Did Marvel's Disney+ Change In 2021 Actually Work? | Screen Rant
Warning: this article contains SPOILERS for Hawkeye.
Marvel Studios' hopes of venturing into the world of TV were finally realized in 2021 with the release of five MCU Disney+ shows, to varying levels of success. The MCU's Phase 4 kicked off in January of 2021 with the release of Marvel Studios' first Dinsey+ Show, Wandavision, after audiences were forced to wait for over a year for new MCU content. The new format soon took over the MCU's 2021 run with five different shows spread out across the year, forming the majority of the MCU's releases when combined with the four films the franchise added to its catalog throughout the year. This new form of storytelling fundamentally changed the way audiences experience the MCU, as it now includes smaller stories that can be watched from the comfort of home alongside the blockbuster films.
Even though the Disney+ shows already outnumber the movies in the MCU's 2021 library of releases, Marvel Studios don't seem like they are planning on slowing down. The MCU will add twice as many Disney+ shows to its catalog in the next two years compared to movies. This drastic shift in Marvel Studios' modus operandi makes sense from a business point of view as well since their shows have a smaller budget and cast, as well as shorter production and post-production periods.
While still flawed, the Disney+ shows were able to serve their purpose successfully. The five MCU shows that came out in 2021 presented Marvel with opportunities to focus on characters who were not getting enough attention in the movies, like Wanda and Sam Wilson, and to adapt story arcs the films simply did not have time for. Marvel Studios were able to give these characters compelling arcs through this longer form of storytelling, while at the same time managing to provide a semi-steady flow of MCU content year-round.
Prior to Phase 4, the MCU was limited to blockbuster feature films, with gaps as long as eight months in between some of them. The weekly episodic release structure of the Disney+ shows managed to hook audiences for months at a time, and kept the MCU relevant even when fans had to wait 2 full years between Spider-Man: Far From Home and Black Widow. This was possible thanks to the new form of storytelling these shows introduced to the MCU, by focusing on side characters and telling smaller and more contained stories, which was the case in Wandavision and Hawkeye. This is not to say that the Disney+ shows have no real impact on the MCU, since some of them, like Loki, had a huge effect on the larger MCU by being the first project to introduce the concept of the multiverse and possibly the MCU's next major villain.
The drawn-out storytelling format allowed Marvel Studios to pack more character development and better thought out character arcs into these shows than any other MCU project. Shows like Wandavision and Loki gave audiences a chance to enjoy these characters in entirely new scenarios and emotional situations. It is also important to note that Marvel's first experiment in the world of animation, What If...?, dabbled with anthological storytelling, which is uncharted territory for the studio.
Perhaps the most important virtue of Marvel's 2021 Disney+ shows is that they offered fresh takes on established MCU characters. Not only did the shows delve deep into their respective characters' mythos, but they did so through stories the likes of which were never seen before in the MCU. One of the best examples of this is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a show that dealt with the concept of Steve Rogers' legacy through a political espionage lens, a genre that has not been explored in the MCU since 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
While Falcon was a unique MCU project, the show that broke new ground the most has to be Wandavision. Easily the most creative of the bunch, Wandavision's take on the sitcom format set it apart as the most unusual project in MCU history. Through the twisted sitcom structure, Wandavision managed to tell a gripping, emotional story that dealt with Wanda's love and grief, finally giving her the character development her comic book counterpart warrants. The genre fusion achieved in the show, paired with great performances from Elizabeth Olsen and the rest of the cast, makes Wandavision arguably the best MCU Disney+ show to date.
What If...? aside, all of Marvel's 2021 Disney+ shows focused on established characters, and what these shows managed to do for those characters bodes well for 2022 and beyond where the vast majority of the MCU's Disney+ releases will star new characters. Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel are three of the six shows Marvel Studios has lined up for 2022, all of which will mark their titular characters' first MCU appearance. This could be very beneficial for the MCU, especially in Phase 4. All of the most beloved MCU characters are held at such high regard due to the amount of time they spent occupying screens, allowing enough time for character development and more importantly, giving the audience enough time to form deep connections to said characters. The long-form storytelling structure of MCU Disney+ shows will allow Marvel Studios to pack a great deal of character development into a character's first appearance, which could help make audiences care about characters like Moon Knight and She-Hulk as much they care about Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner directly after their first project.
The Disney+ shows give Marvel Studios another advantage, which is the ability to introduce characters into the MCU in a much quicker fashion. Ever since Samuel L. Jackson showed up as Nick Fury in Iron Man's post-credits scene, comic book fans have unleashed a constant barrage of requests for certain characters to join the MCU, and the Disney+ shows allow Marvel to accelerate the process of meeting those demands. The Disney+ series could also act as a stepping stone for new characters to take part in future MCU movies, such is the case with Ms. Marvel. Kamala Khan is set to lead her own show premiering in the summer of 2022 and is confirmed to play a significant role in The Marvels, releasing early 2023. With the number of characters Marvel is planning to add to the MCU, it's simply not feasible to give each one of them a solo film. While bigger characters like Blade and the Fantastic Four will be introduced through full-length features, the Disney+ shows still give Marvel a chance to aim the spotlight at smaller characters like She-Hulk and Riri Williams.
Even though 2021's MCU series were met with near-unanimous praise, they all faced a similar problem when it comes to their villains. All of the four live-action Disney+ releases were constantly teasing villains that did not reveal themselves until the finale or the penultimate episode at best. Wandavision did it with Agatha, Loki with Kang, Falcon and The Winter Soldier with Sharon Carter, and Hawkeye with the Kingpin. While all four of these villains are great characters with rich comic book history and great talent behind them, waiting until the final third of the show's total runtime to reveal these villains was detrimental to both the villains and the overall story. Not only did revealing the villains at the last possible moment not give audiences enough time to understand their motivations and relate to them, but it also took away from the value of the smaller antagonists that appeared throughout the four shows, S.W.O.R.D., the TVA, the Flagsmashers, and the Tracksuit Mafia. This was especially ruinous for characters like Kang and Kingpin, who could easily replace Thanos as the MCU's next overarching threat.
Ultimately, the move to add Disney+ shows to the MCU paid off. The series managed to tell deep and impactful stories about characters that did not get the chance to shine in the movies. The shows were also able to create real stakes, both physical and emotional, that are bound to have lasting impacts on the MCU's future. While the villain problem of the main MCU movies did rub off on the MCU Disney+ shows, it was not as detrimental as it was to the films, since each show introduced multiple villains rather than focus on one. It remains to be seen if the 2022 shows will meet the same success when they are set to focus on introducing new characters as opposed to the established characters of 2021's Disney+ releases.