Ever since Marvel Studios took over the production of its TV shows, fans have had questions about canon. Is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Do Daredevil and Luke Cage exist in the MCU? Can we expect to see any former actors in future MCU projects? At long last, we might have answers to some of those questions.
This Thursday, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn tweeted out a list of actors that appeared in both the MCU and DCEU. He asked for more examples and one of his followers responded with the name John Glover. Glover appeared in both Shazam and Agent Carter, but Gunn said he was not going to include “pre-WandaVision” shows. Another follower said that Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are part of the MCU. “According to whom?” Gunn responded.
After a short back-and-forth with his follower, Gunn explained that “there was never any coordination between the earlier TV stuff & the cinematic side of Marvel like there is now that they’re all under the purview of Marvel Studios.” In other words, Gunn doesn’t believe the old shows are canon.
That’s incorrect. There was never any coordination between the earlier TV stuff & the cinematic side of Marvel like there is now that they’re all under the purview of Marvel Studios.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 2, 2021
For many fans, this probably will not matter in the slightest. Nothing that happened in Agent Carter or Jessica Jones had a significant impact on the larger cinematic universe. Plus, all of the shows that aired before Disney+ launched have either concluded or have been canceled.
This likely won’t settle any debates among hardcore fans, but Gunn is currently working on his third Marvel movie. It seems likely that he knows what he’s talking about.
Will Marvel’s Netflix heroes return?
Of course, this also raises questions about the likelihood of characters from the Netflix shows or the network shows eventually appearing in the MCU. If Netflix’s The Defenders and the ABC shows are not canon, then Marvel is not burdened with the lore those shows established. They could bring back any of the actors and start with a clean slate. In fact, that’s rumored to be precisely what the studio plans to do with Daredevil actor Charlie Cox in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
James Gunn is currently promoting his DCEU movie The Suicide Squad, which comes out on August 6th. He will begin production on the MCU movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 later this year.
