Disney has revealed plans for multiple live-action Marvel and Star Wars TV shows, which will begin airing on their new streaming service, Disney Plus, in late 2019 - and all of the shows that have been announced so far have one thing in common: they’re only bringing back dead heroes.
The ever-burgeoning slate for Disney Plus involves far more than just Marvel and Star Wars, with everything from live-action remakes of animated classics (Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan) to reboots of '80s comedies in the works, not to mention TV shows based on Monsters, Inc, High School Musical, and The Mighty Ducks as well.
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Star Wars and Marvel represent the crown jewels of the service, though, and they're a big reason many fans will be signing up for Disney Plus when it launches. But rather than introduce all new characters or leading with some of their biggest names, Disney Plus is bringing back supporting characters who are all, well... dead (for now, at least).
Disney Plus' Marvel TV Show Characters
Disney CEO Bob Iger officially confirmed a Loki TV show for Disney Plus, which sees Tom Hiddleston reprise his Marvel Cinematic Universe role as the God of Mischief, but he refrained from acknowledging reports about TV shows centering on Scarlet Witch (possibly with Vision) or Falcon & Bucky, though it's possible that those shows may not go into development until after the Loki one is completed. Each of those characters, of course, have been around in the MCU for quite some time now, and, more importantly, were either killed by Thanos before he got his hands on all of six Infinity Stones or were snapped out of existence afterwards at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
It’s widely expected that most of them, if not all, will return in the still-untitled Avengers 4 next year, with the remaining heroes using a mix of time travel and the Quantum Realm to reverse Thanos’ actions and defeat the Mad Titan. The streaming shows essentially confirm as much, too: while there’s fertile ground for a Loki prequel series set in just about any era of the MCU, there’s not much to explore in the pasts of Falcon & Bucky (especially without Captain America) or Scarlet Witch.
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Of course, they weren’t the only ones to die in Infinity War, but they are in the sweet spot for TV shows: most of the original Avengers - most notably Iron Man and Cap - are on their way out, with their survival in Infinity War setting up a final hurrah in Avengers 4. The other heroes to go, meanwhile, are the ones who’ll be replacing them and serve as the future for the next 5-10 years of movies: Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man (this might've included the Guardians of the Galaxy as well, but James Gunn's firing means plans are now on hold).
Loki, Falcon, Bucky, Scarlet Witch, and Vision, are all different: they’re well-established characters, each with their own fans (especially Loki) but only as supporting players to those original heroes, and none of them would've been headlining their own movies anytime soon. Having these characters lead their streaming shows means Disney can bring them back and continue their journeys, while also explaining why they perhaps are no longer appearing in the movies, though that doesn't mean they can reappear on the big screen down the line.
Page 2 of 2: Disney Plus' Star Wars TV Show Characters
Disney Plus' Star Wars TV Show Characters
Alongside the continuation of Star Wars: Clone Wars - which will return for its seventh and final season in 2019 - there are two live-action series set in a galaxy far, far away that are currently either in production or in development. The first to be confirmed was The Mandalorian, which has been created by Jon Favreau and will star Pedro Pascal in the lead role. While the lead character still doesn’t have a name, beyond simply being the Mandalorian, he’s essentially a means for Disney to finally achieve what they’ve been trying to do for years now: a Boba Fett spinoff.
The bounty hunter may not have all that much to do in the original Star Wars trilogy, but his appearance, attitude, and suggested history with Darth Vader made him an instant fan-favorite, and he remains one of Star Wars’ most popular characters. Disney first tried to make a Boba Fett movie with Josh Trank, before he was fired from the project, and then Logan’s James Mangold reportedly tried his hand at an adaptation before Lucasfilm ultimately scrapped the project.
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The failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story meant plans for a Boba Fett movie were canceled (and presumably plans for future Star Wars anthology movies being put on hold for the time being), but The Mandalorian allows them to feature a character who is basically a new Boba Fett anyway. (He was mentioned in the announcement by Favreau, and his gun from he Holiday Special was spotted in a behind-the-scenes photo.) The no-longer-canon Star Wars Legends brought Boba Fett back from the dead, and, while it seems like Disney have explored ways of making that happen in live-action as well, this is basically giving them that chance to do so in all but name.
The other Star Wars series in development is a Rogue One: A Star Wars Story spinoff, which will follow Diego Luna’s Rebel spy Cassian Andor. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was noted amongst Star Wars fans not just because it explained the franchise's longest-running plot hole but also because it killed off all of its main characters. The likes of Chirrut, Baze, and K2-SO all fell one-by-one, until finally only Jyn Erso and Cassian were left standing on the beach as Scarif was destroyed. Disney can’t simply undo those deaths, but the proximity to A New Hope means there's an opportunity to explore Cassian's life before Rogue One, which is what this new spinoff TV show will do - and that’s in keeping with Disney’s obsession with the original Star Wars trilogy.
It’s in the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was set, and so, too, were Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Rebels. It’s also been explored in comics and novels, and now it will be in a live-action TV show. The other connecting thread between the movies and shows in this era is that they all involve the Rebel Alliance, which is a safe area for Disney to stick with. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story made over $1 billion at the box-office, so it’s easy to see why they’re going back to it for a TV show, even though audiences have seen where Cassian’s journey ends. Even though Disney allowed certain characters to die in movies, it appears Disney Plus is their outlet for bringing them back.
More: Every Exclusive Movie & TV Show Coming To Disney's Streaming Service
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