We’ve seen many characters from the Marvel movies who have migrated to the Marvel TV shows -- Phil Coulson, Lady Sif, Howard Stark, Jasper Sitwell, Peggy Carter and so on.
Wednesday afternoon I was visiting Beverly Hills’ fabulous Beverly Hilton hotel to attend the Television Critics Association panel on Netflix’ “Luke Cage” series. Marvel TV chief Jeph Loeb was there and I asked him this:
“In your estimation, how many months or years do you think we’ll have to wait before we hear about somebody introduced on the small screen, like Luke Cage, making it into the movies?”
Loeb’s response:
“I don’t really think in those terms. I think in terms of what’s the best story for what’s going on. I can tell you that part of the challenge of doing this sort of thing is that, you know, the movies are planned out years in advance of what it is that we are doing. Television moves at an incredible speed. For this group, it just seems like we were shooting, like, last week.
“And here we are. And so the other part of the problem is that, you know, when you stop and think about it, if I’m shooting a television series and that’s going to go on over a six month or eight month period, how am I going to get Mike to be able to go be in a movie? I need Mike to be in a television show.
So it’s just, anything is possible. And as I often get reported by you folks for saying, you know, hashtag, “It’s all connected,” our feeling is that the connection isn’t just whether or not somebody is walking into a movie or walking out of a television show. It’s connected in the way that the shows come from the same place, that they are real, that they are grounded, that you know, in this particular case, that we’ve talked a lot about how there’s really a fifth defender, that there’s Daredevil and Jessica Jones and Iron Fist and Luke Cage.
“There’s also New York City and that one of the things that’s so important to all of us was shooting in Harlem and shooting in that architecture, in that culture, and being able to see that city for what it is. And one of the things that [“Luke Cage mastermind Cheo Coker] and I talk a lot about is the musicality of that culture in that world and how that affects the show and how the show affects that. That’s just really exciting to us to see that happen.”
So I gather there are still no plans for Jessica Jones, Daisy Johnson, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist or The Punisher to stand alongside The Avengers. Or at least no plans Loeb knows about.
In better news, Netflix held a Wednesday morning panel with Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, and someone asked him if Jon Bernthal, who plays Frank “The Punisher” Castle, is in Netflix’ “Defenders” miniseries gathering together Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
“Stay tuned,” said Sarandos.
I’m taking that as a yes.
