Nobody’s going to deny that when it comes to live-action franchises, the Marvel Cinematic Universe can’t be touched. Not only has the interconnected superhero saga earned over twice as much money at the box office as any other multi-film series, but every single one of the 24 installments to date has turned a profit and wound up with a Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The facts make it clear the MCU is the biggest game in town, but it would also be fair to say that the outfit is a long way away from conquering animation in the same fashion. The DC Animated Universe has been winning acclaim from critics and fans dating back three decades, while Star Wars has been delivering top quality shows like The Clone Wars, Rebels and latterly The Bad Batch for years now.
Even Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Fast & Furious Spy Racers are three and five seasons deep respectively, but the MCU is finally entering the fray in just a few weeks when the hotly-anticipated What If…? starts rolling out on Disney Plus. There’s already been plenty of talk the adaptation of the the popular comic book fantasies will be getting multiple seasons, but in a new interview Marvel’s Executive Vice President of Film Production Victoria Alonso revealed that an entirely new studio will be founded, specifically to focus on animated output.
“We’re going to have our animation branch and mini studio, and there will be more to come from that as well. We’re super excited about animation, which is my first love.”
As Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer who oversees the film, television and comic book slate, it sounds as though Kevin Feige’s plate is going to be getting fuller than ever. We’ve heard rumblings in the past of Marvel Animation Studios becoming a reality, and it looks as though it’ll be the base of operations for a slew of Disney Plus exclusive content.
