Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules
still apply.
- This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
- While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread
. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
- Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.
If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.
Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
See also, why every adaptations of the Teen Titans outside the comcis sticks as closely as possible to the cast of the 2003 show - despite that group being a very specific and limited lineup from the early 80's that quickly branched out to a much wider variety of characters - because that's what people already recognize and is thus most marketable (to the point where Young Justice, very bluntly intended to be a Teen Titans show, was forced by on high to rename to Young Justice even though it doesn't resemble that property anywhere near as much).
That said, Squeenix is one of the last groups to still rigidly continue doing the "it's exactly like the MCU!" thing in video games and other media, and it's theorized that after MVCI's failure Marvel Studios dialed back on it's insistence on making licensers do that, but that Squeenix' projects were in development before that point.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 14th 2021 at 9:30:06 AM
Never underestimate Marvel's fondness for brand synergy. The moment a major adaptation does something significant the comics rush to incorporate said detail which in turn becomes part of the canon text for future adaptations. This is behavior they've done for decades. WB/DC, even with silly rules like their informal "no-touch" between the CW shows and the DCEU, is still significantly more restrained on this front.
I confess it is a major reason why I get all antsy with the discussion on replacing Black Panther. The moment MCU T'Challa is replaced 616 T'Challa will be Put on a Bus with the quickness, and if the replacement's good enough that bus ain't ever coming back.
And yeah, I believe SE's plans with Marvel have been in the works since ~2015ish. AAA game development's ballooned to the point where 4-6 year dev periods aren't unheard of anymore, CD and Eidos committed years ago to the point where any major change would risk the whole thing crashing.
There could be, but if that's the case, the game's marketing isn't conveying as much. The trailer
says in big bold text, "YOU ARE STAR-LORD. YOU GOT THIS. PROBABLY."
Meanwhile, SquareEnix's blurb reads, "Fire up Star-Lord’s jet boots for a wild ride across the cosmos in this third-person action-adventure game, a fresh take on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. With the unpredictable Guardians at your side, blast your way from one explosive situation to another, with original and iconic Marvel characters caught in a struggle for the fate of the universe. You got this. Probably."
They're pretty unambiguously saying that you play as Star-Lord, specifically.
They're not the first Guardians game to do this, either. Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy also cast the player squarely in the role of Star-Lord, with the other Guardians being NPCs whose personalities and conflicts with one another had to be managed by Quill's leadership.
For as much as there's an unspoken rule that this specific lineup is the definitive Guardians of the Galaxy, there seems to be another unspoken rule that Peter Quill is the main character of the franchise, with the others being his wacky band of sidekicks.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 14th 2021 at 10:15:21 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.That does have basis in the comics
Star Lord is the one that led the proto Guardians team made up of Kree prisoners. And then Quill who pushed for a space team after that. The one who mostly led the dna Guardians, although Rocket took over when Peter peaced out when the brainwashing reveal was revealed. Peter’s “death” in the Cancerverse war that led the guardians to disband and be replaced by the failed Annihilators team. Peter’s reappearance that led to the Guardians to reform. Peter basically the consistent denominator on all the iterations of the modern guardians. It gets played with like making Kitty Pryde Star Lord Lady instead or killing Peter off in the first arc to see how much his absence damages the team.
But Peter Quill Star-Lord is basically the heart of the Guardians be he cynical pragmatic manipulator or goofus man child
Forever liveblogging the AvengersIn the case of the Telltale version the style/format of those games near enough mandate one main character has to be the focal point and honestly Quill is the logical choice there.
They could have had a different line up or gone with another lead but given they echoed the "current" team none of those make any sense as a TT protagonist.
Edited by jakobitis on Jun 14th 2021 at 7:40:15 PM
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."That is kind of the one constant characterization detriment to Telltale's format. Even the Sam and Max games noticeably shift Max to "kooky one-liner sidekick" in a way that does cut out some of the humor and depth he has elsewhere, because the format dictates that one of them has to be the primary character and Sam was a better fit for that.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 14th 2021 at 5:02:17 AM
Ya know when I played Ultimate Alliance 3 I quickly switched out Drax and Gamora because they weren’t very fun to play due to having similar stabby stabby fighting styles which is pretty boring in a UA game.
Amusingly that’s also prevalent here as when Quill commanded Drax and Gamora to attack they looked like they have the same attacks. Both really stabby stabby though I guess Drax is a bit more brute force while Gamora is quicker though it’s not that noticeable.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Cross-posted from the Loki thread:
Semi-official conformation that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer part of the main continuity, probably.
Honestly, this is probably as close to an official word on the subject as we're likely to get for now, at least until they straight up start rebooting stuff like Daredevil and Ghost Rider.
Disney100 Marathon | DreamWorks MarathonAlso cross-posted from the Loki thread:
That article seems to be reading an awful lot into a writer statement that's basically a shrug. "That's one other tendril of the multiverse, perhaps." That's a guess. He's taking a shot in the dark about how Marvel might deal with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., because that's not something he - a writer for one Marvel TV show - has creative control over.
The article also says this: "Interestingly enough, Mobius and the Time Variance Authority would know that Coulson was revived during the events of Agents of SHIELD, but it's heavily implied in the series that Coulson remains dead."
Which is a straight-up lie. Loki's first episode "heavily implies" nothing of the sort. Coulson's death is briefly referenced in a conversation about Loki's motives and thought processes. That Agent Mobius does not then give Loki a play-by-play of all the myriad things that happened on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't confirmation of anything.
What actually happened is that an opportunity to firmly canonize Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came and went unheeded. The show did not confirm that AOS is canon. That's very different from the show firmly refuting that AOS is canon.
I, personally, don't think anybody at Marvel actually considers AOS or the Netflix shows to be canon. But one writer's uncertain shrug is not the smoking gun that this article is desperately trying to manufacture.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.If anything the complete redesign of the Darkhold in Wandavision is still the bigger smoking gun.
People are gonna believe what they want to believe up to whenever Marvel Studios decides to officially nip it in the bud, and honestly a number will still hold on afterwards. It is what it is. /shrug
Edited by Watchtower on Jun 15th 2021 at 10:47:31 AM
If you're just gonna say the show didn't exist, WHY DID YOU BOTHER MAKING THE FUCKING SHOW!?
Money? Well, fuck you for taking my money by making me invested in a show then telling me it doesn't matter.
.....Ok. Got that off my chest. I know it's pointless to complain, but them tossing out AOS will always bother me.
I'm still here, watching Marvel, but I wish they'd been sure of where they were going.
Even if it's alternate universe, I'm still not pleased by them going on the it doesn't affect the main timeline junk. AOS shouldn't have been made until they were sure of how they would incorporate their shows into the canon. Pure and simple.
Also, to save everyone time on counter arguments, I don't intend on changing my mind on this. Feel free to just ignore me and continue to feel as you like. No point in long arguments that won't go anywhere (I've been on the wrong end of those at home, and I have no intention of inflicting that on anyone else).
One Strip! One Strip!Thing is, the intention at first was for SHIELD to connect to the movies like with the Disney+ series... it's just that infighting between Feige and Perlmutter ended up splitting the two divisions so that didn't happen.
Disney100 Marathon | DreamWorks MarathonYeah. That gets me too.
A lot people dunk on the first season (some assume the entire show was that bad, when it was really only that first half of the first season), but ultimately the show is being tossed out due to backstage politics.
Probably the only things keeping them from outright doing it is that it's popular.
If not for the Permulter connection (which is likely why all the Inhumans stuff is in the show in the first place), we'd probably never have this issue.
One Strip! One Strip!Said it before and I'll say it again, I feel like the thing that shot Ao S in the foot more than anything in terms of being "canon" was the final two seasons. And yeah, the backstage politics preventing the film and TV divisions from playing nice sucks, but end of the day, the people in charge of Agents of SHIELD made the decision to tie the end of season 5 into Infinity War and then skip ahead a year for season 6. If they didn't know how things were going to shake out, and by that point they MUST have known they weren't going to know, they shouldn't have kept grasping at chasing the movies.
It does seem odd that they'd do that without knowing what was ahead.
They either really thought they'd be informed of things later, or something else happened.
Like, it makes you think they should have just had the cast stay in the future well past the point of the snap (though I don't know if that would have protected them or not).
One Strip! One Strip!

Marketing. The film's audience is a larger market than the comics' audience, so presenting a version of the team recognizable to filmgoers is more appealing.
Guardians of the Galaxy was a pretty obscure franchise before the hit blockbuster movie came along. So as far as the marketing is concerned, this team from the movie everyone loved is the definitive Guardians of the Galaxy, while the comics are basically a set of rough drafts.
Note that this tends to be the attitude with any successful adaptation and often even influences the comics themselves. It's just that it's more noticeable here because other franchises like Spider-Man or the X-Men have had multiple successful adaptations.
EDIT: What gets me is that the game seems to have the player exclusively play as Peter Quill. This is the second Guardians of the Galaxy video game adaptation to go, "Players only really care about Star-Lord, right? There is zero interest in playing Gamora, Drax, Rocket, or Groot? Star-Lord's the one that actually matters? Cool? Cool."
I understand why the lineup is always restricted to these characters, but it frustrates me that this lineup is presented as Star-Lord and His Amazing Friends.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 14th 2021 at 8:09:24 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.