Feige was taking a "hands-on role" in each series' development,[9] focusing on "continuity of story" with the films and "handling" the returning actors.

[14][15] Disney gave Marvel Studios an initial mandate to create as much content as it could, as quickly as it could, to bolster the new streaming service.

[18] Feige stated, in December 2019, that Marvel Studios' series were "a new type of cinematic" story, and "for the first time ... the MCU will be on your TV screen at home on Disney+ and interconnect with the movies and go back and forth".

[27] In February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company was re-evaluating the volume of content it output as a way to cut costs over the next few years.

[45][46] In November 2023, the studio announced the "Marvel Spotlight" banner for select series that focus on more grounded, character-driven stories with less impact on the larger MCU narrative.

[47] Winderbaum said the banner was created during post-production on Echo (2024) to indicate to audiences that they did not need to watch any other MCU projects to understand the series.

[47][48] The banner was inspired by the Marvel Spotlight anthology comics (1971–1981) and features a new opening logo with a musical fanfare composed by Michael Giacchino.

[12] By October 2013, Marvel was preparing four drama series and a miniseries to present to video on demand services and cable providers, with Netflix, Amazon, and WGN America expressing interest.

[79][83] Marvel initially said there were no plans to crossover these series,[84] but Cloak and Dagger were announced to be appearing in the third season of Runaways in August 2019.

[87] Hulu ordered two series based on Ghost Rider and the siblings Daimon and Ana Helstrom in May 2019, intending to build an interconnected universe in a similar fashion to Marvel's Netflix shows.

[98] He noted that since the films have to be "big" and move "quickly through a lot of huge pieces", it was beneficial to have the television series fill in any "gaps" for them.

[100] In October 2014, Feige said there was potential for characters from the Netflix series to appear in the crossover film Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

[104] Vincent D'Onofrio, who portrayed Wilson Fisk / Kingpin in Daredevil, said in January 2017 that he was open to appearing in the films, but believed it would most likely not happen.

D'Onofrio cited Feige's previous reasoning as well as the fact that the films already had difficulty handling the large number of characters they had.

[110] James D'Arcy reprises his role of Edwin Jarvis from the television series Agent Carter in the next crossover film after Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame (2019).

[112] Speaking about how the Marvel Television series fit within the larger MCU timeline in May 2019, Loeb said, "We don't want to ever do something in our show[s] which contradicts what's happening in the movies.

[119] Following the introduction of the multiverse in the first season of Loki (2021), Jack Shephard of Total Film suggested Marvel Studios announce that the Marvel Television series take place on a different timeline within that multiverse since he felt the studio was not taking the events of those series into account as part of the main timeline.

[123] Inhumans star Anson Mount portrayed a version of his character Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt from an alternate universe in Multiverse of Madness.

[132][133] Acknowledging that Echo has some discrepancies with Kingpin's backstory in Daredevil, D'Onofrio said some things would change slightly moving forward to keep the stories interesting and it was more important to align with the tone of the previous series.

He praised the series for its connections to the films and acknowledged that Marvel Studios could consider it part of the Multiverse Saga, but he was unwilling to confirm that at the time.

[134] In February 2025, Winderbaum said Marvel Studios was open to bringing back more elements from the Netflix series, including the rest of the Defenders.

[25][196] By that May, Danai Gurira signed a deal to reprise her role as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje, in the series, which was said to be an origin spin-off for the character.

[14][15] Many of the studio's first series were approached with a feature film structure that gave the characters one arc across a single, serialized story.

Feige said this happened due to a combination of logistics, the needs of each story, and the studio learning more about making longform television.

At that point, the series shifted to a "more feature centric model" where the director took on the role that a traditional showrunner might have and had the final say for creative decisions while on set and in post-production.

[223][224] This was part of wider changes to the studio's television approach that were revealed in October 2023: moving away from the head writer model in favor of showrunners; hiring dedicated executives to focus on television; and planning more multi-season series so audiences could form relationships with characters over time, rather than series just being one-off events.

The studio came around to the idea of hiring showrunners after Gao returned to aid She-Hulk in post-production,[152] and after the critical and commercial failure of Secret Invasion.

Club, Sam Barsanti said it was good that Marvel recognized the issues with "turn[ing] its Disney+ shows into stretched-out movies", although WandaVision and She-Hulk did not have the same problems so it was possible to make more traditional television under the previous approach.

[187] Agatha All Along, released later that year, was the first Marvel Studios series with a showrunner in Schaeffer, who was initially hired as its head writer.

[232][215] The first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2025) was released weekly in groups of two or three episodes, which Chris Agar of ComicBook.com called unusual for an MCU series.