All TV shows can be categorized in one of two ways; those that are made with the intention of being a limited series and those that are made with the expectation of multiple seasons following. When it comes to Disney+ shows from franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, that line seems to be a constantly blurring one, and the new series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is no exception. The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series premiered last week, and just like most MCU shows, it has had its fair share of review-bombing, but early viewing figures suggest the introduction of Tatiana Maslany’s green goddess is another hit for the platform. Also, like many Marvel offerings, the series was conceived as a single-season story with the mental approach that a second season would not happen.
With many shows on Netflix disappointing fans by setting up multiple storylines in their first season only to be canceled before any of them are resolved, Disney seems to have created a new trend of developing shows that seem to be one-shots from the start, and come with just a small hint that more could be to come rather than ending on outright cliffhangers that are never paid off. She-Hulk writer Jessica Gao recently told Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast that there was never a real effort made to set up a second season of the show. She said:
“Coming from television, you can never guarantee that you're going to get another season with a first season show. So it's kind of been trained into my head that, on a first-season show, you really have to tell a complete story that you'd be satisfied with if this is only a one-and-done. Just because there's never a guarantee, you just never know if you're going to get another season, so you can't really hold back and just leave things open-ended. You do have to tell some sort of satisfying arc in one season just in case, and then of course you leave the door open for possibilities for a second, third, and fourth season. So that was kind of my mental approach to it.”
Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe Shows Are Mostly One-Shots
Disney
One of the benefits of having a story universe that spans an ongoing narrative primarily told on the big screen, with additional storytelling being done via TV shows, Disney and Marvel have created something that was said to be impossible when Ron Howard suggested a similar venture to tell the story of Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga. So far, of its live-action TV shows, only Loki has been given a second season, which is filming now for released next year, with other shows like WandaVision acting as a bridge between Avengers: Endgame and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Hawkeye branching out into the spin-off series of Echo, and Moon Knight, for now, being a completely separate story arc in its own right despite ending on a note that definitely leaves the door open for a second season.
For the most part, this seems to be a strategy that has been working for Marvel and Disney, allowing them to deliver very focused stories that, despite frequent bouts of review bombing for various reasons, have delivered in quality and performance for Disney+. With the list of upcoming shows based around new and lesser-known Marvel characters continuing to grow, it is not surprising that second seasons are few and far between. However, with the MCU now hurtling towards Secret Wars, there is no doubt that many of these characters will all have their parts to play again somewhere down the line.