Saturday, February 28, 2015

8 Marvel Mini Series Ideas

Marvel's latest project, Agent Carter, came to a close this week following an emotional finale. While the finale was enjoyable and wrapped up the missions that Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and the rest of the SSR ventured on in the first season, the show likely did not meet expectations that Marvel had.

The season finale dropped to a season low 1.4 rating and only managed 4 million viewers. Not the kind of results that Marvel expected.

Agent Carter was a good way to fill the winter break of Agents of SHIELD. The latter has had a remarkable turn around following the tie in to Captain America: The Winter Soldier and has continued that momentum with a very good second season.

Agents of SHIELD has a lot of problems the team needs to solve and is heading down an inhuman path that should provide stories for many more seasons. Agents of SHIELD has the ratings, viewers, and story telling to deserve a third season and it should only be a matter of time before Marvel officially renews it.

However, Agent Carter does not have the same numbers to make a second season an absolute must for Marvel and the MCU. There are lots of different stories that deserve to be told and an eight episode arc similar to Agent Carter's could be a great way to tell those stories.

Below are 8 Potential Marvel Mini Series.

Hawkeye
Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) has been an underutilized character in the MCU to this point in time. After being Loki's zombie in The Avengers, he is set to have a bigger impact in the summer blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron. Just how big his role will be remains to be seen but the fact of the matter is that there is no Hawkeye movie on the horizon and even with a possible, yet unconfirmed, role in Captain America: Civil War, he is a character that deserves a larger role.

Making a TV show based around Hawkeye and a small group of former SHIELD specialists protecting the world is best for all parties involved. Getting Jeremy Renner to sign on for an eight episode mini series might be tough with his busy movie schedule but it is not impossible. This would also help build a larger team around Coulson and would allow for small crossover potential, but a larger global scale to stop all of the threats that HYDRA and SHIELD's other enemies pose.
Black Widow
Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) has been a fan favorite since her debut in Iron Man 2. She is a beautiful, witty, and butt-kicking woman in the Marvel universe and, just like Hawkeye, she has a larger story to tell.

Ideally, an origin story would be best for Black Widow and Marvel has already laid the foundation for such a story. A sub plot of Agent Carter was introducing the Black Widow Program and showing Dottie (Bridget Regan) become the first "Black Widow." This series could follow that story and show Natasha Romanoff before she joined SHIELD. This would provide more back story on a prominent Avenger and could show her wrestle with her morals. It could also provide a season finale featuring Hawkeye's mission to take her out, changing his mine, and her decision to join SHIELD.
Budapest
This series is a combination of the previous two but follows a completely different story. Whatever happened at Budapest clearly had some major ramifications for Black Widow and Hawkeye, as it has been mentioned a few times in the MCU.

Being able to see the journey Hawkeye, Black Widow, and other SHIELD agents take to get to Budapest and what happened there would be a truly worthwhile experience and journey. It was also provide back story for two Avengers and their relationship.
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Agent 13
Captain America: The Winter Soldier introduced the world to Peggy Carter's niece Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp). Sharon, formerly Agent 13 of SHIELD, joined the CIA following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Sharon is a very interesting character and getting an actress like Emily VanCamp was not for a small appearance. It would also give Marvel a chance to continue with a female lead series.

VanCamp currently stars in her own show Revenge which is also on ABC, so she has the ability to lead her own show in the Marvel universe. The plot of the show would be interesting and could follow her life post Captain America: The Winter Soldier and her job as a member of the CIA. There is future crossover potential then with Agents of SHIELD which would likely appeal to audiences.
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Agent Carter: Winter Soldier
This show would only happen if Marvel and ABC decided to re-up Agent Carter and follows a story that was referenced in the season finale. In the final scene of the season, it is revealed that Dr. Ivchenko (Ralph Brown) will share a jail cell with veteran HYDRA member Arnim Zola (Toby Jones). One of Agent Carter's show-runners, Michele Fazekas, took to Twitter to confirm that Zola wanted Ivchenko to help with the Winter Soldier Program.

This would be a logical step for the series, should it continue, and would give it a real purpose in the MCU. Sebastian Stan, who plays the Winter Soldier, originally signed on for a nine picture deal with Marvel. It is possible that Marvel and Sebastian could renegotiate his contract to remove a movie in place of starring in a TV series.

This season would focus on the beginning of the Winter Soldier Program and get to see Steve Roger's former love interest, Peggy Carter, and his best friend, Bucky Barnes, go head to head. The show could also deal with the eventual role Barnes plays in the death of Howard Stark.
Original Avengers
This could be a continuation of Agent Carter with Peggy Carter serving as a Nick Fury type role. She would assemble a group of crime fighters that included a young Nick Fury, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, as well as a few "new" heroes. This would give the audience a chance to see some of the original superheros who have ties to current characters in the MCU.

We know that Ant-Man will feature a flashback sequence or two that features Peggy Carter, an older Howard Stark, a young Hank Pym, and possibly the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne. This series could pick up after those events and give us a proper introduction to Nick Fury and how he came to the position he is in now.
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Howling Commandos
One of the best parts of Agent Carter was the appearance of Dum Dum Dugan and the rest of the Howling Commandos. The Howling Commandos deserve more screen time than they have gotten to this point in the MCU. This series could spin off of Agent Carter but still leave the door open to appearances by Peggy Carter, Jarvis (James D'Arcy), and possibly even Dottie (Bridget Regan).
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Lady Sif and the Warriors Three
During Thor, we were all introduced to Thor's close friends and allies Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), and Fandral (Zachary Levi). They once again all appeared in Thor: The Dark World and then Marvel recruited Lady Sif to TV with an appearance in season 1 of Agents of SHIELD. The appearance was a big hit among fans, with Marvel deciding to bring Lady Sif back in season 2.

We likely won't see any of these characters till Thor: Ragnarok in 2017 so giving them a six to eight episode mini series this winter would be an easy way for more space adventures. The problem with this series would be having good enough special effects to make the adventures and planets these four warriors go on believable.
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Bonus- Nova Corps
This is just a bonus because I think there is a small chance this would even be considered for a TV mini series. Just like a Lady Sif and the Warriors Three series, special effects could be a problem for a show that would be based entirely in space. Marvel would also have to have a lengthy talk with the mastermind of the cosmic universe and director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise in James Gunn.

This series could give more opportunities for Nova Prime and the rest of the Nova Corps to shine and take care of business on smaller space problems. It could also be used to help set up Richard Rider aka Nova, especially since Gunn has not been very open to the idea of including that fan favorite character in his films.

Share your thoughts on these mini series and share your own ideas in the comments below!
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