The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an ever-expanding, seemingly infinite comic book candy store for fans. Nevertheless, when it comes to building a roster of such well-known characters, there are rules.
Marvel does keep its MCU and MTU connected, but so far quite loosely. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t influence the films in any way, but the show does feed off the implications of the films’ events, whilst its story lines are very much separate. The show has introduced the concept of ‘Inhumans’ to the Marvel Universe, but the Inhumans will be introduced in their own series (before their own film) in a way that isn’t related to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Netflix shows haven’t dealt with the Battle of New York explicitly at all, only referring to it as ‘the Incident’ or in a newspaper front page framed on the wall (Daredevil). Avengers tower is featured in Marvel’s promotion for all the Netflix shows so far, and they do demonstrate an awareness of MCU superheroes’ existence – which sets the scene for the shows. It’s also hard to believe that the Avengers would not enlist the help of the likes of Luke Cage or Iron Fist, particularly when Avengers Black Widow and Hawkeye have no ‘super’ abilities.
This all begs the question: when will the characters crossover? Kevin Feige was recently asked that very question by Collider during the press for Dr Strange:
“I think it’s extremely impressive what Netflix has done and it will be the same answer I always give, which is, “It all depends on timing.” It all depends on how to do it because I don’t think what anybody wants to do is have such important characters show up for one second. Black Panther and Spider-Man to me are the high bar in Civil War of how you can bring in new characters into something. Vision and Ultron, Wanda and Pietro in Ultron. And it takes a lot of screentime, and it takes a lot of work. Infinity War has a lot of people in it already. So it just depends on how we could figure it out.”
Feige’s stance does make sense. Come to think of it, a brief or rushed appearance from any of the Netflix shows’ beloved heroes would be a huge shame. It would also be somewhat jarring; if the characters aren’t featured thoroughly then it will distract from the story. As much as we’d love to see these characters involved with the MCU, such a crossover has to be done right, especially with so many characters already expected in Infinity War.
Iron Fist comes spring 2017, followed by The Defenders also in 2017.