Marvel Is Finally Changing Its Disney+ Formula After Years of Treating Shows Like Long Movies
Marvel Studios’ Disney+ shows are about to reach a turning point. The November 10 finale of ‘VisionQuest’ will bring a 5-year television experiment, which kicked off with 2021’s ‘WandaVision’, to a close, and the studio is already rethinking how its small-screen MCU will work going forward.
That experiment was ambitious from the beginning. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Kevin Feige introduced the studio’s plans for its Disney+ series, describing them as long MCU movies separated into hour-long episodes. In practice, the MCU hired head writers to craft each series before shooting and directors to oversee them once filming began, instead of using showrunners.
According to a new analysis from TheWrap, that approach is being left behind. Treating the cinematic and television arms of the MCU as one and the same produced a string of series many Marvel fans described as “movies cut into parts.” One Marvel Television insider put it plainly, admitting to TheWrap, “Chasing the movies is tough, I’ve learned.”
The insider explained that a movie is a 2-hour statement, while a TV series is an ongoing conversation with the audience that needs more writers and more people. Marvel’s recent hits back that up, since ‘Agatha All Along’, ‘Wonder Man’ and ‘VisionQuest’ all had showrunners and were critically acclaimed, with the shift starting around 2023.
“They tried to just buck how TV was made, and TV’s made that way for a reason,” Dave Gonzales, co-author of ‘MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios’, told the outlet. The old system also caused friction behind the scenes, as Jeremy Slater left ‘Moon Knight’ after clashing with director Mohamed Diab.
The new trailer for ‘VISIONQUEST’ has been released. Releasing October 14 on Disney+ https://t.co/56jVK517wK
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 1, 2026
The bigger change may be in how connected these series need to be. Marvel’s brand still draws viewers, but it can also put off people who feel they need to know decades of lore first. The studio’s “Spotlight” label, launched with ‘Echo’, was meant to tell viewers they didn’t need MCU knowledge, but it never caught on.
‘Wonder Man’ has become the model for accessibility. The series debuted with an impressive 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and cosplayer Jess Parker said you didn’t have to be a Marvel fan to enjoy it. Next up in that spirit is ‘Zodiac’, a spy thriller announced at New York Comic-Con that will be made on a more modest budget and is meant to welcome new viewers.
First trailer for the season finale of ‘VISIONQUEST’. https://t.co/cQQ3eYImwE
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 5, 2026
The numbers explain the urgency. Hub Entertainment Research found Marvel ranked first among 13 major franchises at drawing viewers to a new series by brand name, with 64% of U.S. audiences saying they’d be more likely to watch. Among viewers under 25, though, the share who were “much more likely” to watch Marvel-branded shows fell 20% year over year.
Marvel has also cut back sharply on how much it releases. In 2021, the studio released 4 films and 5 series, compared with 3 live-action series this year. Analyst Jon Giegengack noted that the sense of urgency around each release has faded, and that weekly releases help get more out of expensive shows than binge drops do.
A short break is coming, too. After ‘VisionQuest’ and ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 3, which was announced as the show’s final season, live-action Marvel TV goes on hiatus until after ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’. That film is set for December 17, 2027.
The final show of this chapter seems to be landing well. ‘VisionQuest’ closes out the saga that began with ‘WandaVision’ and continued through ‘Agatha All Along’, with showrunner Terry Matalas steering the final installment, Paul Bettany back as Vision, and James Spader voicing Ultron again.
The series is seen as a success inside the studio, and there has been talk about some of its characters continuing in the MCU. If Marvel’s new approach delivers more shows like this one, letting TV be TV might be the smartest move the studio has made in years.
What direction would you like Marvel's Disney+ shows to take moving forward?
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