Marvel Studios’ Disney Plus Shows Don’t Use Showrunners, and That Has Some TV Writers Worried
https://t.co/PYrgBKAIVC- Variety (@Variety)
May 12, 2021 Variety has done a piece on Marvel's Disney+ shows, and it turns out that none of them use an actual showrunner so far. Malcolm Spellman, the Head Writer for Falcon and the Winter Soldier, was just that - a Head Writer.
Marvel is not following the conventional leadership structure that TV has traditionally used for decades, which involves having one (or occasionally two) writer-executive producers at the helm running things. Instead, the studio is making its TV shows as if they were roughly six-hour movies, meaning a lot of the creative decision-making is being left up to the directors in charge. They, along with a small group of hands-on Marvel executives, have to report up to Kevin Feige.
Writers outside the company are highly displeased and uncomfortable with this developments. A writer from an "elevated genre" show has stated: “At some point, it’ll bite [Marvel] in the ass when it comes to recruiting top-shelf writer talent,” [...] “If you’re a midlevel writer getting a giant bump to ‘run’ a Marvel show, of course you’re going to do it. But if you’re an experienced showrunner with multiple shows under your belt, are you gonna work under those conditions? Probably not.”
Another take from a prolific showrunner: "“The alarm bells that go off in my head are just concerns that the habits and hierarchies of the film world will bleed into the television world where writers reign supreme,” [...] "“Within the circles I run in of writers, there is an absolute concern about people returning to the idea that it is the filmmaker that makes the story special, and not the writer.”
Source Honestly, considering the way certain things panned out in Falcon and the Winter Soldier especially, I can't say I'm surprised at these revelations. What do you think, ONTD?