Last week, the news broke that Marvel Studios has shelved TV shows revolving around Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror, Inc. The biggest shocker was Richard Rider's long-awaited MCU debut being put on "pause," especially as we were hearing some exciting things about the show.
The change likely comes as a result of Marvel Television moving away from series that set the stage for movies. For example, The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World underperforming has been blamed on them requiring people to have tuned into WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier beforehand.
With that in mind, a new approach makes sense.
Talking to Phase Hero, Brad Winderbaum, Head of Streaming, Television and Animation at Marvel Studios, broke his silence reports that Nova will no longer move forward and elaborated on what led to that happening.
"As you know, we've talked about it before, we're developing more than we make," he started. "It's a traditional television model but we're Marvel so there's more of a spotlight on us. Nova, certainly, is a favourite character of mine as well. There are so many variables. When we develop something, the material might be really great but the timing might be wrong."
"As we figure out what we're gonna greenlight, certain things may have to go on pause from time to time. It doesn't mean they'll never get made but we're only going to make things we feel are ready and can go on for multiple seasons," Winderbaum added.
It makes sense, particularly as Nova sounded like a pricey one-off series - with a cosmic setting - meant to set the stage for an adaptation of Annihilation somewhere down the line.
The interview took place to promote Daredevil: Born Again and Winderbaum was asked about the show's vague nods to superheroes like Spider-Man (you can find out how the wall-crawler is referenced here). Explaining that was meant as a nod to Netflix's Daredevil, he added, "Those characters are well-known in the world we're you. You don't need to say their names."
Asked whether Tom Holland's Spider-Man could appear in a TV series, he added, "You know, I'm not sure exactly what the rules are but I think they have longform television rights. We can do 30-minute animation, I think."
That doesn't mean Daredevil can't team up with Peter Parker in Spider-Man 4 next summer. However, when it comes to seeing Spidey on Disney+, it appears the hero will only swing into action in animated projects like What If...?, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and the upcoming Marvel Zombies.
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