Marvel Television was originally a separate entity from Marvel Studios, spearheaded by Jeph Loeb under the watchful eye of former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac Perlmutter.
Before being shut down in 2019 (when Disney handed full control of all things Marvel to Kevin Feige), Marvel Television produced the likes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Netflix's Defenders slate, and even the likes of Cloak & Dagger, The Runaways, and M.O.D.O.K.
The vast majority of characters were off-limits to Marvel Television, with Marvel Studios' desires prioritised by Disney. For Feige, Loeb's outfit was an annoyance, particularly as much of what they produced - Inhumans, for example - damaged the MCU brand.
Marvel Studios has since discovered that producing TV shows isn't as easy as it looks. Last year, the decision was made to creatively overhaul Daredevil: Born Again and the studio's small screen output as a whole, with "Head Writers" finally replaced with proper showrunners.
We've yet to see the impact of that, but during the Walt Disney Company's Upfront presentation in New York yesterday evening, Marvel Television made its return...minus everyone who was involved before 2019, of course.
To get the MCU back on track, the idea is for Marvel Studios to focus solely on movies, getting back to quality over quantity. Marvel Animation will continue producing the likes of What If...? and X-Men '97, while Marvel Television will focus on Disney+ TV shows and small screen content.
While we're sure Feige is still overseeing everything, this likely means specific executives have been assigned to each division. That should result in the same producers no longer having to work on movies and TV shows at the same time, a decision which resulted in a decline in quality which led to the negative reception to projects like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion.
Hopefully, Marvel will reveal more details about the changes soon. This appears to be a step in the right direction, though.
"We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three," Disney CEO Bob Iger said last week. "And we’re working hard on what that path is."
He added, "Overall, I feel great about the slate. It’s something that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on. The team is one that I have tremendous confidence in and the IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing, is second to none."
Stay tuned for updates. You can see the new Marvel Television logo below.