Kevin Feige Says the Marvel Movies and Shows Will Cross Over ‘At Some Point’

Ever since Daredevil paved the way for a new wave of Marvel television shows, fans have been waiting for the day that the studio would throw all its beloved superheroes into one giant pot. Spider-Man fighting alongside Daredevil; Jessica Jones and Gamora arguing over which one of them has more anger issues; Black Panther beating the ever-loving crap out of Iron Fist just because. Unfortunately for us, Marvel has maintained a strict separation between its television and movie properties, always suggesting that the legal and logistical requirements of bringing everyone together would require a (sorry) superhuman effort on the part of the studio.

It’s sort of surprising, then, to hear Marvel boss Kevin Feige suggest that not only is a crossover event a possibility, it might very well be inevitable. In a recent conversation with iO9 (via Heroic Hollywood), Feige ruled out the idea that a character’s inclusion in a Netflix or ABC series would prevent them from ever appearing in a Marvel movie:

Not necessarily. The future’s a long time. So, the truth is, I don’t really know, but there are a lot of TV shows being made, and hopefully we’ll continue to make a lot of movies. At some point, there’s going to be a crossover. Crossover, repetition, or something.

There’s an interesting idea at the core of these comments. As has been discussed ad naseum in the past few years, television and film offer writers unique opportunities to tell two different types of stories. Thus, while we may not see, say, Mike Colter’s Luke Cage appearing in an Avengers movie anytime soon, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see another actor be brought into the franchise a few years down the line. Similarly, perhaps when Marvel decides to retire the current versions of Tony Stark or Steve Rogers they may resurface those characters in television first. Marvel could create a system where the characters alternate between the big and small screens, giving them a chance to differentiate each iteration of Iron Man or Captain America by the types of stories they focus on telling.

At any rate, we’re fast approaching a period of transition for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where actors’ contracts are expiring and a few key players may be aging out of the action genre. Marvel’s pretty much got a blank check for themselves at this point; it’ll be interesting to see how they muddle with every channel available to them.