If you watched the recently concluded X-Men ’97 about Disney+You may have noticed that the series had a small but important difference from the Marvel Disney+’s previous series. Instead of opening with the traditional animated “Marvel Studios” logo featuring clips from previous films Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and series, started with a slightly different logo for something called “Marvel Television”.
You may have simply assumed that the change was intended to indicate X-Men ’97 it was animated rather than live-action, but that’s apparently not the case. A new article claims that the new logo is part of a deliberate effort by Marvel to subtly indicate to fans that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown so much that they are no longer expected to watch every episode past or present, nor do they. to need watch the whole thing to follow the overall narrative.
This is what Brad Winderbaum, Marvel executive and head of streaming, TV and animation at the company, said. Variety. He explains that there was “a lot of post-Avengers: Endgame make the audience feel obligated to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything.” This new “rebranding”, in Winderbaum’s words, aims to signal…
…to the general public that we are creating many options, and you can follow your taste within this brand. Some will be more comedic, some will be more dramatic, some will be animated, some will be live-action. Marvel is more than just one thing – it’s actually many different genres that have coexisted in a single narrative.
“The characters still live and breathe in the same universe, but the interconnectivity isn’t so tight that you need to watch Project A to understand Project B,” Winderbaum added.
You can expect to see the “Marvel Television” logo on more upcoming productions, including live-action ones. For example, here it is on the newly released logo for the upcoming Disney+ show Ágatha all the time.
SEE MORE INFORMATION: What One Man Learned From Reading All 27,000 Marvel Comics
Winderbaum said the company wants to “dispel the idea that you need to do any kind of setup to watch anything else.”
“The hope,” he added, “is that, like in the comics, you can just show up anywhere and have a satisfying experience.”
After more than 15 years and dozens of films and shows, it seems we’ve reached the point where the MCU’s continuity is now so large and elaborate that it’s becoming a barrier to entry for new viewers. When it started, part of the MCU’s appeal was that it had no continuity; Casual fans of the characters who had rarely or never read the Marvel books before could watch the films cold and get in on the ground floor.
That ground floor was many years ago, with Marvel currently launching projects in the fifth “phase” of the MCU, with at least one more “phase” already in development in the future. And although Winderbaum claims that Marvel Studios wants its productions to work more like its comics, Marvel Comics has had similar problems with continuity and “set-up work” over the decades.
In the early 2000s, for example, the original Marvel Universe was considered too dense and full of continuity for new readers. Marvel responded by introducing its “Ultimate” line of comics, featuring modern reinterpretations of classic characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men. These books began their core concepts from the beginning, with several updates to the material to suit contemporary tastes. And these “Ultimate” books became important inspirations at the beginning of the MCU. The Samuel L. Jackson version of Nick Fury, for example, first appeared in the pages of The last (the equivalent of the Avengers in the Ultimate Universe) before Jackson himself played the character on screen.
In essence, Marvel (and also its rivals at DC) have been around for so long that they have become victims of their own success. There are so many great comics to read that neophytes are intimidated by it all and don’t know where to start. It appears this cycle has begun again, this time within the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself.
So what can Marvel do about this? Calling some things “Marvel Studios” productions and others “Marvel Television” is certainly an option – although I think that distinction is so small that many people won’t even notice. Those who do may become confused.
I think the most important step is less about a clearer brand and more about a stronger narrative. The Irony of Trying to Let Casual Fans Know They Don’t “Need” to Watch X-Men ’97 is that the series was perhaps the best thing Marvel has produced for Disney+ so far. True, in a sense it came with what Winderbaum calls “prep work,” in the sense that it was a sequel to an old cartoon from the 1990s. But the reality is that you didn’t need to know anything about X-Men: The Animated Series to like X-Men ’97beyond the most basic notion of the central concept. The show was so well written and directed rewarded anyone willing to try it.
X-Men ’97 it also had the advantage of not needing to connect to anyone or anything in the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe; the season finale merely teased future episodes of X-Men ’97not future shows or movies that may never go into production (he said after recently revisiting Eternals and to be reminded once again that Marvel introduced Harry Styles and Blade to the MCU almost three years ago and so far neither of them have appeared again anywhere else). There is certainly a lesson in this for the company as well.
Telling its audience that they should just relax and enjoy what they want is probably a smart strategy for Marvel. Comics are supposed to be fun; they are what you read instead of homework, no as homework to enjoy other things. But making the content so good that the audience can’t resist watching it all is probably an even better strategy. The next MCU film, Deadpool and Wolverinepremieres on July 26th. The next MCU series, Agatha all the timepremieres on Disney+ (from Marvel Television) on September 18.
![Marvel is now telling fans they don't have to watch everything 1 ScreenCrush logo](https://thegurumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1711375856_511_screencrush.png)
Every Marvel Phase Four Movie and TV Show Ranked
After eight TV shows and seven films, Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is complete. What were the highlights and lowlights? We sort them all.