Ever since Marvel teamed up with Netflix for their slate of superhero TV shows, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, it has been confirmed that these shows are actually set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you have only watched the MCU movies though, you wouldn’t know it, since none of these characters have made the transition from the streaming service to the big screen. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently addressed why none of the TV heroes have crossed over into the big screen adventures, hinting that it may not happen anytime soon.
Many fans hoped that at least some of the Marvel Netflix characters would surface in Avengers: Infinity War, with director Anthony Russo teasing last month that they are considering every possible MCU character for inclusion in this next ensemble adventure. However, Kevin Feige recently spoke with Collider, teasing that Avengers: Infinity War already has too many characters, and it all depends on timing in regards to bringing the TV characters to the big screen. Here’s what he had to say below.
“I think it’s extremely impressive what Netflix has done and it will be the same answer I always give, which is, ‘It all depends on timing.’ It all depends on how to do it because I don’t think what anybody wants to do is have such important characters show up for one second. Black Panther and Spider-Man to me are the high bar in Civil War of how you can bring in new characters into something. Vision and Ultron, Wanda and Pietro in Ultron. And it takes a lot of screentime, and it takes a lot of work. Infinity War has a lot of people in it already. So it just depends on how we could figure it out.”
While there haven’t been any official plot details released for Avengers: Infinity War, it certainly would make sense to bring the Netflix heroes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist into this story. Director Joe Russo teased earlier this year that Infinity War will unite the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, although he didn’t specify if that includes the TV side or not. The directors have also teased there will be upwards of 67 characters in this movie, and it seems likely they’ll all unite to try and take down the nefarious Thanos.
Even if the Marvel Netflix heroes don’t surface in Infinity War, there will certainly be more opportunities for these characters to cross over to the big screen. The TV side is also getting bigger, with the streaming service currently in production on The Punisher spin-off, starring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, and there have been rumors of Blade and Moon Knight TV shows in the works at Netflix. Hopefully one day these small screen heroes will make the transition to the big screen.