The age of Marvel Cinematic Universe television is dead

The Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Thanos first appeared in the mid-credit scene of The Avengers. It was a momentous moment signaling the next big baddie for the franchise and seven subsequent years of cinema. This introduction also solidified the importance of The Avengers to Marvel Studios. The first big Marvel Studios crossover feature wasn’t just a momentous occasion for merely existing. It also contained clear glimpses into the saga’s future.

Nearly a decade later, Marvel Studios tried something similar. The Multiverse Saga’s big baddie Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) would first appear in Loki’s season one finale. Appearing as his whimsical yet tormented He Who Remains variant, a future Avengers villain (and the fact that he had endless doppelgangers across the multiverse) had been established. However, Kang did not first appear in the same domain Thanos made his grand MCU entrance.

Thanos turned around and grinned at movie theaters around the world.

Kang, meanwhile, made his first appearance on the streamer Disney+.

Pulling off a crossover movie was Marvel’s big imperative in the 2010s. At the dawn of the 2020s, that same label dedicated itself to churning out streaming “content” for the Mouse House. In the name of that mission, future Avengers villains didn’t just potentially cameo in Marvel Cinematic Universe streaming shows. They made their first full-fledged appearance in this medium.

Folks didn’t just have to keep up with three or four new Marvel Studios movies a year. There were also now a slew of TV shows to keep track of. That reality existed from 2021 to 2024, but like a timeline pruned by the TVA, it’s now dissipated. The 2024 Marvel Studios San-Diego Comic-Con panel put the final nail in the coffin of the age of Marvel Cinematic Universe television show.

Unlike Kevin Feige’s voyages to this convention in 2019 and 2022, Marvel Studios didn’t highlight TV shows alongside movies at its Hall H showcase in 2024. The focus was on three 2025 movies before concluding with the reveal of Avengers: Doomsday’s name, directors, and Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom. Agatha All Along, Ironheart, Wonder Man, Daredevil: Born Again, and the various animated shows were nowhere to be seen. This absence came a few months after Marvel began frantically differentiating the labeling of Marvel movies and TV shows.

Previously, programs like , , and were adorned with the Marvel Studios logo. It was a clear way to tell people that they better subscribe to Disney+ lest they miss out on productions tied into those movies everyone watches. Then, Marvel introduced the Marvel Spotlight label housing largely standalone grounded productions like Echo. Animated programs like X-Men '97 were now under the Marvel Animation banner. This fall, Agatha All Along will be the first live-action Disney+/MCU production to carry the Marvel Television moniker. A barrier formed between small-screen and big-screen Marvel Studios productions reinforced ten-fold at that 2024 SDCC panel.

Let’s back up for a minute, though. How did we get to this point? Phase Four and Five movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe heavily leaned on Disney+ shows, after all. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness continued directly from Wandavision. Loki’s The Void and TVA played big roles in Deadpool & Wolverine. The Marvels built off storylines and characters from WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. Meanwhile, 2025 features Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts will each play off The Falcon & The Winter Soldier storylines. However, those projects were all either released or announced before November 2023. Even 2025’s Falcon & The Winter Soldier quasi-sequels were initially announced at the 2022 edition of SDCC.

Since then, some stark realities have emerged for Marvel’s big forays into streaming programming. Initial forays like WandaVision and Loki were both viewership successes and pop culture obsessions. However, the novelty of seeing Marvel Studios stories on streaming quickly lost some of its luster with people, especially once the programs tried to introduce new characters like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. Without familiar movie icons to draw in folks, the shows bled viewership. Increasingly mixed marks for these programs didn't help either. By 2023, just two years after starting its streaming programming expedition, Marvel Studios had a problem. while Loki’s second season drew significantly fewer viewers than the first season. Meanwhile, bad reviews for properties like Secret Invasion tarnished the Marvel Studios brand.

Marvel Studios, like the rest of the Mouse House and countless other media companies, has gradually realized it’s hard to make streaming a lucrative business. Throwing TV shows and movies that cost over $200+ million onto a streaming service with no alternative ways to create revenue, shocker shocker, turned out to be an unwise idea. Mimicking Netflix looked like a can’t-miss proposition in 2018. In execution, it’s turned into a problem. Billions were sunk launching services like Peacock and AMC+ audiences aren’t especially hankering for.

As for the land of superheroes, general audiences haven’t been especially excited seeing Marvel TV lore go into the movies. The bedrock of streaming programs couldn’t bolster the dismal box office haul of The Marvels. Nobody is clamoring for Emilia Clarke in Secret Invasion to show up in the next two Avengers movies. At my press screening for The Marvels, Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop and Pizza Dog’s appearance in the film’s final scene was met with crickets rather than chatters of excitement. There have been outright terrific episodes of television in shows like WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, and Loki. However, most live-action MCU Disney+ productions left lots of potential on the table.

Part of this entire problem stemmed from the inexperience of Marvel Studios brass in television. The initial plan for these programs was to turn them into lengthier movies. This was reflected in key details like the absence of showrunners and plot structures akin to season-long films. Those qualities turned out to be a disastrous decision. Shows like The Falcon & The Winter Soldiers suffered from laggy pacing and didn’t benefit from positive qualities unique to television. Unsurprisingly, the rare Marvel Studios TV show to receive unanimously positive reviews is X-Men ’97. That endeavor built its entire storytelling aesthetic around mimicking a soap opera.

After all these calamities, Marvel Studios isn’t abandoning TV. Future programs will employ showrunners while Kevin Feige recently revealed that another Marvel Studios Special Presentation (like Werewolf by Night) is in development. However, expect future productions like Wonder Man to exist far away from the larger Marvel movies. The days of MCU movie post-credit scenes teasing plot points or even showcasing enter scenes from streaming shows are also likely a thing of the past. Black Widow and Quantumania both did just that with their post-credit segments. It’s doubtful that'll return in the future.

Furthermore, anyone thinking key Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars plot points and characters will debut in streaming shows has lost their mind. The reveal of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom solidified that Avengers baddies are now big-screen attractions. There’s no doubt his Doom will make some kind of appearance in The Fantastic Four: First Steps next year. If that happened, Doom, like Thanos, would make his MCU debut in a big-screen feature. What a contrast to Kang, who first emerged on the streaming show Loki.

Marvel’s original Multiverse Saga plans that would’ve culminated in Avengers: The Kang Dystany and Avengers: Secret Wars have clearly been overhauled. That change in trajectory doesn’t just speak volumes about how Marvel Studios is course-correcting after a dreadful 2023. It’s also a microcosm of the larger film industry figuring out what the future of pop culture looks like. Everyone’s pumping the brakes on shifting all their chips onto streaming. At the same time, the few surviving movie studios cling to pop culture relics to get audiences back into theaters. Shrek, Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso, and Robert Downey Jr. as a Marvel character are just a few familiar figures dominating theaters over the next two years.

Hollywood’s long-standing obsession with franchises and IP is only becoming more fervent. Studios are desperately trying to resuscitate a theatrical landscape they themselves kneecapped by putting everything on streaming. In the middle of all this chaos, the age of Marvel Cinematic Universe television has quietly ended. Kang and streaming shows are no longer priority number one for Marvel Studios.

Having the next big multi-movie baddie debut in Loki once signaled that Marvel Studios aimed to become king of the streaming entertainment landscape. Thanos signaled the arrival of a multi-film saga that would dominate theaters in the 2010s. So too could Kang, on paper, herald the new champion of small-screen entertainment. Three years later, that guest appearance is just a strange detour down roads that will never be fully paved. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original TV plans are dead and buried…just like countless other media conglomerate ambitions in the age of streaming.