Marvel’s Historic TV Bomb Is So Bad It’s Still Hurting The MCU 6 Years Later

Although most Marvel projects in the last decade have been a success, the studio has one historic TV bomb that was so bad it’s still affecting the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU had its start on the big screen with Iron Man, in 2008, and since then, it has continued to expand and has also branched out to TV/streaming. However, Marvel has had a hard time bringing its characters and the MCU to TV, and it has had a couple of failures over the years, but one in particular continues to affect this connected universe years after its chaotic run.

Before the MCU properly branched out to TV series through Disney+, starting with WandaVision, Marvel attempted to expand with a couple of series airing on ABC, others housed at Netflix, and a couple that went to Hulu. Marvel’s biggest TV bomb came from the ABC batch, and it was the series Inhumans. Although it had an exciting premise and interesting characters, different from what Marvel had done until then, Inhumans was a major failure, and it was so bad it continues to negatively impact the MCU.

Marvel Studios Is Blocking Movies From Connecting To The Inhumans

Marvel saw various failures with its TV projects prior to the ones that are an official part of the MCU, so Inhumans has mostly been forgotten by the audience as it got lost among so many flops – however, its negative legacy continues to impact the MCU and its different branches. The book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, by Dave Gonzales and Joanna Robinson, reveals that Marvel Studios has been doing its best to minimize any and all connections with Marvel Television. This now-defunct branch was the one behind all Marvel TV shows before WandaVision, including Netflix’s Marvel shows, Legion, The Gifted, and M.O.D.O.K.

Marvel’s efforts to leave that past behind seem to be more focused on cutting all possible ties with Inhumans than with any other TV shows. Gonzales and Robinson explain that, when Eternals was in development, the production team was instructed to not have any parts of the story set in Hawaii, as that’s where most of Inhumans was set. In Inhumans, after a military coup, the Inhuman Royal Family escapes to Hawaii, where they try to find a way to save themselves and the world. Having parts of Eternals set in Hawaii would have risked viewers being reminded of Inhumans and trying to find links between the failed TV show and the current MCU.

It’s worth noting that these rules to stay away from the Inhumans and any possible links to the series don’t seem to be too strict, as Black Bolt (Anson Mount) already returned, although briefly. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced a variant of Black Bolt from a universe where he was part of the Illuminati, but he was killed by Scarlet Witch in a truly horrible way. This Black Bolt had no real connection to the series and he’s no longer active, so it’s not really a link to the infamous TV series.

Why The Inhumans Was Such A Huge Flop For Marvel

Inhumans definitely didn’t live up to the hype, and both critics and viewers were very vocal about what went wrong with the series. Inhumans was labeled “unimaginative” by many and criticized for having nothing new to offer to the MCU, and it was made worse by its weak and boring characters. The team being Inhumans didn’t do much to build likable characters and give them an engaging story that added to the rest of the MCU, and instead, it felt like a lazy melodrama that didn’t feel like part of the MCU.

One of the biggest complaints about Inhumans was its visual effects and overall design, which looked cheap, more so when compared to the rest of the MCU. These flaws were even more evident as Marvel, for some reason, decided to give Inhumans a theatrical release in IMAX. While this worked in terms of marketing and bringing attention to the project, it backfired horribly as the IMAX format only enhanced the visual flaws of the series. Inhumans was canceled after only one season of eight episodes.

What Marvel’s Anti-Inhuman Guidelines Means For The MCU

If Marvel was looking to stay as far from Inhumans as possible by the time Eternals was in development, it’s highly likely that continues to be the case. There have been some Inhumans supporters who hope the team will get another chance at the MCU, similar to what’s happening with the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, but it seems unlikely this will happen. This means that characters who, in the comics, are Inhumans, like Kamala Khan, won’t be revealed to be so in the MCU (instead, Kamala has been reworked to be a mutant). It’s also unlikely that variants from other Inhumans will be included in the rest of the Multiverse Saga, so Black Bolt’s death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness can be seen as the definitive end of the Inhumans in the MCU.