room for more superpowered individuals if they choose to go that way). Showrunner Melissa Rosenberg said recently:

We’re allowing Carrie-Anne Moss and Hogarth’s story line, Rachael Taylor who plays Trish, and Eka Darville who plays Malcolm to have more opportunities for development so our world will feel a little bigger. The show is still totally focused on Jessica, but the supporting players are getting great moments to shine this season.

This is interesting because all three supporting character had story arcs in the first season (very good ones; Hogarth's divorce, Trish's relationship with Simpson (aka Nuke), and Malcolm's drug addiction via Kilgrave), so I'm not sure what this means exactly. It does make me wonder if the casting call for Ingrid (Leah Gibson's character) might be as a new love interest for Hogarth (Rosenberg worked with Gibson on Twilight, incidentally).

One of the interesting consequences of the long gap between JJ seasons is that most of the writers from season one are gone (Scott Reynolds went to Iron Fist and then Inhumans; Micah Schraft to Jane the Virgin; Hilly Hicks to Feed the Beast; Dana Baratta to Good Behaviour; Liz Friedman to Conviction; and Edward Ricourt to Wayward Pines). Potentially only two writers, plus Rosenberg herself, remain, and neither of those two (Jamie King and Jenna Reback) contributed to more than one episode. Whether this will impact the quality of the writing this season remains to be seen.

Incidentally, speaking of writers from the Marvel Netflix series, Lauren Schmidt Hissirch (who worked on Daredevil season two and The Defenders) will showrun Netflix's Witcher.

I didn't mention it at the time, but I find it interesting that new showrunner Erik Oleson was only announced on October 25th, with filming beginning just nineteen days later (November 13th). I have to think he was involved before that (possibly working with scripts from previous showrunners, Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez). The late switch is unusual, with the closest parallel being Daredevil season one (showrunner Drew Goddard dropped out with Steven S. DeKnight taking over May 24th--filming beginning in July). I haven't found any reporting on what happened to previous show runner Marco Ramirez--did he leave, was it a mutual parting of ways, or was he let go? Regardless, with twenty months since the release of season two the third season should be well planned.

The official announcement for season two has dropped. This is pretty fast for Netflix to publicly renew (just under a month), implying a lot of confidence in the property (I still haven't seen any stories talking about viewership numbers, although those can take months to come out). While no details were provided, I assume Steve Lightfoot will remain as showrunner and that Jigsaw will be the main (or one of the main) antagonists. Logistically Netflix could film and debut the show in 2018, but while the former is a lock I wouldn't expect it until 2019. This is a good interview with Lightfoot about the first season, incidentally.

Speaking of interesting articles, there's one on Vox about The Punisher's approach to dealing with the topic of PTSD. The author is, I think, far too generous towards those who complained about the show's violence (which boils down to it somehow celebrating violence which encourages it--this ridiculous idea falls apart if you apply it to anything else (eg, you enjoy crime shows, therefore you both encourage crime and wish to commit them! It's absurd).

In a somewhat similar vein, why does Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg say this when talking about the season renewal:

After less than a month, the show has a 60 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the 94 percent audience score painting a different picture among the show's diehard fanboy target audience

There's no good reason to use the term "fanboy" here ("diehard" is questionable, as he has no idea who is voting for the show on the site, but it's a little less egregious)--it's meant as a slight and suggests a lot of bitterness from Goldberg about the audience reception. What's his investment? I find this kind of thing bizarre--if he has some moral or ethical objection to the show then he should bring it up, otherwise his personal opinion is irrelevant to what is simply a news release.

I didn't reflect on this at the time because saying something is "for the fans" is normal rhetoric for anything excoriated by critics, but I do want to briefly comment on part of Finn Jones' comments from earlier this year:

I think some of the reviews we saw were seeing the show through a very specific lens

This part of his statement is, I think, absolutely correct. Putting aside what you thought about the show personally, one of the clearest things from the myriad of reviews was that each one had a very specific idea going into the show what they wanted from it. We could put some blame on the marketing perhaps, but (as I've said previously) it seemed like everyone had either the Immortal Iron Fist in their heads or a 70s style Kung Fu epic--this sentiment is still reflected in expectations for the upcoming season.

As bad as Inhumans ratings were, it's interesting to see the much-praised Agents of SHIELD (100% again this season?) slip below that watermark after the premiere (1.93/0.5, 1.84/0.5). Ratings for The Gifted also continue to slide, this time not just with general audiences, but also the key demographic (2.81/0.8 and 2.78/0.8). AoS has been in decline for a long time and is only on-air due to Disney's demands (what the ratings suggest is that this, indeed, will be its last season). As for the Fox show, in lieu of Disney's purchase and the declining ratings, cancellation seems likely (we might get something similar in the future, but a more coherent version of Bryan Singer's one-note view of mutant characters).

I wonder if one of the reasons Netflix is producing their Marvel series' in such quick succession is because they felt The Defenders was hurt by the long gap between shows (both of the upcoming seasons of JJ and DD will be over two years later). I'm just speculating, but you have to think that releasing them close together throughout the year will help build buzz and momentum for the team-up.

I'm also curious when exactly the Netflix shows realised the MCU (as in, the movies) were completely ignoring them. Daredevil season one, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage feature prominent MCU connections (eg: Fisk's plan begins through exploiting the damage done to the city via The Avengers; JJ has the subplot of the couple who try to kill her because of "the incident"; LC's plot heavily involves Justin Hammer tech), but Daredevil season two, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher do not. I'm not sure if the effort to distance themselves is simply acknowledging a reality or trying to set apart the Netflix shows. I think the shows are better off being referential even if they are being ignored--it lends verisimilitude to the idea of them being in the same universe (and fans like the easter eggs).

Going back to the discussion of what characters are available for Netflix to use: there were rumours back in the August of 2016 that four pilots (including White Tiger) were presented to Netflix as potential series' (the notorious Umberto Gonzalez disputed this at the time, which, at this point, seems to be correct). I'm less interested in whether pilots were shot or proposals were made and more if Netflix was offered other IP--it seems that if they were, they passed on it, but I do wonder when Disney decided to go ahead with their own streaming service and stop expanding their footprint at Netflix. It seems like it was last year, with Cloak & Dagger's announcement (April, 2016), followed by Ghost Rider appearing in AoS (July, 2016), and then The Runaways and New Warriors announcement (August, 2016).

One of the funny things that I've heard repeatedly about Avengers: Infinity War is that there are (or could be) too many characters. This is one of those statements that makes no sense whatsoever without context. There's no magical threshold where there are "too many" characters. One of the struggles some critics (and fans) have is adjusting their perception from individual, self-contained films versus the serialized approach of the MCU. If AIW was a stand alone film, or the first of a series, then you could make an argument that there's not enough screen time to support all the characters that appear. That's simply not the case here. Marvel can reasonably assume that most of its audience has seen some of the films and therefore does not need to do the establishing work that a solo film requires. Fans know who Tony Stark is, so the Russo's only need to worry about what he's doing within the context of the film (if you think about the first Avengers film, a fan only needed to see Iron Man and Thor to understand the team-up). Lazy sentiments like this drive me crazy. It's like when critics complain about there "being too much CG" in a film--the amount isn't relevant, it's how good it is and how well it works with the property (this goes along with the "MCU villains are bad" sentiment, which is pretty ridiculous at this point).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel TV News

In my last post I addressed concerns that the Netflix shows would be pulled to become part of Disney's streaming service (it has since been confirmed that they will stay). We now know that not only will the shows remain but that Netflix owns the IP. It's not clear from Ted Sarandos' comments what that IP consists of (he simply said "the Defenders", presumably meaning all five series-leading characters: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and the Punisher, who were packaged with supporting characters--how many that we haven't seen is unknown). If that's the case then Netflix could theoretically expand their Marvel shows to include the Daughters of the Dragon, Hellcat, Elektra (if she had been popular--rebooting her at this stage is probably impossible), etc. That said, this is clearly part of the reason why more and more side characters are being created for the shows.

It's an interesting question: which characters were folded into the IP (especially as it's unlikely more will be handed over, meaning characters like Moon Knight won't appear on the Netflix platform--although the case of White Tiger is more complicated, see below). Because Daredevil and the Punisher's rights were previously sold, it's likely the character packages provided to Netflix are similar (certainly both Kingpin and Elektra continue to be part of Matt Murdock's universe). Many of the Jessica Jones' comic roster are characters intended for film, so much of what we've seen on her show is a hodgepodge of her own (like Malcolm) with replacements like Trish Walker (instead of Carol Danvers) and Nuke (a Daredevil villain). Luke Cage and Iron Fist have a small roster of their own villains (most of the latter's big names have already been used, see below), with many of their more traditional supervillains not fitting into the Netflix format (that is to say, grounded).

The other question is: how does owning that IP impact the characters appearing in the movies? Presumably that was negotiated as part of the original deal (Charlie Cox has a movie option in his contract, suggesting something is already worked out). I assume that, while Netflix controls their rights to some extent, Marvel is allowed to use them in the movies if they wish (in cameos or as supporting characters)--a usage now vastly unlikely because Marvel won't want to help a competitor (Netflix). The other confusion is that both Luke Cage and Black Panther seem to be using the same character (something that may no longer be happening; I recall Coker saying that she was "just a name" for the film, but can't find the quote so take that with a grain of salt). I feel like the cases of film duplicating TV are accidental--easter eggs where the film-side had no idea that the TV-side was using the character (this would apply to the Doctor Strange/Runaways double cast as well).

Variety reports that Wilson Bethel has been cast as a series regular playing an FBI agent in Daredevil season three. This is not the same FBI agent casting call we saw most recently, but does seem to match what The Hashtag Show posted months earlier (same link). Their speculation, which has been copied elsewhere, is that his character might be Sin-Eater--I think that's questionable (he's awfully similar to the Punisher as well as being a Spiderman character--so presumably owned by Sony), but CBR's contention that he's taking over Nuke's role in the story (the character perhaps unavailable due to Jessica Jones) makes sense (whoever they are). Thematically the FBI angle echoes The Punisher and I wonder if the Netflix writers are trying to make a more concerted/coherent effort for their lead-in to the next Defenders series (this, incidentally, would not have impacted Jessica Jones' season two, as it was written in the summer of 2016, long before such a shift could have occurred).

While the other three Defenders have had their most iconic personalities appear already, Daredevil still awaits Bullseye and Typhoid Mary. Because the former's background remains a mystery Netflix can do whatever they want with it, while the latter could easily fit into season three's arc if they choose (given her connection to the Kingpin).

I mentioned White Tiger as being a possible exception to the general crushing of various Netflix rumours (Moon Knight, Namor, Blade, Captain Britain, and Spider-Woman) and that's because she's not necessarily hitched to her own IP. While the others have quite distinct, stand-alone histories, Angela Del Toro is strongly linked to Daredevil and outside of a mini-series has never lead her own comic. This suggests she could be folded into another IP and her specific reference in Jessica Jones may mean she's part of the Netflix package (whether that's Daredevil or Jessica Jones is hard to say). Countering this would be the various references in Daredevil season one, which seem purely like easter eggs, but I bring it up because the standing of White Tiger as IP isn't clear (particularly as there have been five characters who have worn that identity).

Speaking of casting, The Hashtag Show is reporting Iron Fist is looking for a series regular: (open ethnicity) dubbed Tanya Parker (this may be the role Alice Eve has just landed, but that's not clear): "a freelance covert operative, Tanya has carried out many high-level missions. A chameleon adept at playing roles, Tanya inhabits the “part” that best fits the mission." They speculate this is Lady Gorgon, a minor Punisher character (with the usual short lifespan of most Punisher villains, eight issues from 2008-11), an assassin for The Hand. I think the reason the Hashtag guys picked her is that her first name is Tanya and that she's a martial artist, but I believe the Netflix shows (including Iron Fist) are going to steer clear of The Hand for awhile given its lukewarm reception (there's also no chance they'd have open ethnicity auditions for an Asian character). I've seen others speculate that she's a character connected to the Immortal Iron Fist run (Tiger's Beautiful Daughter specifically), but there's not much left to use from that run and the show can't afford to do it justice anyway (a reality some fans cannot accept--it also has the same ethnicity problem as Lady Gorgon). As I mentioned months ago there's not a lot of Iron Fist source material left to work with unless Luke Cage is involved and it's quite likely the Tanya character has been created for the show (just like Dinah Madani was for The Punisher--there's no guarantee her name will even be "Tanya"). If I was picking from Danny Rand's roster, incidentally, I'd go with former KGB operative Ninotchka (who was a member of the same Russian program that trained Black Widow).

The broader question is, will the show double down on mysticism, or will it go the pulpy route of the Heroes for Hire comics, or will it do something more grounded? I'd prefer the show do the latter, as it fits in better with the general tone on Netflix and would suit having the Kingpin as the main villain in a second season of Defenders (as yet we have no idea if that's planned).

Of all the shows Iron Fist is the one most able to respond to the reaction both to its first season and The Defenders. New showrunner Raven Metzner was only announced in July and while I'm sure there were ideas and possibly even scripts for season two before that I assume they have been tossed aside or scrubbed thoroughly since. We know very little about what's planned--the return of Sacha Dhawan (Davos) is unchanged, but we don't know if the inclusion of Misty Knight was added after audience reaction or planned all along (given comments suggesting the inclusion of Danny in Luke Cage was in response to the audience, I'd guess it was not the original plan). The idea of Danny's evolution as a character in The Defenders clearly was the original conception, but from audience (and critical) response another change is allowing Finn Jones to work on his Kung Fu prior to the start of the season (and, undoubtedly, give him his costume).

CBR's Renaldo Matadeen believes Hulu is the wrong platform for The Runaways, arguing it's missing out on a much larger audience by not being on Netflix or Amazon. In a literal sense he's correct--less people will watch the show because of the platform--although this also means the bar for success is significantly lower. I haven't seen numbers to suggest how it's performing, but there's little reason not to expect the show to continue--it's a critical success and even if Hulu can't or won't support it Marvel can simply shift it elsewhere. If Disney buys Fox and uses Hulu as their platform, then The Runaways will be well-positioned for a viewership bump in the future.

I wanted to make a short comment about why I don't discuss Agents of SHIELD because I haven't explained it before: I've never watched the show. As intrigued as I was with the "it's all connected" idea when the show debuted back in 2013, I thought resurrecting Coulson was a dumb idea (however much I like Clark Gregg; Joss Whedon, responsible for both killing and resurrecting him, has said conflicting things about it since), and that the network format of 22-episodes is far too much content to support a show like it. Over time, as the movies continue to ignore the TV-side and it had extremely limited connection to the Netflix characters, any reason I had to get into it has simply disappeared. I'm not saying the show is bad--it might be excellent--I just haven't been drawn in. If there were ever genuine, meaningful crossovers with the movies or the Netflix shows, that might draw me in.

John Campea claims that even if Fox sells its movie division to another company the comic rights they own will revert back to Marvel (although he admits there may be legalities he's not familiar with). If he's correct I'm not sure it would apply to the Fantastic Four, since their rights are owned by Constantine Films (what Fox has are distribution rights, much like Universal does for the Hulk--these are, presumably, rights they could sell). That being said, it seems extremely unlikely Fox will sell to anyone other than Disney at this point in order to avoid possible legal hurdles (like the legal challenges to AT&T's takeover of TimeWarner).

Incidentally, there's been a lot of confusion in some of the fan-reporting on the potential merger (for example) with the biggest errors over which assets Marvel would actually be acquiring.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel TV News

[Mild SPOILERS below for The Punisher]

Showrunner Steve Lightfoot said the exclusion of the other Defenders in The Punisher was a demand from on-high:

I think it's something that you need to talk to someone in Marvel about that because when I came in to take the show on, it was always very clear to me that they wanted it to sort of tell its own story and run on its own track and not really intersect with what was happening in The Defenders. That was part of the brief.

It's an interesting decision by the executives and I'll be interested to find out why. I don't think the decision is bad per se, just curious.

My review for the show is forthcoming, but I will say predictions for a tie-in with a new hero (like Moon Knight) crashed and burned in what was a fantastic show. We also saw yet more reviews impacted by the Nanny State. I'm old enough to remember the fatuous concerns being mouthed by the right in the 80s and 90s about things like Dungeons & Dragons (it was going to lead to Satanism and violence) and violent video games (also leading to violence)--all things easily debunked, but that circulated in the news for decades. It's disconcerting to see the same nonsense coming from people on the left. Fortunately, none of this seems to have impacted viewers who have overwhelming approved of the show (and, over time, we'll see critical opinion adjust accordingly).

With the announcement of the forthcoming Disney streaming service it's been suggested
that there will be no new Netflix shows, albeit Disney is not pulling them. Given that Disney's service is meant to be family friendly and that all the properties on Netflix are not, does this mean more mature shows will go to Hulu or will Disney simply make nothing adult-oriented? I find the latter hard to believe.

A more interesting possibility, and not one I've seen mentioned, is that Marvel shows will be taken off ABC--that superhero content will be reserved for streaming channels. While the Netflix shows have all been successful, ABC's content has failed to varying degrees (Agent Carter was cancelled after two seasons, Agents of SHIELD is currently on-air only due to a corporate mandate, and Inhumans is touch-and-go for cancellation). For whatever reason the network approach simply hasn't worked for Marvel, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last season ABC has that content.

Luke Cage has wrapped filming, slightly before expectations (December) and well before the initially reported end point (March). The five-month period is in line with both Daredevil and Jessica Jones, but two months shorter than the first season of Luke Cage. At this stage it seems like Netflix has settled into a production pattern for their Marvel properties and we can assume five months is generally how long filming will take.

Production for Iron Fist season two will begin December 6th (confirming an old Screen Rant rumour), while Daredevil season three began November 13th (it wouldn't be a surprise if we see more Heroes for Hire in Iron Fist, incidentally).  These start times are close to previous predictions (Daredevil starting a month later and Iron Fist a month earlier), but both schedules would still allow for all four shows to air in 2018 (my prevailing theory, which has Jessica Jones in January, Luke Cage in April, Daredevil in July, and Iron Fist in October).

Speaking of Daredevil. the show has another casting call out which includes a series regular and some possible recurring characters (all of whom are FBI agents, something that matches the casting call from over a month ago). It's hard not to see parallels to The Punisher, albeit the presence of FBI agents doesn't mean there will be any connection between the two (the description seems similar to the Dinah Madani character). The Hashtag Show, which is the source of the information, has no suggestions for comic book parallels to the listing and it seems likely they are created for the show. The same article wonders if the FBI connection might lead into an Angela del Toro (aka White Tiger) appearance, but that seems like a stretch with the given information. What's interesting to me is that the show made a significant change in its casting call for this particular regular--the initial call was for a male, mid to late 30s, of Indian descent who could speak Hindi. The revised call aged up the character slightly and removed the Hindi element (looking for someone of Middle Eastern, South Asian, Pakistani, or Israeli heritage).

Filming for Cloak & Dagger has wrapped; the pilot was shot Feb.8-24, with production for the remaining episodes recommencing July 24th. This nearly four month period is on par with The Runaways and, given the shorter episode count, seems like it fits within the framework of how Netflix shoots its Marvel shows.

The New Warriors show is being moved from Freeform because the Disney-owned channel couldn't find space for it in its 2018 schedule (!). Why Freeform couldn't fit it is unknown, but the show is now being shopped because Disney wants it to air next year. Amidst this story is this rumour which is making the rounds:

Sources suggest Disney-owned Marvel is no longer able to sell to outside companies

If that's the case then New Warriors must go to either ABC or Hulu, since Disney's streaming service won't be up earlier than 2019. I'd be leery in accepting this rumour, since none of Disney's owned channels are suitable to the material being shown on Netflix.

I'm behind on my Inhumans reviews, but with the mini-series now over there's a bit of critical retconning--at least from Justin Carter at CBR.

Inhumans' episode seven slipped back towards the low end (1.96) with the finale doing no better (1.95), but both remained steady with the key demographic (0.5). There's no question that Fox's superhero effort, The Gifted, found a more stable audience, albeit that show is seeing a distinct drop (the sixth dropped to 3.17/1.0 and then to 3.0/1.0, it's lowest total yet, albeit steady in the key demographic).

Here's the overall tracking for both shows (keeping in mind Friday shows are 30% lower):
Inhumans
Overall 3.75 - 2.78 - 2.3 - 1.98 - 2.05 - 1.96 - 1.95
(Adding the 30%) 4.87 - 3.61 - 2.99 - 2.57 - 2.66 - 2.54 - 2.53
Key Demographic 0.9 - 0.7 - 0.6 - 0.4 - 0.5 - 0.5 - 0.5
The Gifted
Overall 4.9 - 3.79 - 3.46 - 3.36 - 3.43 - 3.17 - 3.0
Key Demographic 1.5 - 1.2 - 1.1 - 1.0 - 1.1 - 1.0 - 1.0

The two shows started on similar footing and despite being fairly close in raw popularity The Gifted has much better numbers with the 18-49 group (almost double, as even with another 30% Inhumans only hits 0.65). Both shows pale in comparison to quality shows like The Punisher and I wonder what will happen to them going forward.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel TV News

Jon Schnepp implied Moon Knight will appear in The Punisher--if so it would confirm my speculation he would be the rumoured hero appearing (he certainly makes sense in context). I'd guess this will be in the form of a cameo rather than an involved appearance (otherwise there would be marketing attached to it, ala the Punisher in Daredevil season two).

Speaking of predictions, we got confirmation that Vincent D'Onofrio, aka, Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin) will be joining Daredevil season three. New showrunner Erik Oleson (The Man in the High Castle etc) officially announced the decision which makes sense both in terms of fan service and for whatever version of the "Born Again" storyline we're going to get. The other thing this tells us is that Fisk won't appear in The Punisher (something I hadn't seen speculated, but within the realm of possibility given their interactions in Daredevil season two). My hope is that Fisk is the villain The Defenders have to face next--someone grounded and whose background is already understood by fans.

Filming, as far as we know, has not started (refuting MCU Exchange's rumour from a month ago), but presumably will commence soon. Along with this announcement it's also been confirmed that the show will air in 2018.

We know Finn Jones started martial arts training almost a month ago and now his co-star Jessica Henwick is back at it, suggesting the ramp up to Iron Fist season two is underway (my prediction was that filming would start in January, link above, but it could be even sooner).

Runaways filming recently wrapped (the pilot was filmed from February 10-March 3, with the rest of the show begun in June). The four months of filming is a similar timeframe for Netflix shows given that there's just 10 episodes (less the pilot, which presumably consists of the first two episodes). It's official trailer was unfortunately mostly a rehash of the earlier teaser and seemed to get no traction on social media. Hulu needs to work on its marketing (whatever you think of Inhumans there was no escaping the marketing).

An untitled ABC Marvel show has been announced with this premise:

The series will focus on the Sharif family, an ordinary Middle Eastern-American family with two superhero parents at a time when it’s illegal to be a superhero, so they are forced to save the world in secret.

Seemingly these are characters created for the show with a premise that's not far off the Fox default of "Mutant Menace." I worry that without an established character to market this has little hope in succeeding. When I first saw the headline I thought it might connect to a Ms Marvel show, but this clearly isn't that.

IMAX finally commented on their interpretation of what happened with the Inhumans and it's an interesting opinion (link below). They feel the problem was largely audience expectations:

Customers expected a production akin to a mega-budget blockbuster movie, rather than pilots for a television show. Moreover, the fact that this was Marvel IP set the bar at a level you wouldn’t see from other pieces of content or IP because of the reputation and the high production value of Marvel movies.

There's some truth to that I feel--the critical drubbing the movie-version received was far above what was warranted. IMAX's plan is to continue with the concept, but a away from Marvel to avoid those kinds of expectations (IMAX lost 11.1 million on the deal--how far off that was against their expectations is uncertain, as we know they expected to lose money).

Speaking of the Inhumans, the show slipped into terrible ratings territory for episode five, dropping below Agents of SHIELD's average (1.98, with an 0.4 in the key demographic--this is similar to "Wake Up", the least watched episode from AoS last year). The football game clearly hurt, as ratings improved somewhat for episode six (2.13 and 0.5). Comparatively, The Gifted dropped slightly, going from 3.5 to 3.36 (4%), the key demographic slipping from 1.1 to 1.0. This suggests the Fox show has hit its audience making it reasonably successful (it's DVR+ numbers remained steady at 64%).

I mentioned last time that lazy "superhero fatigue" arguments were re-circulating given the lower ratings for shows this fall. Armin is also peddling this crap, but it will be interesting to see if this floats up further into popular entertainment coverage. On its face the idea is ridiculous (as I've discussed before--pretty hard to justify the idea when the movie industry is being floated by comic book popularity). Ratings are falling due to poor writing, directing, etc, with networks pumping out generic crap trying to cash-in. I think the Netflix shows have pushed audience expectations in terms of quality, so mediocre fair isn't going to cut it. Whether this is a continuing trend or just a blip of the season remains to be seen.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel TV News

At long last The Punisher release date dropped, November 17th, the revised date due to the mass shooting in Las Vegas on October 1st. While it has never been officially confirmed, Newsday's (Vernon Gay) rumour of a date change is the ultimate source for the flood of stories after the show pulled out of NYCC, with most believing MCU Exchange's scoop date of October 13th was the original plan. Of interest is that the speculated date of November 10th was never in the cards (since the move could easily have been to that spot), but it's not far off summer speculation of November 14th. Interestingly, this puts the show head-to-head against Justice League, albeit other than both being based on comic books they aren't truly in direct competition. Oddly enough, looking at Netflix's schedule you'd think the 10th would be a better date--Stranger Things drops October 27th, Alias Grace November 3rd, and then nothing until Godless November 22nd (which seems similar enough to The Punisher that I think it will suffer from the proximity).

We learned a couple of weeks ago that Finn Jones would appear in Luke Cage season two, but at the time it was unknown if it was simply a cameo or something more. Mike Colter has revealed it will be more extensive than a cameo, saying:

We are teamed up for a bit. That’s the whole point of bringing that flavor to it. I can see how this works. That’s what good about it. We’re giving people what they want. ... let’s give a little Heroes for Hire somewhere in the season and see what happens

This sounds like an actual story arc--whether for a few episodes or more is hard to say (probably not more than half a season). It'll be interesting to see how Cheo Hodari Coker will write Danny Rand (he's been pretty faithful to source material, so I'd expect a more comic book accurate version), as this will be the first time Scott Buck doesn't have any impute on it. I doubt Danny will get his costume however, as that's likely going to be reserved for Iron Fist season two.

Colter couldn't say when the second season will air, but hoped for the first quarter or first half of next year (which would fit my prediction).

The site that posted the story added the following:

Though Jones’ portrayal of Danny Rand was one of the most criticized aspects of The Defenders, and his own series is the most critically-panned of all Netflix series, it was still a hit among viewers.

I'm not sure the former is true, but the latter has to be hard for sites to admit after months of crapping all over Iron Fist.

It's been reported that viewership for The Defenders was the lowest among the Netflix series'. Interestingly enough, despite that the show is the the most binge-watched of those shows (and the third highest ever). Putting aside what you think of the quality of the team-up, one of the lessons learned here is that eight-episodes is simply too easy--too disposable--and Netflix would be better off making it a longer series (something that would allow for development missing from the first installment).

I've been interested in keeping tabs on the ratings for both the Inhumans and The Gifted (I posted my review of the former's episode three--which Midnight's Edge thought was an improvement, while I think it's the weakest; my episode four review is here). The Fox show's troubles carry over from the premiere (which I discuss here)--the dry as dust mutant-menace stuff along with the poorly developed characters and soap opera-like elements (eg the lazy pregnancy plot)--it still gets good performances from Stephen Moyer (Reed Strucker) and Emma Dumont (Polaris). Ratings (also here and here) make for an interesting comparison:
Inhumans: 3.8 - 2.8 - 2.3 (0.9 - 0.7 - 0.6 key demographic) 39% drop since the premiere (33%)
The Gifted: 4.8 - 3.8 - 3.5 (1.5 -1.2 - 1.1 key demographic) 27% drop since the premiere (26%)

It's worth noting the Inhumans drop was much less between episodes 3 and 4 (17%), but more than The Gifted's drop between two and three (7%). Friday nights (when the latter airs) is well-known to have far less viewership than other nights (30% is the figure I've seen), but factoring that in The Gifted is still ahead (Inhumans latest episode would be at 3.0 with that bump). The DVR numbers are important and show both shows with significant increases (a similar edge is there, 74% vs 61%). Thus far the Fox effort has stopped the freefall, possibly due positive critical buzz. It's worth noting Inhumans is still ahead of an average Agents of SHIELD episode from last season.

This kind of thing--low ratings for superhero shows this fall--has led to some speculation (whether it's serious or clickbait is up to you) that the superhero TV bubble has burst. This is overreaching by far and is due more to the mediocre offerings of the fall. The real test is when The Punisher, Runaways, and the heavy hitters from the CW drop.

I was not impressed by The New Mutants trailer. As a fan of the early run of the comic seeing what looks like a generic horror film was disappointing (an opinion shared by others). That said, it could just be an attempt to cash in on the audience for It, but if so, it doesn't really sell the movie to comic book fans. You could watch the trailer and have no idea it's about people with superpowers. The media is creating a false dichotomy wherein people who disliked the trailer are unwilling to accept anything other than a generic comic book movie (whatever that is). My issue, and I suspect the issue many others had, is that there's nothing distinctive about the trailer--nothing that separates it from any other horror film. This doesn't mean I've lost my interest in the movie, just that I think the trailer does a poor job selling it.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Inhumans Episode Four Review

I thought the previous episode (episode three) was the worst of the series thus far, but four is a step in the right direction. It has issues, but there were elements that approached the better parts of the pilot. Written by Wendy West and directed by David Straiton, it has some well-written dialogue. I mentioned in my last review that part of the problem with the series is uneven storylines, and unfortunately Karnack's and Gorgon's remain virtually unwatchable. Crystal's suffers without Maximus' presence and Auran's drags without any strong sense of menace (Mortis comes across as a goofball rather than scary), so the show is left with the stronger footings of Maximus, Black Bolt, and Medusa. Louise's story, which I wasn't a fan of prior to this episode, improved immensely once she was attached to Medusa. In terms of plot the show is far too reliant on coincidence (each member of the royal family meets a human or humans who are both helpful to their immediate needs and serves to show them that humans aren't so bad). It also has a major conceptual flaw wherein we're told (and shown) that Attilan is a secret...and then every member of the royal family immediately tells anyone they meet who they are and where they are from. While I can come up with a reason for this (see below) the show itself should be providing one.

The ratings continued to fall (I still haven't seen PVR numbers), albeit 2.3 is higher than an average season four epsiode of Agents of SHIELD. They fell less than the gap between the pilot and episode three (26% for the latter, 17% now). In terms of the key demographic the gap was also smaller (22% vs 14%).

SPOILERS

We get a vague MCU reference from Maximus (simply referring to other superpowered individuals who are not Inhumans).

What Worked

• Medusa, despite being over the top with her aggression towards Louise early on, has the best plotline and character work in the episode (it crashes into Black Bolt's towards the end as those two are reunited)
• Black Bolt still works--bit of an average episode for him, but he's functional and we get away from his banal prison buddy (Sammy)
• Louise, I'd complained about the actress previously, but here she's fine and her interactions with Medusa are (by and large) quite good (suggesting the problem previous were director-related issues rather than the actress)
• Dr. Evan Declan, once he gets to his facility, is well played and the tie-in with Maximus further emphasized that his coup (and plans to empower himself) were long-planned
• Maximus' desire to empower himself belies his stated intent to create an egalitarian Inhuman society--this is an interesting turn and I'm curious what the show will do with it
• Auran/Mortis, while this isn't the greatest of storylines, at least the show has a reason for Mortis to not just immediately fry Black Bolt (Maximus wants genetic sampling from his brother before he dies); Auran's motivation still needs work and the actress could find another expression (it's been perma-frown since the pilot)

What Didn't

• Why set up the premise of how important it is for Attilan to stay hidden (one of the central conflicts with Maximus) when the royal family can't shut up about it as soon as they get to earth? Maybe the idea is they feel it will be revealed given Maximus' plan anyway, but if that's so it should have been stated
• Crystal's storyline--she remains privileged and annoying (as intended, but it's a bit much); the coincidence of running into a guy who knows a vet is trying (yet another convenient coincidence--a lot of these seem written in to save time)
• The genetic council, why on earth would they say no to Maximus? They had to know he'd kill them (and why deny him anyway--what did they benefit from doing that?)
• Gorgon's plotline still doesn't work, but at least he explains why Lockjaw didn't teleport the royal family all together
• Karnack's plot is the lowlight of the episode--a romance out of nowhere (is she attracted to his concussion? what's the appeal?) and he continues to not be himself

The sooner the show gets rid of the latter two plotlines the better--right now if you were to re-cut the episodes and have both simply off-camera the show would vastly improve. I think the idea is to both humble the royal family and to show them that humans aren't so bad, but that didn't necessitate making the royals elitist assholes or automatically falling in with helpful humans wherever they went. There's a lack of sophistication that makes the plot read like a first draft. Were it not for the positive performances the show would be a much bigger mess.

I think the show is on an upward trend as it starts to collapse plotlines together and that hopefully we'll get a good conclusion to the eight-episode arc. I still think it's marginally better than The Gifted (the Fox show has better cinematography and a more streamlined plot, but it's about as by-the-numbers as it could be with virtually no character depth). Regardless, I'll be glad when The Punisher drops.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Inhumans Episode Three Review

As someone who enjoyed the pilot, episode three was a step down in quality. Written by Rich Cleveland and directed by Chris Fisher, the problems of the show were accented and I hope episode four can course correct. Three episodes in I now know what element of Game of Thrones, beyond family drama, that Scott Buck was trying to imitate: multiple storylines. There are no less than 7 storylines that are ongoing (Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Karnack, Maximus (including Crystal, but she may be breaking off on her own), Auran, and Louise (which seems to have merged with Medusa's). This is an enormous amount to handle in 40 minute chunks and I think creatively they bit off more than they could chew. This episode also suffers from missing development--necessary investment by the audience into plot and character. It's frustrating because there are good elements within the show, including this episode, but so much of it seems rushed (it's reminiscent of Batman v Superman where WB was so eager to get to Justice League that they were rushing through the narrative--I'm not sure what we're rushing to in this case, admittedly).

Official ratings for the episode still aren't out (early numbers can be found here), but it did fall (still above a typical Agents of SHIELD season four episode). It will be interesting to see how the ratings pan out--the quality of the next couple of episodes is going to make a big difference.

SPOILERS

We get two oblique MCU references in this episode, both in the same scene: one to Spider-Man and another to the Thing; both are in passing, but it's welcome given how parsimonious the Netflix shows are with them.

What Worked

• Black Bolt's storyline (the police and prison guards are pretty hastily put together, but I still think it hangs together)
• Medusa's storyline (other than her ridiculous attempt to talk an ATM into giving her money)
• Maximus' storyline (I'm not sure at this stage we really needed the flashback where he's removed from the line of succession, but if anyone needed extra motivation for him, there it is)
• Anson Mount, Serinda Swan, and Iwan Rheon are the only actors who have successfully given their characters emotional weight and that continues here
• Gorgon/Auran fight--it isn't perfect by any means, but for the most part I thought it worked
• Lockjaw
• Mortis (he's very underdeveloped and a little goofy, but I found him oddly endearing--his look reminds me of Isaac from The Orville)

What Didn't

• The hatred for Inhumans--it reminds me of The Gifted where neither creative team thought any explanation was necessary for this conflict (in Buck's case, maybe he thought his audience were familiar enough with Agents of SHIELD to not need one?); I find it constantly irritating, since just one or two quick scenes could have established it
• The Inhumans cast system--no one in the show has made an argument for why the status quo (eg the royal family) is a good thing; Maximus, despite being willing to kill to get what he wants, actually has a point in the conflict and there's been no effort to create a counterpoint (the show seems to assume that because Maximus is willing to do anything to succeed that provides the counterbalance, but that doesn't work)
• A lack of set-up and development--this plagued this episode--I feel like each episode needed another 10 minutes or so to flesh out secondary characters and plots--a lot of the issues below go away with that development (there was a noticeable improvement in that respect when you compare the pilot to the theatrical release because of the extra run time)
• Flashbacks (child actors! But even Black Bolt's parent's and the genetic council guy are pretty wooden)
• Karnack's storyline (taking away his ability removes the only thing that's interesting about him; the weird drug plantation people are just as random as Gorgon's friends--there's no investment in them; Karnack babbling about his family is also silly (I guess we blame the concussion, although it's exactly what Gorgon did in episode two); on the plus side, at least he realises he's concussed and we get a tiny piece of his backstory); Ken Leung has had some good moments, so I think the material here is holding him back
• Gorgon's storyline (has the same support problem as above, albeit arriving at the conflict helped--I still have no idea why the beach guys side with Gorgon, but it's pretty fortunate they want to die for him...just because--the reason offered is pretty goofy)
• Auran's storyline (we're not told enough about Mortis or anything about her other assistants, while her motives in helping Maximus remain underdeveloped; her acting is also pretty stilted)
• Louise's storyline (thankfully at an end as Medusa takes her hostage; the acting was a bit better than the pilot; we don't know enough about the character to get invested)
• Crystal (the acting is still weak, although there were glimmers of improvement)

Part of the basic framework of where we're going is pretty clear at this point. Each of the members of the royal family on earth are meeting a human (or humans) who are going to, well, humanize their view of humanity. They'll all come together and face off against...I'm not sure what, as I'm not convinced Maximus is the final villain. I'm not sure where the plot with the benefactor who rescues Black Bolt is going--is it a double cross, or is it something else? It's hard to say, although I think the show's end game is still to get the characters permanently to earth.

While I thought this was a weak episode, I'm still hopeful that as the plot tightens things will improve. Whatever you think of the show there are quality actors here and it would be a shame for Marvel to lose them just because this season is flawed. For fans of the show there is some hope out there: despite all the negativity in the press some are moving beyond the rhetoric and in terms of buzz it's still a bigger deal than the critically approved The Gifted (it's only real TV competition at this stage, as the Inhumans series will be over by the time The Punisher and The Runaways debut).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Marvel TV News

While Netflix continues to torture us by holding back the release date for The Punisher (likely delayed even longer now that its NYCC appearance has been cancelled), we do know a little more about the show, as some of the directors are now listed:

• Andy Goddard (among his extensive TV credits are solitary episodes for Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil season two)
• Marc Jobst (a lengthy TV career, he directed solitary episodes of Luke Cage and Daredevil season two)
• Kari Skogland (extensive TV experience, but this is her first venture into Marvel Netflix)
• Stephen Surjik (has directed at least one episode of every Marvel Netflix show--a streak that will end with Jessica Jones season two)
• Jeremy Webb (the same sort of background as Skogland above)

Despite all the negative press there was still anticipation for ABC's Inhumans (at least, judging by this chart via Rotten Tomatoes). How did that register in the ratings? Variety noted it beat its 8pm competition in the coveted 18-49 demographic, while just losing out in the 9pm slot. Bleeding Cool noted it's numbers were superior to both Agents of SHIELD's normal numbers and its season four finale. Given the critical drubbing this is a solid opening--episode three will provide insight into how fans reacted to the TV pilot, albeit it's future is up in the air and likely controlled by Disney. One of the funny results of all the negative buzz is that there is buzz (unlike The Gifted, see below), so that people are curious about it even if they perceive it as a train wreck.

Speaking of the show, I posted a review looking at the differences between the movie and TV versions.

I've been thinking about the release dates for the Marvel Netflix shows. Prior to 2017 there had never been more than two shows released in a year. The current overlapping filming schedules suggest we'll be getting seasons much more rapidly, albeit we don't know just how quickly since Netflix drags its heels with Marvel release announcements. The best way to illustrate this is to look at what's happened in the past along with what we know about the future:

Completed
Daredevil (1): filming July-December (5 months), released in April, 2015 (4 months later)
Jessica Jones (1): filming February-August (6 months), released in November, 2015 (3 months)
Daredevil (2): filming July-December (5 months), released in March, 2016 (3 months)
Luke Cage (1): filming September-March (6 months), released in September, 2016 (6 months)
Iron Fist (1): filming April-October (6 months), released in March, 2017 (5 months)
The Defenders (1): filming October-March (5 months), released in August, 2017 (5 months)

Upcoming
The Punisher (1): filming October-April (6 months), released Oct/Nov, 2017 (6/7 months)
Jessica Jones (2): filming April-September (5 months)
Luke Cage (2): filming June-December (6 months)
Daredevil (3): filming October*-c.March
Iron Fist (2): filming January*-c.May
*unconfirmed

The gap between the end of filming and release seems to be growing longer (5-6 months of late), but I think that's less a trend and more to do with specific circumstance.  With this in mind we can speculate on release dates. So far the shortest gap between releases has been four months (between JJ and DD2), which will be beat by Punisher at 2 or 3 (I'll look at 3 or 4 month rotations and see how they fit):
JJ2 - January/February - January seems most likely to me, with February having Black Panther as its focus
LC2 - April-June - April; seems prudent to avoid Infinity War (May), albeit the four-month schedule would put it in May if my JJ prediction is correct
DD3 - July-October - July (makes the most sense on the 3-month rotation); this becomes September on the 4-month schedule if my JJ prediction is correct

IF2 - October-February - October; in the 4-month version this is January, both of which are empty of comparable competition

To summarize: for a three-month rotation I see JJ in January, LC in April, DD in July, and IF in October; on a four-month rotation it's January, May, September, and January.

Interesting news for Luke Cage season two has come out, as Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Danny Rand will be appearing in the show. This makes a lot of sense, given that we know Misty Knight is joining Iron Fist season two, and further boosts the Heroes for Hire bond teased in The Defenders. I'd guess the appearance will be in the nature of a cameo (based on the fact that Finn Jones has been on the convention circuit while LC2 has been filming the last three plus months--and is just starting his Kung Fu training only recently (see below). It is possible, incidentally, that his scenes were shot at the beginning of the LC2 shoot before The Defenders dropped (which would also suggest just a cameo). I like the idea of the Netflix characters popping up in each other's shows and I hope we get more of it.

Finn Jones has started training for the next season of Iron Fist. If we can take his previous comments literally (that he's training for 4-5 months) than we can expect filming to begin in January or February (completing in July/August and production completed October/November).

Just an incidental about the show: I've been pointing out for awhile that it's far more popular than given credit for, but it's true that it is the only show that people actively hate. While other shows have disliked elements, they don't get active hate. Iron Fist is pretty polarizing--people either liked it or they actively despise it (interestingly, the latter are often fans of the comics). Overcoming the latter sentiment is probably going to require critical praise, but whether that ship has sailed or not remains to be seen.

There has been very little buzz about the Runaways even though it's just two months away (perhaps NYCC will change that). One interesting thing about it is that MCU guru Kevin Feige has a producer credit for the show, which is highly unusual for Marvel TV (the only other TV property he's been involved with was Agent Carter)--I wonder what brought him to the Hulu project?

A thought going back to the news that The Defenders viewership numbers in the US were low: whatever feedback Netflix gets on why this is can't be incorporated into plans for Jessica Jones season two (filming is complete), Luke Cage season two (filming is ongoing), or have much impact on Daredevil season three (filming will start soon so the scripts and storyline are already done). I think the lesson has already been learned however, as Netflix waived goodbye to the Hand--both JJ and LC would have more grounded stories anyway, and it's clear DD3 will follow suit (I have no idea what Iron Fist season two will be like--scripts are likely still being written for it and the only known change is that Finn Jones will be better at Kung Fu--see above).

The Gifted, despite critical praise, is receiving a very muted response (eg Emergency Awesome's Charlie Schneider bailed on plans to make videos about it). I watched it and it looked exactly like what you'd expect a Bryan Singer-directed pilot would look like: everything is dark, gritty, and firmly rooted in 1980s X-Men themes. I thought the acting was largely histrionic (clearly a product of the directing), with the plot unimaginative and derivative. Polaris was the best thing about the show and while things could improve a lot needs to change for it to succeed. The metaphor of mutants as a prosecuted minority without set-up doesn't really work anymore--superheroes have broad popular appeal so the conceit requires actual buy-in (they have to be presented as a threat first), which the show doesn't attempt. Not much effort is put Polaris' crew (Jamie Chung's Blink is a big step down from Bingbing Fan's in Days of Future Past), while the Strucker family comes across as bland and generic (with Lauren unsympathetic and annoying and her brother Andy simply annoying). Will the show be a success? It's hard to say, but the lack of buzz and the heavy competition from other superhero shows means it has a tough hill to climb (and how do you continue to seem gritty when The Punisher drops?).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)