One of the biggest criticisms of Marvel Studios, as of late, is that the continuity has become too difficult to keep up with. The general movie-goer isn’t able to watch “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” for example, without doing some sort of superhero homework to catch up. Well, to help alleviate those concerns, Marvel Studios is emphasizing different “banners” to show that not everything is connected, and viewers don’t have to follow every project.
Speaking to Comicbook.com, Marvel Studios executive Brad Winderbaum, the head of TV, streaming, and animation at Marvel, explained how the studio is using different banners to help calm concerns that the continuity has become too daunting. Basically, if you see Marvel Television, Marvel Animation, or Marvel Spotlight before a project, you can rest assured that it’s a project you can probably jump into without much prior knowledge. At least, that’s the plan.
“We want to make sure that Marvel stays an open door for people to come in and explore,” Winderbaum said. “On the heels of ‘Endgame,’ I think there was, maybe, a little bit of an obligation to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything. As you know, as a comics fan, they’re designed to just pop in, find something that you like, and use that to enter you into the universe, and then you can explore and weave around based on your own preferences.”
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He continued, “So part of the rebranding of Marvel Studios, Marvel Television, Marvel Animation, even Marvel Spotlight is to, I think, try to tell the audience, ‘You can jump in anywhere. They’re interconnected but they’re not. You don’t have to watch A to enjoy B. You can follow your bliss. You can follow your own preferences and find the thing you want within the tapestry of Marvel.’”
He’s not wrong about how it works in comics. If you wanted to do all the Spider-Man history homework before reading the most recent issue of “The Amazing Spider-Man,” you’d literally have to read more than 1,000 comics. Fans have been catching up quickly for decades. But you have to train film and TV fans to do the same. If you want to watch “Echo,” for example, Marvel Studios did a great job of catching you up during the first episode (even if it was a bit ham handed). But if you wanted to do a deep dive, then there’s nothing stopping you from watching “Hawkeye,” as well as “Daredevil.” It’s just not necessary.
Whether or not you think Marvel Studios is good about this is another discussion altogether. We’ll have to wait and see if the films follow suit with this sort of strategy. Some, like the semi-recent “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” are better at doing it than others (“The Marvels”).
At least, judging by Winderbaum’s comments, you can always hop into a Marvel Television show without much of a worry.