When Disney+ launched, it allowed Marvel Studios to expand the MCU—for better or worse—by bringing it to the small screen. That included launching Marvel Studios: Assembled, a series of documentaries produced for the streamer that took fans behind the scenes of the Multiverse Saga's movies and TV shows.
The first of them premiered in March 2021 and explored "The Making of WandaVision."
Documentaries for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki season 1, Black Widow, What If...?, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Hawkeye, Eternals, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ms. Marvel, Thor: Love and Thunder, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever all followed in Phase 4.
For Phase 5, we had Assembled specials for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Secret Invasion, Loki season 2, Echo, The Marvels, X-Men '97, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Agatha All Along. Unfortunately, none of 2025's releases have been the subject of a documentary since then, and the series was officially scrapped in June.
The DisInsider has taken a deep dive into the cancellation of Assembled, explaining, "Industry insiders say that Disney+ and Marvel Studios have no plans to bring the show back anytime soon."
The site adds, "Disney did not cancel Assembled because people hated it. The truth is much more boring: money. Every minute of content on Disney+ costs the company something, even a documentary that mostly uses footage shot during regular production."
"Those costs add up. When Disney looked at the numbers, the viewership for Assembled episodes simply didn’t justify keeping the series alive," they explain. "The grim truth about streaming is that each show, even a low-budget documentary, has to work hard to get on the service."
The report later points out that the Assembled documentary for Agatha All Along was released for free on YouTube, meaning it wasn't a Disney+ exclusive. As they put it, "That action made it apparent the management no longer felt the program would attract or retain customers."
Disney has been looking to cut streaming costs in recent years, so the cancellation wasn't a huge surprise. It's a shame, though, especially as the "making-of" featurettes accompanying Digital and Blu-ray releases are typically pretty short and lacking in substance.
Marvel Studios might be relieved not to have to produce them, as it's one less job at a time when the studio is looking to prioritise quality over quantity. At the same time, it would be pretty challenging to take us behind the scenes of troubled productions like Captain America: Brave New World and Daredevil: Born Again...