Introduction ....................

3
Films………………..4
Marvel Television……….7
Disney+……………..8
Bibliography ...................10

2
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered
on a series of superhero films, independently produced by Marvel Studios and based on characters
that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The franchise includes comic
books, short films, television
series, and digital series. The
shared universe, much like the
original Marvel Universe in
comic books, was established
by crossing over common plot
elements, settings, cast, and
characters.

The first MCU film is Iron Man

(2008), which began the films
of Phase One culminating in the crossover film The Avengers (2012). Phase Two began with Iron Man
3 (2013) and concluded with Ant-Man (2015). Phase Three began with Captain America: Civil War
(2016) and concluded with Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The first three phases in the
franchise are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga". The films of
Phase Four will begin with Black Widow (2021) and are set to
conclude with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

Marvel Television expanded the universe to network television with

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC in 2013, followed by streaming
television with Daredevil on Netflix in 2015 and Runaways on Hulu
in 2017, and cable television with Cloak & Dagger on Freeform in
2018. Marvel Television produced the digital series Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot. Marvel Studios expanded to streaming
television with Disney+ for tie-in shows, starting with WandaVision
in 2021 as the beginning of Phase Four. Soundtrack albums have
been released for all the films and many of the television series, as
well as compilation albums containing existing music heard in the
films. The MCU includes tie-in comics published by Marvel Comics,
while Marvel Studios has produced a series of direct-to-video short
films, called Marvel One-Shots, and a viral marketing campaign for
its films and the universe with the faux news program WHIH
Newsfront.

The franchise has been commercially successful and has

generally received a positive critical response, though some reviewers have found that some of its

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films and television series have suffered in service of the wider universe. It has inspired other film
and television studios with comic book character adaptation rights to attempt to create similar
shared universes. The MCU has been the focus of other media, outside of the shared universe,
including attractions at various Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, an attraction at Discovery Times
Square, a Queensland Gallery of Modern Art exhibit, two television specials, guidebooks for each
film, multiple tie-in video games, and commercials.

Films
By 2005, Marvel Entertainment had begun planning to produce its own films independently and
distribute them through Paramount Pictures. Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero
films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, including a seven-year development deal
with 20th Century Fox. Marvel made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios
and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and
distribution. Avi Arad, head of Marvel's film division, was pleased with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films
at Sony, but was less pleased with others. As a result, Arad decided to form Marvel Studios,
Hollywood's first major independent film studio since DreamWorks.

Kevin Feige, Arad's second-in-command, realized that unlike Spider-Man and the X-Men, whose film
rights were licensed to Sony and Fox, respectively, Marvel still owned the rights to the core
members of the Avengers. Feige, a self-described
"fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe, just
as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their
comic books in the early 1960s. To raise capital, the
studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million
revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel's
plan was to release individual films for their main
characters and then merge them in a crossover film.
Arad, who doubted the strategy yet insisted that it was
his reputation that helped secure the initial financing,
resigned the following year.

In 2007, at 33 years old, Feige was named studio chief.

In order to preserve its artistic integrity, Marvel
Studios formed a creative committee of six people

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familiar with its comic book lore: Feige, Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, Marvel
Comics' president of publishing Dan Buckley, Marvel's chief creative officer Joe Quesada, writer
Brian Michael Bendis, and Marvel Entertainment president Alan Fine, who oversaw the committee.
Feige initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of these films as the "Marvel Cinema
Universe", but later used the term "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Since the franchise expanded to
other media, this phrase has been used by some to refer to the feature films only. Marvel designated
the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth-199999 within
the continuity of the company's comic multiverse, a
collection of fictional alternate universes. "It's never been done before and that's
kind of the spirit everybody's taking it in.
In November 2013, Feige said that "in an ideal world" The other filmmakers aren't used to
releases each year would include one film based on an getting actors from other movies that
existing character and one featuring a new character, other filmmakers have cast, certain plot
lines that are connected or certain
saying it's "a nice rhythm" in that format. While not
locations that are connected, but I think ...
always the case, as evident by the 2013 releases of Iron everyone was on board for it and thinks
Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, he said it is "certainly that it's fun. Primarily because we've
something to aim for". Feige expanded on this in July always remained consistent saying that
the movie that we are making comes first.
2014, saying, "I don't know that we'll keep to [that model] All of the connective tissue, all of that
every year, but we're doing that in 2014 and 2015, so I stuff is fun and is going to be very
think it would be fun to continue that sort of thing". In important if you want it to be. If the fans
want to look further and find connections,
February 2014, Feige stated that Marvel Studios wants to then they're there. There are a few big
mimic the "rhythm" that the comic books have ones obviously, that hopefully the
developed, by having the characters appear in their own mainstream audience will able to follow as
well. But ... the reason that all the
films, and then come together, much like "a big event or
filmmakers are on board is that their
crossover series," with Avengers films acting as "big, giant movies need to stand on their own. They
linchpins". After the reveal of multiple release dates for need to have a fresh vision, a unique tone,
films through 2019 in July 2014, Feige stated, "I think if and the fact that they can interconnect if
you want to follow those breadcrumbs is a
you look at some of those dates that we've announced, bonus."
we're going to three in a few of those years. Again, not
—Kevin Feige, President of Production for
because there's a number cruncher telling us to go to Marvel Studios, on constructing a shared
three, do more than two pictures a year, but because of film universe
the very reason just laid out: it is about managing
[existing] franchises, film to film, and when we have a team ready to go, why tell them to go away
for four years just because we don't have a slot? We'd rather find a way to keep that going." After
the titles were revealed in October 2014, Feige said, "The studio's firing on all cylinders right now ...
which made us comfortable for the first time ... to
increase to three films a year [in 2017 and 2018]
instead of just two, without changing our
methods."

On expanding the characters in the universe and

letting individual films breathe and work on their
own, as opposed to having Avenger team-ups
outside of Avengers films, Feige stated, it is about
"teaching the general movie-going audience about
the notion of the characters existing separately,
coming together for specific events and going away

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and existing separately in their own worlds again. Just like comic readers have been doing for
decades and decades ... people sort of are accepting that there's just
a time when they should be together and there's a time when they're
not."

In April 2014, Feige revealed that Edgar Wright's pitch for Ant-
Man in 2006 helped shape the early films of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe, saying, "We changed, frankly, some of the MCU to
accommodate this version of Ant-Man. Knowing what we wanted to
do with Edgar and with Ant-Man, going years and years back, helped
to dictate what we did with the roster for Avengers the first time. It
was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Ant-Man story
influencing the birth of the MCU in the early films leading up to
Avengers." In October 2014, Marvel held a press event to announce
the titles of their Phase Three films. The event, which drew
comparisons to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, was done
because all the information was ready. As Feige explained, "We
wanted to do this at [San Diego] Comic-Con this year. Things were
not set ... So the plan has been, since a few weeks before Comic-Con
when we realized we weren't going to be able to do everything we
wanted to do, is to decide 'let's do either something we haven't done
in a long time, or something we've never done.' Which is a singular event, just to announce what we
have when it's ready. I thought that might be early August or mid-September, it ended up being [at
the end of October]."

By September 2015, after Marvel Studios was integrated into The Walt Disney Studios with Feige
reporting to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac
Perlmutter, the studios' creative committee had "nominal" input on the films moving forward,
though they continued to consult on Marvel Television
productions, which remained under Perlmutter's control. All
key film decisions going forward were to be made by Feige,
D'Esposito and Victoria Alonso. At the end of the month, on
how much story is developed for future films of the universe,
Feige said there are "broad strokes" though sometime "super-
specific things. But for the most part, in broad strokes that are
broad enough and loose enough that, if through the
development of four of five movies before we get to the
culmination ... we still have room to sway and to move and to
go and to surprise ourselves in places that we end up. So that
all the movies, hopefully when they're finished, will feel like
they're all interconnected and meant to be and planned far
ahead, but really can live and breathe enough as individual
movies to be satisfying each and of themselves." The studio
also has various contingency plans for the direction of all of
their films, in the event they are unable to secure a certain

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 actor to reprise a role, or re-acquire the film rights
to a character, such as was done in February 2015
with Spider-Man.

In April 2016, on moving the universe to Phase Four

and reflecting on the first three, Feige said, "I think
there will be a finality to moments of Phase Three,
as well as new beginnings that will mark a different,
a very different, a distinctively different chapter in
what will someday be a complete first saga made up
of three phases." Joe Russo added, "You build things
up and people enjoy the experiences you've built up.
But then you kind of reach an apex or you reach a
climax, a moment where you go, 'This structure is
really going to start to be repetitious if we do this
again, so what do we do now?' So now, you deconstruct it. We're in the deconstruction phase with
[Captain America:] Civil War and leading into [Avengers:] Infinity War, which are the culmination
films." A year later, Feige felt after the conclusion of Phase Three, Marvel might abandon grouping
the films by phases, saying, "it might be a new thing". Feige mentioned that Avengers: Endgame
would provide "a definitive end" to the films and storylines preceding it, with the franchise having
"two distinct periods. Everything before [Endgame] and everything after".

On the potential for "superhero fatigue", Feige stated, "This year [2016], we've got Civil War and
we've got Doctor Strange in November, two completely different movies. To me, and to all of Marvel
Studios, that's what keeps it going. As long as we're surprising people, as long as we're not falling
into things becoming too similar ... next year, [Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2], [Spider-Man:
Homecoming], Thor: Ragnarok. Those are three totally different movies ... as long as the only shared
thing is they come from the same source material and they've got our Marvel logo in front of the
movies. Other than that they can be very distinct. What other studios do, what other properties,
nothing we can do about it."

In December 2017, The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire assets from 21st Century Fox,
including 20th Century Fox, for $52.4 billion.[32] The following June, after a counter offer from
Comcast worth $65 billion, Disney increased its offer to $71.3 billion. The transaction officially closed
on March 19, 2019. The acquisition saw the return of the film rights to Deadpool, and the X-Men and
Fantastic Four characters to Marvel Studios, which would "create richer,
more complex worlds of inter-related characters and stories". In July 2019,
Feige announced the Phase Four slate at San Diego Comic-Con, consisting
of films and television event series on Disney+.

In June 2010, Marvel Television was launched with Jeph Loeb as head. In
October 2019, further corporate restructuring saw Feige named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel

7
 Entertainment, with Marvel Television becoming part of Marvel Studios and executives of Marvel
Television reporting to Feige. However, in December 2019, Marvel Television was folded into Marvel
Studios, with Marvel Studios taking over production of the current series at the time; no further
series from Marvel Television were being considered for development.

Disney+
By November 2017, Disney was looking to develop a new Marvel television series for their
streaming service Disney+. In July 2018, Feige noted discussions had begun with Disney regarding
any potential involvement Marvel Studios could have with the streaming service, since Feige felt the
service was "an important thing for the company". In September 2018, it was reported that Marvel
Studios was developing several limited series centered on "second-tier" characters from the MCU
films who had not and were unlikely to star in their own films. Each series was expected to be six to
eight episodes, and would be produced by Marvel Studios rather than Marvel Television, with Feige
taking a "hands-on role" in each series' development. Feige noted the series being developed for the

8
streaming service would "tell stories... that we
wouldn't be able to tell in a theatrical experience –
a longer-form narrative". He also added that being
asked by Disney to create these series "energized
everyone creatively" within Marvel Studios, since
they "could play in a new medium and throw the
rules out the window in terms of structure and
format".

In July 2019, Feige announced the event series of

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision,
Loki, the animated What If...?, and Hawkeye, as
part of the Phase Four slate at San Diego Comic-
Con. Three additional Disney+ series for the phase,
Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk, were
announced at D23 the following month. The series
budgets are reportedly $100–150 million each. In
September 2020, a series centered on Nick Fury
was announced to be in development for Disney+,
which would become Secret Invasion. In December
2020, Ironheart and Armor Wars were announced,
in addition to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday
Special. All are a part of Phase Four.

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Bibliography
FRitz, B. (2014, February 12). Marvel Cinematic Universe. Retrieved from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe

Jami Philbrick. (n.d.). Wikipedia The free encyclopedia.

Philbrick, J. (2020, December 21). Marvel Cinematic Universe. Retrieved from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe

Phillips, M. (2019, April 26). The Narrative Experiment that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Retrieved from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-
narrative-experiment-that-is-the-marvel-cinematic-universe/amp

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