Ever since 2008's "Iron Man," the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had a specific endgame in mind: "Avengers: Infinity War." The two-part series, scheduled for 2018 and 2019, will be one of the most massive movie crossovers in film history. Each one of Marvel's big screen expansion heroes is expected to make an appearance during the fight against the Mad Titan Thanos. However, Marvel's TV heroes may not get a chance to show off.
Marvel's film and television divisions are separate entities despite both existing within the MCU. While they share story notes in order to preserve continuity, rarely do they actually share heroes. Anthony Russo, one of the directors for the "Infinity War" series, was asked if Netflix characters such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones will be called upon for the epic showdown. Unfortunately, he doesn't see that as a viable option at the moment.
"It's complicated," Russo said. "The films are controlled by a group led by Kevin Feige, so they function as a unit. Other products, even if they are from Marvel, are controlled by others. Then there is the possibility of a crossover, but it's more complicated."
Russo went on to say that sharing major characters between TV and film formats is like a toned down version of the previous issues that prevented Spider-Man from joining the MCU. Sony Studios owns the rights to the wall-crawler and it was only out of desperation that they agreed to team up with Marvel (Tom Holland will make his MCU debut as Spider-Man in next year's "Captain America: Civil War). That won't happen anytime soon for other popular characters such as the X-Men, which are owned by 20th Century Fox. However, Russo did leave the door open as a remote possibility.
It's not as if the MCU has never borrowed characters between to the two mediums before. Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson was introduced on the film side before headlining ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." TV series. Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury even showed up on the small screen. But neither character is as big or important as their super-powered counterparts.
Hopefully, Marvel is able to figure out a compromise that will enable their incredibly popular Netflix stars to help out in "Infinity War." But, we won't hold our breath.
