Marvel has released some great TV shows over the last decade, but there are several shows that the company wanted to make that ended up cancelled and dead in the water from the start. Before Disney+, Marvel was building up shows on ABC, Hulu, Freeform, and Netflix, but ended up phasing those out for its exclusive home on its own streaming service. Through it all, there were several shows in the works that never ended up happening, and this also almost happened more than once on Disney+, when it was reported that Disney wanted to cancel Wonder Man before finally releasing it and watching it become one of the best MCU shows on the platform.
Here is a look at five Marvel shows that ended up cancelled without ever airing and were dead before they ever got a chance.
5) Marvel’s Most Wanted
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Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD was an interesting show, as it wasn’t getting great reviews early on, and part of that was because it was forced to remain tied into the mainline MCU. There were even tie-ins to Captain America: The Winter Soldier that remained fun episodes, but really took the show out of its comfort zone. However, after the show decided to change its timeline and separate itself from the MCU, it became incredibly entertaining.
There was supposed to be a spinoff series for two of the latter added popular characters that ended up cancelled without ever getting a chance. The show would follow Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), who were on the run trying to uncover a conspiracy with no help from SHIELD. With supporting cast members like Delroy Lindo and Oded Fehr, it remains disappointing that ABC chose not to pick up the unaired pilot.
4) Eternals
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Eternals was one of the most polarizing MCU movies released, with many fans praising its design and deeper story, while others felt it tried to cram too much into one movie and nothing seemed focused enough to work. That latter complaint could have been rectified if Marvel had kept up with its previous plans for the franchise. This wasn’t supposed to be a movie and was planned as a TV series.
In 2015, Marvel was working on creating Eternals as a new show on ABC, the home of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. It was supposed to be a “weird” story, which lines up with the characters involved. However, there might be one very good reason that Eternals never got the green light from ABC. The Inhumans was another “weird” story for comic book fans, and it flopped terribly. What happened was that it never got made, and Kevin Feige announced it would be a movie instead.
3) Damage Control
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Damage Control almost got its own TV series from Marvel, but thankfully that never happened. The reason this is a good cancelation was because Damage Control has become such a deadly and controversial antagonistic force in the MCU, and that couldn’t have happened with the way the TV show was being advertised. Damage Control was going to be a half-hour action-comedy series about overworked and underpaid Damage Control clean-up crews.
In the MCU, Damage Control came in to clean up after the Battle of New York, which was shown in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It is this clean-up crew, and their workplace comedy that would drive the series. There is no way this could have led to the Damage Control, which might be the main antagonists for the mutants in the next MCU phase if they were introduced like this on ABC.
2) New Warriors
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The New Warriors was supposed to be a Freeform Marvel series, and it was also going to be a half-hour comedy series for the team. This could have been fun, but also a little strange since in the comics, the New Warriors were responsible for the Civil War storyline thanks to their mistakes causing the mass deaths that led to the Superhero Registration Act.
However, the TV show was going to focus on Squirrel Girl and the rest of the main New Warriors team (including Night Thrasher, Speedball, Mister Immortal, Microbe, and Debrii). Freeform had seen some success with Cloak & Dagger, and this would be another step into the Marvel world. There was even enough excitement for Freeform to talk about spinoff series for the individual characters, but they ended up dead in the water when Freeform decided it was no longer interested just seven months after it ordered the series.
1) Ghost Rider
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Easily, the most disappointing Marvel series that ended up cancelled and never had a chance from the start was its Ghost Rider spinoff series. Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider debuted on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, and he was an instant fan favorite. However, the show wouldn’t air on ABC and was instead being developed for Hulu. This was smart sin Hulu had aired Hellstrom, and Hulu was positioning itself to be the dark side of the Marvel Universe.
Gabriel Luna was returning as Robbie Reyes, and this looked like it could eventually lead to a Midnight Sons series (which will probably happen anyway in the MCU with different characters). Marvel even put a hold on Luna’s contract so he could be available if they started it. Despite getting a showrunner and starting development, it was Hulu that backed out of the series, citing creative differences.
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