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A good concept can spur countless ideas for a movie or television series, but as we've learned over the years - especially when it comes to superhero movies - a great concept doesn't always equal a great movie or TV show. Take for example Marvel Studios' Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumania or DC Studios' Black Adam. What we've learned is that a great story is the engine that drives a great movie or TV series and that other elements - the concept, the cast, the director, the marketing - can't save a bad story. And just because you are riding high off another success, you can't forget that.

Recently, the hitmakers at Marvel Studios shelved plans for three MCU TV series - Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror Inc. This comes after a prolonged six-year development saga for Mahershala Ali's Blade (with the studio recently taking it off the release calendar altogether), and the tv-show-turned-movie Armor Wars is similarly ambiguous following the tepid response to star Don Cheadle's appearance in Secret Invasion. Five projects, with one shared symptom - the lack of a story that can get all parties excited. And while at some point that creative drought didn't stop movies or TV from being made, Marvel and DC are re-learning this valuable lesson.

The return of the pilot

As outlined through public statements from both Marvel Studios and DC Studios, both superhero factories have instituted their own development areas where ideas can be pitched, writers and directors can be hired, and there are resources given to figure out if they have a story worth having. That's why you're hearing more than ever about shows and movies being canceled by Marvel - these are shows that are in development but don't win over the top brass enough to go from 'in development' to being greenlit for production.

“We’re developing more than we make now, so we actually have a few different things brewing that we might see through to at least a pilot script to see if we want to make it,” Marvel Studios' head of TV, streaming & animation Brad Winderbaum said in August 2024 to ScreenRant. 

Read that again, with an emphasis on "now."

We’re developing more than we make now..."

This isn't just Marvel. Famous ex-Marvel director/writer James Gunn said something that means the same thing is happening there - in development, but not greenlit. All four of these have writers, and in some cases directors, but it isn't a given that they'll actually be made until a story is figured out.

“Paradise Lost is totally still important. We’re working heavily on scripts,” Gunn tells Nerds of Color. “Booster Gold is going pretty strong. Waller has had a couple of setbacks, frankly. And The Authority has had some some issues, but everything else has gone pretty well.”

As Marvel's head of TV said: “But, there’s a lot of opportunity out there, it’s hard to choose favorites… We’re really being careful about what we choose to do next.”

This isn't the first time Marvel Studios has done this - even to the point of killing Edgar Wright's Ant-Man movie or nuking a Runaways movie just as casting was about to begin. And don't get me started on Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins' plans for Thor: The Dark World. But those are just one-offs, and Marvel had its own development program once upon a time - and it created Marvel's (and James Gunn's) biggest surprise hit to date.

James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy was in development before - and part of a Marvel development program

James Gunn is one of the biggest beneficiaries of such a program, as his Marvel Studios breakout hit Guardians of the Galaxy was a result of a similar development area. The unlikely development of a lesser-known space series in Guardians of the Galaxy only came about thanks to an even lesser-known program inside Marvel Studios from 2009 to 2012 in which the studio hired a group of screenwriters to actively develop, pitch, and write movie scripts for such lesser-known properties. Guardians of the Galaxy came out of that, from Nicole Perlman.

"The goal is to put more than half a dozen film writers on staff, give them an office, and 'work them like horses!'," according to Deadline in 2009. Perlman's Guardians of the Galaxy is the big one coming out of that, but it also minted Marvel screenwriters such as Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther) and Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok).

In many ways, a program like this bashes out what a story is (and isn't), and is something Gunn talks about in his and Peter Safran's work with DC Studios.

"It’s all story-based. To us, storytelling is 100% king," says Gunn. "So, if it’s a story that’s more complicated, like the Lanterns or Waller story, or has more of an independent TV vibe, like Booster Gold, then that’s more suited for television. It has to do with tone, storytelling and if it’s something that we can tell in two hours and ten minutes. Or is it something that we need seven, eight or nine hours for?"

And again, not all stories that get in the program get made - and that's the intention.

"We certainly debated a couple of these projects and where they fit better, but ultimately, this is where we landed," says Safran. 

How saying 'no' can help Marvel Studios

While Nova fans have had years of reports of Nova debuting in the MCU only to be shot down as plans change, we should be thankful they're waiting until they have a story they believe in and it not turning out like Quantumania. When you have the power to say 'yes' to anything in the short term thanks to the financial success of your work, your strongest tool is the power to say 'no.'  Not all of any one person's ideas (or a group's) is a winner, and being able to regulate that and metaphorically kill your darlings when they're just not working is the only way to stay on a creative high.

This isn't to say that an MCU Nova, Strange Academy, or Terror Inc. series will never happen. It's just to say Marvel Studios is waiting for a great story that they believe you will like. They did the same with Iron Man and the previous versions with Tom Cruise, Quentin Tarantino, and the like to be able to say yes to Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau's - they're doing the same here.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.