MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

by JoAnna Robinson

SOME OF THE IDEAS developed in the Writers Program went nowhere; many of them turned into something else along the way. Hulu commissioned Runaways as a TV series and ABC Family (operating as Freeform) launched a Cloak & Dagger show. The characters of Luke Cage and Iron Fist each got a TV series (on Netflix), as did the Inhumans (on ABC). The Writers Program eventually became a source of tension inside the company, with the Creative Committee trying to exert closer supervision over it. The company’s Los Angeles executives shut it down in 2014. (It was revived in 2016.) But even though it lasted for only two years in its original incarnation, the Marvel Writers Program didn’t just let some talented young writers stow away on a spaceship, it gave them a chance to fly it. Some of the writers earned their wings and stuck around for years. Although his Inhumans movie didn’t go into production, Joe Robert Cole cowrote the screenplay for Black Panther and its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, movies on which Nate Moore served as executive producer. Eric Pearson became a steady contributor to the MCU, working on the screenplays for Black Widow and Thor: Ragnarok, not to mention a host of uncredited script polishes.