Disney is looking to change its approach to its Star Wars and Marvel TV shows, following some recent disappointments, including The Acolyte.
Disney has been course correcting its strategy for the small screen future of Star Wars and Marvel for some time now, ever since a series of shows hit the skids, failing to impress audiences or make a splash with critics.
The Acolyte was the most recent Star Wars offering that failed to convince, with the show being cancelled after ratings hit a terminal decline.
The parent company of both Lucasfilm and Marvel continues to make slight adjustments regarding its small screen output, and reports are emerging that more subtle shifts are on the way.
Firstly, Star Wars: following the disappointing release of The Acolyte, Daniel RPK is reporting that a further reduction will be made to the ongoing Star Wars TV slate, meaning that we’ll be getting just one live action Star Wars show a year.
Back in 2022, we had three Star Wars series, but DIsney boss Bob Iger told us that number would be reduced to protect the brand becoming oversaturated. With the next two years seeing two shows (this year’s being The Acolyte and the upcoming Skeleton Crew), two seemed to be the number going forwards.
That’s not the case says the report, with next year’s second season of Andor set to be the only small screen Star Wars debut. Ahsoka's second series will be the only release for 2026.
Read more: The Acolyte cancelled | The season 1 questions that may never be answered
As for Marvel, the release strategy will remain unaffected, with two shows a year releasing. Next year is set to see Daredevil: Born Again and Ironheart, while 2026 will probably bring us Wonder Man and the Vision show we’ve been hearing about lately.
The shift will see Marvel move away from self-contained ‘limited series’ and towards ongoing shows.
Marvel executive Brad Winderbaum has been out promoting the forthcoming Agatha All Along and he had this to say to Entertainment Weekly: “We are thinking about television really more like traditional television where they could last for multiple seasons, where we can see the characters brew in the culture for hopefully many years.”
“One thing we are doing is we’re developing a lot of shows now simultaneously. So, in a way, we’re making television more in a traditional style where we are going to write multiple pilots and show bibles before we decide what we want to produce and actually bring to the screen, which gives us an opportunity to experiment and also to plan all sorts of different Marvel sandboxes.”
Whether that means single season shows we’ve already seen such as Hawkeye will return, we don’t know. Or perhaps future shows such as Daredevil will be designed with greater continuity in mind. Either way, the future for Marvel television looks a little more traditional.
