Rumor: Secret Warriors In Early Development For The MCU?

Donald Edmonds |

May 13, 2020

Amidst shutdown over the coronavirus in Hollywood, apparently Marvel is still doing development behind the scenes. With that there is a slurry of rumored developments such as Ghost Rider, Ironheart, and Nova. There’s also some word going around that Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Punisher can have new life on Hulu.

And now we have the Secret Warriors coming in on the heels of Disney’s Q2 earnings call.

Geeks World Wide reports that information for a Secret Warriors project at Marvel Studios is happening. Jeremy Conrad over at MCU Cosmic adds that Marvel is currently looking for a writer for the show.

The Secret Warriors

There was a 2009 series that was part of the Dark Reign storyline by Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis, with art by Stefano Caselli. It’s essentially Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D with Quake/Daisy Johnson leading a new band of Inhuman agents.

Amongst the early ranks of the team are Hellfire, Stonewall, The Druid, and Slingshot. Their concerted efforts are against the evil wiles of HAMMER, an organization who took over after the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. Also they were battling Hydra, and taking on Skrulls. It’s the culmination of many years of comics, so it’ll sound bonkers for someone just coming in.

Nick Fury works in the shadows as the commander of this rogue squadron, also taking up missions to gather information on Hydra, discovering that all aspects of commerce and political power were infiltrated with the antagonist organization. The introduction of the team in the comics happened in 2008, a year prior in both Mighty Avengers #13 and Secret Invasion #3. They were dubbed team White.

Along with overseeing team White under what would be called project Caterpillar, Nick Fury also oversees the efforts of other teams across the globe in their efforts to disrupt the operations of Hydra. There’s Team Black, led by Alexander Pierce, and Team Gray led by Mikel Fury A.K.A.- Scorpio, the son of Nick Fury.

Live-Action Secret Warriors

We’ve already had a slight introduction to the team concept and some of the members in the live-action Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show. During the second season finale, Phil Coulson discusses with Daisy “Skye” Johnson the possibility of creating a team of enhanced folks under the codename Caterpillars.

In the third season of the show, the team is first mentioned under the title Secret Warriors in Episode 16 titled “Paradise Lost.”

The subsequent episode introduces an early concept for the team with Slingshot, José Gutierrez, and Lincoln Campbell as a group of Inhumans fighting against the Hive.

JT James/Hellfire is also introduced in season 4 of the show as a villain who gets taken down by Ghost Rider/Robbie Reyes.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is ending with the seventh season this year. There were rumors of a spin-off series to bring back some of the characters while introducing new ones. The internet was looking at Agents of S.W.O.R.D. to be the follow-up series.

I’m not sure if shying away from space and galactic warfare and espionage is a step down from what we’ve already had with Infinity War and Endgame.

Back to ABC?

I’m not opposed to having more Chloe Bennet on screen.

But we have to talk about the destination of such a show. If Quake/Daisy “Skye” Johnson happens to be involved, then that show landing on the ABC network is a strong possibility. This is considering most of the audience for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is already built-in for that platform. The final season will air at the end of this month and carry us through the summer to the end of August.

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series has had mixed reception over the years. It was carried through some of the weaker seasons because of its loose connection to the film side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What carried it afterwards was introducing interesting new aspects of the MCU in Ghost Rider, and the Kree.

There might be some hesitation on Feige’s part to carry those character concepts in to a new show. Mostly because it’s a Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb production. Jed Whedon took on the writing and creative aspects for the show after Joss kickstarted the effort in 2013. Now with Feige as the creative head for film, television, and comics, it will be interesting to see what gets the green light now.

Heck, there were even Marvel shorts featuring Yo-Yo Elena Rodriguez. However, many of those Inhuman characters haven’t made appearances later on in the series. Also, there was a concerted effort to move away from Inhumans because of the abysmal reception of the short-lived series.

Content-starved Disney Plus

ABC might be hurting for content now that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is leaving the network. There’s also the streaming wars that hurt their numbers, as audiences are relying less on network television to entertain them. Rather, viewers are flocking to streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

So, this brings up the second destination option for a Secret Warriors show: Disney Plus.

As network television continues to decline in preference for streaming services, perhaps a better home for this show would be on the Disney Plus platform. However, this presents an interesting path for Marvel Studios to take. For Feige, it would mean acknowledging Jeph Loeb created shows and incorporating them into the larger fold of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Another issue would be maintaining canon.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D started off with Phil Coulson as the only solid connection to anything happening in the MCU. There were a couple of cameos with Nick Fury and Lady Sif in Season 1.

However, the show enjoyed only a scant connection to the MCU in subsequent episodes and seasons. And that was part of the luxury it enjoyed on ABC. When the show aired, it could create its own stories within its own world. And if anything world-changing happened, it would be reactionary.

For example, they changed the name of the show to Agents of HYDRA for a time. This was to reflect the events that happened in Captain America: Winter Soldier. However, there is no reference to the snap nor do I believe there ever will be.

One Hurdle at a Time

But before any of that happens, we have to get through the last season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and from what we’ve heard, the conclusion of the series will take the characters back in time to when S.H.I.E.L.D. began with Peggy Carter. And it will serve as sort of a full-circle for the Marvel television shows.

What do you think of the Secret Warriors making a fully realized live-action debut? Sound off in the comments below or let’s talk about it on social media!