Marvel Studios’ Disney Plus Shows Don’t Use Showrunners, and That Has Some TV Writers Worried

[spankmypirate]

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

Comments

[kris_terror]

So in movies, since it's just a one shoot deal and then the project wraps, the Director is the main creative force. Christopher Nolan for example would be the top person in charge of decisions for the Christian Bale Batman movies.

But in TV, there are usually showrunners, because things aren't just one big shoot, it's episodic and different episodes might have different directors. For example Game of Thrones had those two showrunners that everyone hates now cause the finale sucked. Matthew Weiner was the showrunner for Mad Men. Dick Wolf is the showrunner for all the Law and Order iterations. There needs to be someone in a creative position that is overseeing to make sure all the episodes flow and work to tell a cohesive story despite being separate pieces.

Marvel is instead treating the TV shows like the movies, so control is in the hands of each episode's director. Now idk what the breakdown was for Wandavision and Falcon/Winter Soldier but I know for example on Game of Thrones one season might have 5 or 6 different directors. If they knew it was going to be a dialogue confrontation heavy episode they'd use one director, but if it's a battle specific episode they'd use another with more expertise on that style of filming, but overall the showrunners called the shots to make sure the different style episodes worked together in the whole. Marvel's not doing that, so the seasons might come off incongruous and and have too many dips where the style or tone is all over the place.

[therearewords]

Why thank you.

[queenb727]

Just an extra note, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had one director for the whole season. It was a lot more like shooting a movie in that way.

[colossusx]

great explanation

the marvel shows have a single director across the whole series for anyone reading this, so they act as the "showrunner" essentially

[hiimgosu]

Muchisimas gracias por esto.

[kris_terror]

De nada Jungkook

[kris_terror]

Adding on to my original comment cause I'm seeing now that the Marvel shows use one director across all the episodes to keep things cohesive.

The issue then becomes okay, you've got one main director, but then you've got your head writer. Both equally important jobs, how do you decide which one gets to call the shots? Often you see that the head writer is also the showrunner, like Matt Weiner and the Game of Thrones dudes, although they have additional writers helping them. But it then begs the question that if Marvel is deciding that the Head Writer is the lead creative driving force, why not make them the showrunner? Is it then an equal collab between Head Writer and the director? Why not make them showrunners together? It's just an odd choice that shows Marvel doesn't view their shows within the lens of normal television production, and as some folks here have pointed out, it allows them to probably pay their talent less because people will be so grateful to be working for Marvel~*~* when they should be advocating for that showrunner title if they're doing the work of showrunning.

[veal]

I mean, aren’t these shows set up to be more of a mini-series? They’re not expecting to have multiple seasons, at least they weren’t when they first developed them. Do mini-series have a show runner? I think a big part of a showrunner’s job is to know the big picture and where the show is going over multiple seasons so maybe that’s why they didn’t have them. Does a showrunner want to be on a show that they know will be only 6-10 episodes total?

[kris_terror]

Yes, mini series have show runners. Ex. Damon Lindelof for Watchman. Scott Frank for Queen’s Gambit.

They often are also writers so again, it’s telling that Disney isn’t selecting showrunners and instead just having everything rest on the Head Writer without the credit (and likely pay) that the title deserves even though they are putting in that work.