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Warning : The following contain spoiler for Solo : A Star Wars Story
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Both Marvel and Lucasfilm have created immersive macrocosm in which they claim " everything is connect , " butSolo : A Star Wars StoryandRogue Onehave both highlighted how Lucasfilm is better than Marvel at integrate video canon . Solois utterly jam - packed with references to the video show - from a throwaway yell to the VCX-100 ofStar war : Rebelsfame ( a ship that actually appeared inRogue One),to the more striking shutting setting that revealed the baddie behind the Crimson Dawn . In contrast , Marvel does its level - undecomposed to distance themselves from the TV shows .
Marvel ’s approach does make a variety of sense . The studio get it on that more masses check the films than melodic line in to keep an eye on the TV shows . As a result , denotative tie - Hoosier State are unmanageable to treat ; when he was filmingAvengers : Age of Ultron , Joss Whedon magnificently refused to let in a Phil Coulson cameo , because most cinemagoers think Coulson ’s beat . ButSolosees Lucasfilm ditch that philosophy completely . When the film get to a close , viewers get a line that the leader of Crimson Dawn is a baddie who was apparently vote down off inThe Phantom Menace . Only people who are intimate with the widerStar Warsuniverse would even be aware thatDarth Maul has been active and wellin non - movie cloth for a decade .
Related:How Darth Maul Became More Tragic Than Darth Vader
How Lucasfilm and Marvel Work
The fundamental ground for the difference is , at least in part , settle down in organisational structure . The way Lucasfilm do work , everything is wield from one central group , the Lucasfilm Story Group . The Story Group ensure persistence with every individual project , from the films to the television shows , from the cartoon strip to the New York Times bestselling novels . What ’s more , so far as the Lucasfilm Story Group is relate , everything is evenly canon . They do n’t get their continuity stark , but the Story Group does strain to tell a consistent story across every single medium .
credibly the best example is Saw Gerrera , originallycreated by George Lucas forThe Clone Warsanimated serial . Gerrera was play by Forest Whitaker inRogue One , and Whitaker run on to reprise the persona asa voice - actor inStar Wars : Rebels . Tying all the threads together , the backstory of Gerrera ’s terrorist radical has been explored in draw - in novels such as Beth Revis’sRebel Rising . Under the watchful eye of the Lucasfilm Story Group , there ’s a individual consistent narrative running through several different channels .
ButMarvel ’s organizational structureis different . In 2015 , back - office politics at the House of Ideas lead Disney to force a restructure . They pull Marvel Studios out of the wider Marvel Entertainment group , with Kevin Feige placed in charge of the film sectionalisation , reporting directly to Disney . Marvel ’s Creative Committee , which in possibility could have serve well the same routine as the Lucasfilm Story Group but in practice had just forced director to toe the railway line , was close down . As a outcome , while the Marvel movies and TV shows are ostensibly position in the same universe , they really do n’t intersect much . Technically , they ’re run by different Disney subsidiaries with no direct coverage lines or cardinal inadvertence connecting them . And this can induce veridical issues .
Related:A Complete History Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Take the instance ofthe cliffhanger endingofAvengers : Infinity War ; Marvel TV ’s approach seems to simply be to ignore Thanos ’s finger - snap , to act as though it never happened . Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.made some references to the Black Order ’s onset on New York , but then studiously avoided the cliffhanger ending . bet on how the finger’s breadth - snap is resolved inAvengers 4 , it may actually become the point where Marvel ’s shared universe eventually breaks down . It ’s credibly a good business thatAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ’s abbreviated sixth seasonwon’t handout until afterAvengers 4has hit movie house ; if the finger - snap is averted throughtime - travel , as commonly theorized , then the share persistence will be saved .
Page 2:What’s Actually Canon and Can it Last?
Levels of Canon
We ’re essentially engender to a breaker point where , in the Marvel Cinematic Universe , there are " levels " of canyon . The ultimate canyon is the movie themselves , which distinguish a ego - contained narration and are binding upon everything else that call itself part of the MCU . What ’s more , the motion picture seem to get priority in term of storytelling , too . Characters are only passed down to Marvel Television when the studio apartment does n’t feel they have plan for them . Marvel TV only vex access to the Inhuman Royal Family , for example , when Marvel Studios cancel theInhumansmovie . Since the corporate restructuring in 2015 , there have been no case of film characters making a cameo on the small screen - a notable dividing line with Lucasfilm ’s approach of not only passing type back and forth but also imbuing the movies with reference to all their other medium .
But here ’s the hard question ; what will chance when there ’s a contradiction between the films and the telly shows ? With an ever - amplify slate of Marvel movies and telecasting serial publication , a contradiction in terms is absolutely inevitable . And all mansion are that the films will take precedence . When James Gunn want to explore the backstory of Gamora and Nebula inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2 , he did n’t worry that herendered a previously - prescribed tie - in comic non - canon . There ’s no reason to believe Marvel Studios would handle any longer about doing the same to a TV serial . That ’s probably one reason only one Marvel show , Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , has really essay to explicitly tie - in to the Marvel movies . Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , of grade , launched before the 2015 bodied restructure . Since 2015 , those expressed tie - ins have become far rarer , with the show instead preferring thematic tie - ins like theGhost Rider arcthat keep company the theatrical release ofDoctor Strange .
This tiered approach to canonicity bear some similarity to the one Lucasfilm apply back before the old Disney purchase . Everything in the old exposit Universe was viewed as canyon in good order up until the point it contradicted something George Lucas did in the Prequels or animated series . Lucas ’s contentedness was deemed ' G'-level , ' George'- or sometimes ' God'-level . When Lucas wove Boba Fett ’s backstory intoAttack of the Clones , entireStar Warsnovels were branded non - canon . While it made sound business sense , it take to a slew of heartache and frustration for fans , as they had no way of knowing what was actually " real " in the shared universe .
Related:Star Wars: 15 Characters From The Expanded Universe You Didn’t Know Were Still Canon
Can the Center Hold?
All this raise an intriguing doubt ; can either approach to a shared universe really last ? Marvel ’s is vouch , rather or later , to cause more serious conflict . The pre - DisneyStar Warsfan community often found itself view up in complex persistence debates , desperately attempting to mold out how everything could still make sense . integral al-Qur’an and strip were erased from continuity at George Lucas ’s whim , no matter how much some of their buff have it off them . Marvel ’s bound to run into that more and more as the cosmos produce .
Meanwhile , there ’s a genuine hungriness among viewing audience to start to see the threads tie nearer together . In the construct - up toAvengers : Infinity War , innumerous fans desperately theorized ways the Defenders could pasture up in the film . And even the actors are likewise disappointed . In an interview withNerdist , Chloe Bennet candidly call for , " hoi polloi who make movies for Marvel , why do n’t you admit what happens on our show ? Why do n’t you hombre go ask them that ? Cause they do n’t seem to manage ! " Marvel insiders hold a tie - in to be " much impossible , " but the yell for a more well woven share universe are n’t move away , and the pressure is only building .
But can Lucasfilm ’s approach workplace in the long term ? The vexation will be that , as time pass off , the canyon will gradually become impenetrably complex , and thus restrictive to the Almighty who Lucasfilm require to organise movies and produce more TV series . But Lucasfilm seems aware of this risk ; they take their lessons through the old Expanded Universe . As a result , Lucasfilm is cautiously opening up unlike sections of theStar Warstimeline , little by little . In the example ofSolo , the galaxy ’s underworld had been comparatively unexplored in the new canyon up to this point - and deliberately so . It ’s only now , after the film ’s release , thatother mediumsare beginning to explore the felonious side of theStar Warsgalaxy . This cautious , careful approach helps the Story Group to build up the extragalactic nebula in organic elbow room , and hopefully ensures the persistence wo n’t become restrictive age down the line .
The reality is that , bar another organisational restructure , there are no sign things are croak to shift at Marvel . Both Lucasfilm and Marvel may be building shared cinematic universes that overstep the big screen , but only Lucasfilm ’s overture really handle those other mediums with the regard they merit . And that ’s in all probability the way things will remain .
More:Solo: A Star Wars Story Spoilers Discussion
