Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a Media franchise and shared fictional universe that is centered on a series of Superhero films, independently produced by Marvel Studios and based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, and a television series, with additional television series in development. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.

The first film released in the MCU was Iron Man (2008), which began the first phase of films, "Avengers Assembled", which culminated in The Avengers (2012). Phase Two began with Iron Man 3 (2013), and will subsequently conclude in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Marvel is also preparing Phase Three, with the release of Ant-Man (2015). The universe began to expand with the release of the first Marvel One-Shot in 2011, and saw further expansion with the premiere of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the 2013-14 season. Marvel has multiple films and television projects in various stages of development.

The films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe have received both critical and commercial success, and the franchise as a whole ranks as the third highest-grossing film franchise of all time.

Development
By 2005, Marvel Studios began planning to start independently producing its own films and distribute them through Paramount Pictures. Previously, the studio had co-produced several superhero films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, including a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox. Marvel Studios made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige realized that unlike Spider-Man and the X-Men, whose film rights were licensed to Columbia and Fox respectively, Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of The Avengers. Feige, a self-professed fanboy, envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the early 1960s. To raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel's plan was to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them together in a crossover film. Feige initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of these films as the "Marvel Cinema Universe", but later used the term "Marvel Cinematic Universe".

Marvel Studios developed specific business practices to create its shared universe. For example, when the studio hired Kenneth Branagh and Joe Johnston to direct Thor and Captain America, respectively, it made sure both directors were open to the idea of a shared universe, and that they would have to include Avengers setup scenes in their films. Joe Russo, one of the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier added, "That's the exciting component of [incorporating references to the larger universe]. 'What can we set up for the future?' You're constantly pitching out ideas that not only affect your movie, but may have a ripple effect that affects other films... It's a weird sort of tapestry of writers and directors working together to create this universe that's sort of organic." Joe's brother and co-director, Anthony, added, that in order for directors to "fit" in at Marvel, they must "understand how [to] take a larger story and wrangle in [sic] into a moment, yet keep [it] connected." The studio chose filmmakers that were considered "out-of-left-field", given their previous work. Feige remarked, "You don't have to have directed a big, giant visual-effects movie to do a big, giant visual-effects movie for us. You just have to have done something singularly sort of awesome," adding "It’s worked out well for us when we’ve taken people [such as Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Branagh and the Russo brothers,] that have done very, very good things. Very rarely are one of those good things a big giant blockbuster superhero movie." Marvel also began contracting their actors for multiple films, including signing actor Samuel L. Jackson to a then "unprecedented" nine-movie contract.

Over time, the distribution rights to Marvel Studios' films changed hands on multiple occasions. In November 2006, it was announced that The Incredible Hulk would be distributed by Universal Pictures, separate from the deal with Paramount in 2005. In September 2008, after the international success of Iron Man, Paramount signed a deal to have worldwide distribution rights for Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. In late December 2009, The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Both Marvel and Disney stated that Disney would distribute future Marvel projects with their own studios once the current distribution deals with Paramount expire after The Avengers. In October 2010, Disney bought the distribution rights for Marvel's The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount Pictures with Paramount's logo remaining on the films, as well as for promotional material and merchandise. (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is the only studio credited at the end of these films.) In July 2013, Disney purchased the distribution rights to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger from Paramount. The Incredible Hulk was not part of the deal, due to an agreement between Marvel and Universal, where Marvel owns the film rights and Universal owns the distribution rights, for this and any future Hulk film.

In November 2013, Feige said that "in an ideal world" releases each year would include one film based on an existing character and one featuring a new character, saying it's "a nice rhythm" in that format. While not always the case, as evident by the 2013 releases of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, he said it is "certainly something to aim for." As such, he added that there are "additional stories of the existing characters in development and the new ones" that have been mentioned previously. In February 2014, Feige stated that Marvel Studios wants to mimic the "rhythm" that the comic books have developed, by having the characters appear in their own films, and then come together, much like "a big event or crossover series."

On expanding the characters in the universe and letting individual films breath and work on their own, opposed to having Avenger team ups outside of those films, Feige stated, it’s about "Teaching the general movie going audience about the notion of the characters existing separately, coming together for specific events and going away and existing separately in their own worlds again. Just like comic readers have been doing for decades and decades... People sort of are accepting that there's just a time when they should be together and there’s a time when they’re not."

Home media
In June 2012, Marvel announced the release of a 10-disc Blu-ray box set titled Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled, for September 25, 2012. The box set includes the first six films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Marvel's The Avengers—in a replica of Nick Fury's briefcase from The Avengers. In August 2012, luggage company Rimowa GmbH, who developed the briefcase for The Avengers, filed suit against Marvel Studios and Buena Vista Home Entertainment in U.S. federal court, complaining that "Marvel did not obtain any license or authorization from Rimowa to make replica copies of the cases for any purpose". The set was delayed and the packaging was redesigned for 2013. The box set, with a redesigned case, was released on April 2, 2013. In addition, the box set included a featurette on the upcoming Phase Two movies, showing footage and concept art, as well as previously unreleased deleted scenes from all of the Phase One films.

Short films
In August 2011, Marvel announced a series of Direct-to-video Short films called Marvel One-Shots. The first two shorts, The Consultant and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer, star Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, offering up self-contained stories about a day in the life of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. The third film, Item 47, deals with the aftermath of the events of Marvel's The Avengers. Agent Carter stars Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, reprising her role from the Captain America films, while All Hail the King stars Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, reprising his role from Iron Man 3.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
By July 2012, Marvel Television had again entered into discussions with ABC to do a show set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in August, ABC ordered a pilot for a show called S.H.I.E.L.D., to be written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen, and directed by Joss Whedon. Clark Gregg reprises his role from the films as Phil Coulson in the series. On April 6, 2013 ABC announced that the show would be titled Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and was officially ordered to series on May 10, 2013. The series premiered on September 24, 2013.

In the first season, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Maximiliano Hernández, Titus Welliver and Jaimie Alexander all reprised their roles as Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Jasper Sitwell, Agent Blake and Sif, respectively, from previous MCU films and One-Shots. The season also aired episodes that directly relate to events in the films Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Agent Carter
By September 2013, Marvel was developing a series inspired by the Agent Carter One-Shot, featuring Peggy Carter, and was in search of a writer for the series. Actress Hayley Atwell, who portrayed Carter in the two Captain America films and the Agent Carter short film, expressed interest in returning as the character. In January 2014, ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee confirmed that the show was in development, as well as confirming Atwell's involvement. He added that Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas would act as the series' showrunners, while the script for a potential pilot was written by Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. In March 2014, Markus and McFeely stated that, while the series has not been greenlit, Atwell still remains interested, while adding that Howard Stark would be a recurring character, contingent on Dominic Cooper's involvement. The series, envisioned as a limited series of approximately 13 episodes, would be set around 1946, occurring in the middle of the timeline established in the One-Shot, and would focus on one case for Carter. Additional seasons would then advance the plot a year and examine a new case.

Netflix series
By October 2013, Marvel was preparing four drama series and a miniseries, totaling 60 episodes, to present to video on demand services and cable providers, with Netflix, Amazon and WGN America expressing interest. In November 2013, it was announced that Disney will provide Netflix with live-action series based on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage, leading up to a miniseries based on the Defenders. Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that Netflix was chosen to air the shows, when Disney realized it could use the streaming service as a way to grow the popularity of the characters. He added that, if the characters prove popular, they could become feature films. Shortly after, Melissa Rosenberg was announced to write and executive produce the Jessica Jones series. In December 2013, Marvel confirmed that Drew Goddard will be the executive producer and Showrunner for the Daredevil series, and will write and direct the first episode. In a February 2014 interview for the One-Shot All Hail the King, writer/director Drew Pearce confirmed the upcoming Netflix series would exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Later in February, Marvel announced that the Netflix series would be filmed in New York City, beginning in mid-2014, and confirmed that all the series leading to The Defenders would be 13 one-hour episodes each, and The Defenders would be a 4-8 episode miniseries concluding the other series. In March 2014, Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb stated that Daredevil would begin filming in July 2014, with Jessica Jones being the series to follow. Iron Fist and Lucas Cage would then follow Jessica Jones, before concluding with the Defenders series.

Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
On March 18, 2014, ABC aired a one-hour Television special] titled Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe, which documented the history of Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and included exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from all of the films, One-Shots and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and sneak peeks of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, unaired episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Ant-Man. Brian Lowry of Variety felt the special, "contains a pretty interesting business and creative story. While it might all make sense in hindsight, there was appreciable audacity in Marvel’s plan to release five loosely connected movies from the same hero-filled world, beginning with the cinematically unproven Iron Man and culminating with superhero team The Avengers. As such, this fast-moving hour qualifies as more than just a cut-and-paste job from electronic press kits, although there’s an element of that, certainly."

Comic books
In November 2010, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada outlined his plan to expand the MCU into comic books. He explained, "[F]or the uninitiated, the MCU [comics] are going to be stories set within movie continuity. [They are] not necessarily direct adaptations of the movies, but maybe something that happened off screen and was mentioned in the movie, and we'll tell that story. ... [T]he folks that are involved in the movies on the West Coast will be involved in these stories. It won't be like one of our comic book writers saw the movie and has an idea for a story. No, these stories are originating at the very top. [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin Feige is involved with these and in some cases maybe the writers of the movies would be involved in ... generating these ideas and then either just giving them to some of our writers or maybe some of these guys writing them themselves."

Reception
Jim Vorel of Herald & Review called the Marvel Cinematic Universe "complicated" and "impressive" but said, "As more and more heroes get their own film adaptations, the overall universe becomes increasingly confusing." Kofi Outlaw of Screen Rant, stated that while The Avengers was a success, "Marvel Studios still has room to improve their approach to building a shared movie universe". However, some reviewers criticized the fact that the desire to create a shared universe led to films that did not hold as well on their own. In his review of Thor: The Dark World, Forbes critic Scott Mendelson likened the MCU to "a glorified television series", with The Dark World being a "‘stand-alone’ episode that contains little long-range mythology." Collider's Matt Goldberg considered that while Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were quality productions, "they have never really been their own movies", feeling that the plot detours to S.H.I.E.L.D. or lead-ups to The Avengers dragged down the films' narratives.

Impact on other studios
After the release of The Avengers in May 2012, Tom Russo of Boston.com noted that aside from the occasional "novelty" such as Aliens vs. Predator (2004), the idea of a shared universe was virtually unheard of in Hollywood. Since that time, the shared universe model created by Marvel Studios has begun to be replicated by other film studios that held rights to other comic book characters.

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.
In October 2012, following its legal victory over Joe Shuster's estate for the rights to Superman, Warner Bros. announced that it planned to move ahead with its long-awaited Justice League film, uniting such DC Comics superheroes as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Warner Bros. was expected to take the opposite approach of Marvel Studios by releasing individual films for the characters after they have appeared in team-up film. However, the release of Man of Steel in 2013 was intended to be the start of a new cinematic universe for DC, with that film "laying the groundwork for the future slate of films based on DC Comics."

20th Century Fox
In November 2012, 20th Century Fox announced plans to create their own shared universe, consisting of Marvel properties that it holds the rights to including the Fantastic Four and X-Men, with the hiring of Mark Millar as supervising producer. Millar said, "Fox are thinking, 'We're sitting on some really awesome things here. There is another side of the Marvel Universe. Let’s try and get some cohesiveness going.' So they brought me in to oversee that really. To meet with the writers and directors to suggest new ways we could take this stuff and new properties that could spin out of it." X-Men: Days of Future Past, set for release in 2014, may be Fox's first step towards expanding their stable of Marvel mutant properties.

Sony Pictures
In November 2013, Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal announced that the studio intends to expand their universe created within the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man series, with spin-off adventures for supporting characters in the "Spider-Man" franchise, in an attempt to replicate Marvel and Disney's model. She stated, "We are going to access Marvel's full world of Spider-Man characters." Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Michael Lynton added, "We do very much have the ambition about creating a bigger universe around Spider-Man." Director Marc Webb has stated that the announced fourth film "may not just be a Spider-Man movie," and "there are so many ancillary characters, that have enormous, cinematic potential," echoing Pascal and Lynton's statements for expanding the Spider-Man universe.

In December 2013, Sony announced Venom and Sinister Six films, both set in the Amazing Spider-Man universe. With the announcement, IGN stated that the spin-offs are "the latest example of what we can refer to as "the Avengers effect" in Hollywood, as studios work to build interlocking movie universes."