Three reasons Disney needs to revive Netflix’s Marvel shows on Disney+
By Erik Stanton
Reason #2: “Quality Over Quantity”
In the age of streaming, Netflix has long stood as king. There are many different reasons for that, but one of them is that Netflix routinely puts out high-quality content. From Stranger Things to Orange is the New Black to Ozark to The Crown and well beyond, Netflix has something for everyone.
By and large, Netflix gives passionate storytellers freedom to tell their stories how they want with minimal influence from executives. This has always been a staple of the service. Another is the sheer volume of content. Sometimes Netflix seems to be putting 10 new original shows a week. And given how successful the company is, the strategy seems to have worked.
Disney+ has decided to take a different route. CEO Dan Iger has said that they don’t plan on being in the “Volume Game.” Their aim is to go more for the quality side of things. They don’t want to spend most of their money on a few good shows and then sprinkle out the rest for a bunch of average shows that fade into the background. Disney plans to make every one of its shows an event.
Netflix’s slate of Marvel fits right into this “quality over quantity” approach. These shows have huge followings and have been critically acclaimed. While not every actor is winning Emmys for their performances, many have been praised for their portrayals of iconic comic book characters. The storylines are often deep, complex, and full of twists to keep fans interested. The action scenes of a high caliber not often found outside of a movie theater.
Not all contemporary superhero shows have these qualities. Over on The CW, Arrow and The Flash have their fans, but they can get mired in cliches, falling back on the villain-of-the-week routine more common to older shows. They can pull off some decent fight scenes, but nothing as exciting and experimental as what a Netflix show can do. Even Marvel’s own Agents of Shield on ABC isn’t living up to this standard. All of these shows have merit, but if the goal is quality, Disney will want a show unconfined by network demands. It’ll want the Marvel Netflix shows.
Another option is to simply recast characters like Daredevil and Luke Cage and reboot these stories, but that would risk upsetting fans who have grown attached to these instances of the characters. Plus, why mess with what’s already working? Marvel struck gold with these shows and it would be wise to keep digging.