Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige announced the company will be cutting back on Disney+ shows following a disastrous 2022 that saw none of their shows crack the top 15 streaming shows.
Nielsen revealed their Top 15 Streaming Programs of 2022 back in January and only three Disney+ programs cracked the list: Encanto, Bluey, and The Simpsons.
When looking at Nielsen’s Top 15 Original Streaming Programs, nothing from Disney+ made the list and that includes the Marvel Studios productions that released in 2022: Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, I Am Groot, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
In a wide-ranging interview with Entertainment Weekly, Feige revealed the company would be cutting back on their Disney+ programming.
Feige said, “We want Marvel Studios and the MCU projects to really stand out and stand above. So, people will see that as we get further into Phase 5 and 6. The pace at which we’re putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine.”
When asked if he would be spacing them out or putting out fewer shows per year, he responded, “Both, I think.”
Later in the interview he would reveal, “I think when we are doing about eight projects a year — and again, I said this is going to shift a little bit — they all have to be different. They all have to stand apart and stand alone and be different from one another.”
On top of this, Feige indicates that their television shows will be more episodic rather than serialized going forward.
He relayed, “We want to do shows that can only be shows. I want to continue to make them even more episodic, which may seem counterintuitive. But I do think there is something fun about leaning back and watching an episode that can be relatively self-contained.”
“Lost was an incredibly influential show because it was this serialized story, which was not seen in television much. Now it’s been how long, 20 years? Since then, almost everything has become like that,” Feige tated.
“So now — and I think you’re seeing this not just with our shows, but with many other shows — you’re starting to see the fun of a self-contained, episodic story week to week. We’re going to experiment with that in some of our upcoming things,” he said.
Feige went on to say, “Yes. I mean, cliffhangers are great, and I like watching a show where you should go to bed, but you see the cliffhanger and you just have to watch the next episode. You certainly want to keep people engaged.”
“But I’m a big Star Trek fan, and I still find it soothing to watch an episode of Next Gen with a beginning and an end. So, I think we’re going to keep experimenting with that going forward,” he reiterated.
He would go on to reveal that much of this episodic storytelling will be done in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again series.
When asked about the series specifically, Feige said, “It’s Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, and they’re amazing actors and storytellers in their own right. That’s sort of what I was talking about with the fun of episodic television: That’s really where we’re experimenting with that, with Daredevil in particular.”
Feige’s comments about cutting back at Marvel also come after The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Studios’ parent company, announced they would be taking significant cost cutting measures to the tune of $3 billion in non-sports related content and even laying off around 7,000 employees.
Disney’s CFO Christine McCarthy detailed these cuts would primarily come from the company’s marketing. She noted it would be 50% marketing, 30% labor, and 20% technology.
It’s quite possible Feige is trying to put on a pretty face as Iger and Disney leadership axe the amount of streaming content they are creating especially when it can’t even break into the top 15 lists of most streamed programs.
What do you make of Feige revealing the company will be cutting down on the amount of series they make and they will be shifting away from serialized programing to episodic?