New Puck News Report Claims Marvel Has Multiple Live-Action Disney Plus Shows In Development

A new exclusive from Puck News writer Matthew Belloni claims Marvel Studios has multiple live-action series in development for Disney Plus, with announcements expected soon. That directly contradicts reporting from the last several weeks suggesting Marvel Television was shifting toward animation and stepping back from live action almost entirely.

Three weeks ago I covered industry insider reporting indicating Marvel might be all but done with live action television. At that point, outside of Daredevil season 3 and the upcoming Vision Quest, and following the reported cancellation of Wonder Man season 2 after it had already been publicly greenlit, plus Nova's reported cancellation last year, there were no Marvel live-action television shows officially announced or even rumored to be in pre-production.

Collider's Report On Vision Quest Suggested Live-Action Was Being Cut Back

Nine days ago, Collider ran an exclusive under the headline "Vision Quest could officially mark the end of an era for Marvel." Collider reported: "Marvel's next big Disney Plus TV show on the slate is Vision Quest starring Paul Bettany. And while it's believed that more shows were on the way after its conclusion, that is no longer the case. Collider has learned after Vision Quest, Marvel Studios will be cutting back on live action Disney Plus TV shows."

Notice that Collider stopped short of saying live action was completely canceled, the way earlier rumors had framed it, but it still amounted to major Hollywood editorial acknowledging that, at the very least, live-action Marvel Television was on life support.

Puck News Claims Multiple Live-Action Shows Are Actually In Development

That is where the new Puck News exclusive picks up. Belloni wrote that among all the news out of D23, "it didn't escape notice that not a single new Marvel show was announced for Disney Plus." He quoted an unnamed executive who texted him on Sunday, half kidding: "I guess our plan is just Spider-Man."

But Belloni went further, writing: "In fact, I've learned that there are multiple live-action Marvel series in development for Disney Plus with announcements expected soon. Integrating a new batch of X-Men characters set to appear in Avengers Doomsday and expanding the theatrical universe further with new characters like Marvel's Nova, which is in current development, may bleed into the streamer's franchise strategy."

How Nova And The X-Men Could Connect To These New Shows

Nova was originally developed as a television show, with Henry Cavill rumored to be in talks to play the villain Annihilus. That version was canceled at Disney Plus, or at least went into limbo, and is now being developed as a feature film instead, based on quotes from Kevin Feige. Feige has also said the X-Men are basically a multi-saga story, and there is a real likelihood the next couple of sagas at Marvel Studios could focus on mutants.

Putting those pieces together, I think Belloni's hints about Nova and the X-Men bleeding into the streamer's franchise strategy insinuate that whatever characters or titles get the limited live-action Disney Plus shows will be adjacent to either the cosmic side with Nova or the X-Men side. Since the X-Men reboot will only have so many core members and students at Xavier's school to begin with, a TV show would be a natural way to develop other characters adjacent to the X-Men before feeding them into the movie.

Why I Think Marvel Should Make Fewer Shows, But Make Them Count

Marvel has recently said it does not like the idea of TV shows requiring "homework" from the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think they are looking at it the wrong way. "I still feel the same way now as I did then," and my view is that yes, there were too many TV shows, but when Marvel gave audiences shows that actually counted, fans loved them, and I still want the MCU to explore series like Loki season 2.

My take is to roll it all the way back to only one or two live-action shows a year that are adjacent to the movies and do require the homework, but make them count when they do them. Part of why the original reporting about scaling back got lost in translation is economic: if a show is not making money, and Disney Plus is not gaining enough new viewers to make up for the spending, with Secret Invasion reportedly losing 250 million dollars and other shows not even breaking into the Nielsen top 10, it stops making sense to keep making them.

Making one or two shows that really count, in the vein of WandaVision or Loki seasons 1 and 2, is a different proposition, and I think the fandom would appreciate them more with higher quality and lower quantity, getting one maybe every other year while Marvel focuses its higher output on animated projects instead. That leans into what the original report said Marvel was doing, since even when an animated project turns out great, there is an unlikely chance any of it ever finds its way into a feature film. There is, in my view, an indelible line between the animated work Marvel does on Disney Plus and the live-action work it does on the big screen, and for economic reasons it makes more sense for the higher-volume projects to be animated. That said, I would not be surprised if Marvel finds a secondary or tertiary X-Men character, or an adjacent character, who deserves a six-part series or a mini-series or special to lead into a movie.

When Could These New Show Announcements Actually Arrive?

Belloni's report says announcements are expected soon, but Marvel has already passed D23 and San Diego Comic-Con, the two biggest recent opportunities for that kind of news. There is reportedly a chance Marvel Studios could show up at New York Comic-Con, and there is also CCXP in Brazil at the end of the year, but I do not think Marvel has any major announcements left on the calendar, though I could be wrong, since all eyes right now are on Avengers Doomsday.

Taking that reporting at its word, I am curious when and how these announcements would actually surface. It is possible he simply means Hollywood trades like Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter will eventually get hold of what these projects are. I have also heard other rumblings, from other industry insiders, that production companies are already opening up for these live-action projects, and once the trades catch wind of casting, it tends to get reported almost immediately.

Of all the characters floating around the cosmic universe and the X-Men universe, which one would you want to see get a solo show on Disney Plus?