Marvel Cinematic Universe to include new animated works

Since Disney’s buyout of Marvel in 2009 a stream of newly-developed animated series and films have arrived on Disney’s XD channel including Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble and the upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy show to name but three. Unlike live-action shows such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., these shows don’t tie in to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe; but that could be about to change.

Things heated up at this weekend’s Wondercon, as Marvel brass hinted at future line of animated works that would be considered part of the MCU canon. Marvel’s VP of Animation and Production Cort Lane was asked by a fan whether or not the animation crew were seeking to create future shows to hook into the events depicted in Marvel’s movies. “I can’t announce anything,” he simply said (via Newsarama), “but things are in the works.”

Marvel has plenty of lesser-known characters it could launch through its animation arm. Much like last summer’s Guardians Of The Galaxy film, which quickly became a household name, the comic giant has its entire prolific back catalogue to mine for ideas.

Currently Marvel is in the thick of rolling out five brand new shows developed exclusively for Netflix. This Friday sees the release of its live-action Daredevil series. That will be followed by AKA Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and finally a limited series team-up including all of those headliners called The Defenders. Depending on their success - and if early Daredevil reviews are anything to go by, they’re going to be huge - we could see a whole new set of connected animated series landing in the near future.

For more top comic book movie and TV news, subscribe to SFX