Analysis: Predicting Marvel Animation’s Future After TV Studios Shut-Down

Marvel TV Studios is no more. The producers for some of the best live-action TV including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Cloak and Dagger, The Runaways, and The Defenders is shutting down as per Kevin Feige who will assume control over future television productions with Marvel’s brand which already sees She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and a slew of others in the pipeline.

But, what of the animation department? Everything currently in production will continue to be produced which means Hulu’s The Offenders is safe as is Disney XD’s third season of Marvel’s Spider-Man which is slated to premiere Spring 2020. However,while the animation sector of Marvel has seen it’s fair share of controversy, it’s future looks even more murky. With a promising Deadpool series featuring Donald Glover as producer/star already having been killed off due to creative differences and more recently Tigra & Dazzler getting a similar treatment, it’s easy to see why Marvel Animation has been a pure struggle ever since Disney’s buy of Marvel. The animation feature-film pipeline, once as formidable as rival DC’s, is non-existent and Marvel Animation on Disney XD has been about as exciting as shoving my foot through a bed of nails.

With the announcement that no further development on intellectual properties will be had by Feige once the merging of Marvel TV with Marvel Studios is complete, it’s easy to imagine a future that will most likely not see any of The Offenders animated series getting additional seasons leaving just Marvel’s What If? as the standalone animated effort from Marvel Studios. The series that has already confirmed Jeff Goldblum and is rumored to have Robert Downey Jr. reprise his role as Iron Man seems like the only sure thing as it pertains to animation featuring the Marvel nameplate.

The Hulu-ordered Marvel animation properties comprising of the aforementioned Tigra & Dazzler, M.O.D.O.K., Howard the Duck, and Hit-Monkey currently in production from a quality standpoint have nothing to lose in going hard to the paint on as much as they can get away with in terms of jokes and adult-humor. And while their future is iffy at best, like Netflix’s numerous Marvel series, this might be the producers’ best chance that they deserve a longer stay on a Hulu streaming service that will already be without South Park and all of the Adult Swim programming starting in May 2020. Adult animation, once a strong point for Hulu’s catalog of binge-worthy services, could very well be in trouble if Kevin Feige has his way.