Marvel Studios has demonstrated a proclivity for keeping details about their upcoming projects as hidden as possible, as their upcoming slate of Netflix shows is certainly no exception. It was announced last November that the blockbuster movie studio had made a deal with the streaming giant to make shows based on the comic book characters Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones - all ultimately leading towards a Defenders miniseries - but months since the plans were revealed have been filled with a great deal of silence on the part of the Marvel higher-ups. That is, until now.
Marvel Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada recently appeared on Kevin Smith's Fat Man On Batman podcast, and during the course of the conversation the executive spilled a few interesting tidbits about Marvel Studios upcoming Netflix plans. Beginning by confirming plans to start shooting the shows this summer in New York, Quesada first revealed that all of the shows will actually be happening within the same area of the city:
“We’re shooting where these characters belong. These stories take place in Hell’s Kitchen...It thrills me to no end to have these things happening in New York. That alone is going to give it an incredible vibe. It’s just once again…it’s like Marvel taking ownership of New York, saying this is where we’re from, this is our universe, this is where it started.”
Of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has already had quite a big impact on the city of New York. Not only did Bruce Banner "break Harlem" in the third act of The Incredible Hulk, the city also ended up being right under Loki's portal in The Avengers, allowing the Chitauri to sweep in and destroy everything.
Joe Quesada also did his part to provide an answer for one of the biggest questions surrounding the Netflix deal: whether or not the episodes of the Marvel shows will be released weekly, like normal TV, or available all at once like other Netflix original programs. While we still don't know exactly when the shows will be arriving online, they will be coming out packaged as full seasons instead of individual episodes:
"You’re going to get all these episodes, and you can binge watch them however you want, and then binge watch them again.”
As for the tone and approach to these shows, we can also expect to see some very different things than we've seen from films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. After describing the setting of Daredevil as metaphorically smelling like, "dark alley, vomit, and piss" - much darker than anything we've really seen from Marvel Studios thus far - Quesada added that what really separates the new shows is the way that the superhero characters operate. Said Quesada,
“Although these are superhero stories, this is different now. This is the street level…this is the street level noir side of the Marvel Universe. Something that you haven’t really, really seen in any of our Marvel movies. And probably more ground level, than I think you’ve seen. This is not like us doing Batman, Dark Knight or any of that stuff. This is very Marvel doing street level superheroes.”
The scripts for the various Netflix Marvel shows are currently being written, and the plan is to start casting soon. Hopefully it won't be long until we're hearing more details.
