Monday’s announcement that former Heroes and Lost writer/producer Jeph Loeb had been named Executive Vice President and Head of Marvel Entertainment’s newly-created TV department created a lot of questions: Marvel television? What characters would get their own shows? What networks would they appear on? Who’d work on the shows? I talked to the person best placed to answer those questions: Jeph Loeb himself.
First of all, congratulations!
Thank you. It’s a tremendous opportunity and the beginning of a huge adventure. I’m really looking forward to it.
How did this come about? Is this something that’s been in the background for awhile?
It’s been enough in the background. It didn’t really take root until Disney bought Marvel. Television was a medium that Marvel was looking at and trying to figure out what the best model was to get into it – When you look at the success of the film division, they figured how they wanted to move into that, and did it, with tremendous success, with Iron Man. From what I hear about Thor, it just sounds amazing. At the time, I had been talking with [Marvel Publisher] Dan Buckley about the next things we wanted to do together in publishing. The conversation turned to this amazing opportunity that Disney could make happen for Marvel with their networks like ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and ESPN. It’s just an extraordinary.
How far along is everything? Was the announcement yesterday the true beginning, or are shows already being worked on?
Over in Marvel Animation, that’s been established and they actually have Super Hero Squad already on Cartoon Network, and they’re well into production on the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series that’ll be on this fall on Disney XD. Also, it was previously announced, but we’re just starting to develop the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.
In terms of live-action, it’s brand new. I mean, we’re about as old as the announcement, and that to me is the next big challenge and adventure. We’ve got tremendous support from both ABC and ABC Family. They want to do what we want to do, which is make the best shows possible using the Marvel library, and bringing the characters to our fanbase and the worldwide audience.
Do you have any idea at this point in terms of workload? Will you stick with one live-action series or try to launch with more?
We don’t have anything that’s set in stone, but what is important is that we get it right and that we’re very selective. If we look at how carefully the roll-out has been for features, that they started with Iron Man, then Thor, then Captain America, they didn’t come out and make five movies all at once. They did it very carefully. That’s not only what we want, it’s what ABC wants, what ABC Family wants, what Disney wants.
In terms of animation, provided we have the right properties and the right people, there’s an enormous appetite. But, again, we want to make animation that people remember. Animation that has the same kind of impact as Batman: The Animated Series or Batman Beyond, shows that came out and blew people’s minds in terms of what genre animated television could be.
Is there any sense of a timeline as to when to expect announcements of live-action projects?
Too soon to tell. Too early to tell.
You’ve got a lot of experience in superhero television. Just from Heroes and Smallville alone, you’ve got to have a pretty good understanding of what works and doesn’t work. Where do you think superhero TV stands right now? You’ve got The Cape starting on NBC next season, and No Ordinary Family on ABC. Do you think audiences are starting to get past the gimmick of superpowers and focus on character?
Well, I can’t speak to any of those shows. I can speak to Marvel’s philosophy, which has always been characters first. Joe Quesada tells this terrific story, which I hope he doesn’t mind my cribbing, but when he started to work on Daredevil, he wanted to get it right, so he went to the person who knew the most, and that was Stan Lee. [Stan] explained to him, you start with a man standing on top of a skyscraper, looking out over the city and he’s wearing a red suit. But he’s just a guy in a red suit. But when you learn that the man wearing that suit is a blind attorney who the system of justice failed, who got those powers when he was a boy by sacrificing himself and throwing himself in front of a truck to save a stranger, whose father was a heavyweight boxer who stood up to the mob and got killed for it, well, now when that guy leaps off the building, you have something invested in him. Then you have Daredevil. It’s the man who wears the suit that’s just as interesting as the acrobat who flies through the city with radar sense.
I think that’s something we’ve all come to know and love about Marvel Comics. That, at the end of the day, it’s Peter Parker that makes Spider-Man interesting. That’s the golden rule that we will stick with, and that’s what television is all about: Finding the characters that people love. Because the feature division has set the bar so high in terms of production and being able to execute that larger than life action on the screen, we have to be very careful in terms of the properties that we pick, the way that they’re produced, so that they look good and bring that same level of quality that you can expect from a Marvel movie or a Marvel comic book.
Will you be working with characters who’ve already appeared in movies, or looking for characters who haven’t been introduced to wider audiences? Has there been any discussion of that yet?
I can’t talk specifically about what’s being developed because it’s just too soon. But we are looking at everything that’s available to us, in conjunction with ABC and ABC Family, in terms of what’s best for their needs and what we can produce and make look great.
Are you prepared for the onslaught of people coming up to you to pitch new shows starring their favorite characters?
Actually, it’s one of the things I’m looking forward to. One of my favorite parts of the job is hearing from the fans and, you know, Marvel has always benefited from listening to its readership. Even since the announcement of Marvel TV was made, it’s been very clear what characters the fans would like to see, and also, I think they understand – I think the readers are very savvy in terms of what would work on television as opposed to what works in a movie.
Am I misunderstanding Monday’s announcement, or are you also in charge of Direct-To-DVD as well as television?
In animation. I don’t think we’re going to do any live-action Direct-To-DVD, at least, not to start. In terms of animation, Marvel’s had great success [with Direct-To-DVD releases] – I’m a huge fan of Planet Hulk, Next Avengers, and some of the other ones that they’ve done have really been terrific. That’s an area we’ve been talking about continuing in the future, if we have the right project and the right team.
Joe Quesada was in charge of Marvel Animation, is that entirely under your control now?
Now that he’s become CCO [of Marvel Entertainment], he’s in charge of all matters creative, so he’ll have his hands in everything. But my responsibilities are television, and that includes live-action, animation and Direct-To-DVD.
Are you going to be using the same Creative Committee [of Marvel Comics, including Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction and other comics creators] that’s been working on the Marvel movies?
We already have a version of a Creative Committee that’s been working with the animation group, and not only will that be something we work with, it’s something that I particularly welcome. It’s obviously had a great benefit for the movie group, and having that kind of input on the television side will be extremely valuable.
Is there a possibility that someone like a Brian Michael Bendis or a Matt Fraction could work on one of the live-action television shows in a writing capacity? Or are they too busy with the comics work?
Let me be as vague as I can be: My personal feeling is that fans will not be disappointed by the people that we are looking to get involved not only in live-action, but animation as well.
Through working on shows like Heroes and Lost as well as comic work like the Ultimate books, you’ve built up a relationship with television writers like Jesse Alexander and Aron Coliete. With both Heroes and Lost ending this year, is it too early to talk about their potential involvement?
It’s way too early. But, I value all the relationships from Buffy and Smallville and Lost and Heroes… They were all, in some way, seminal works of the genre, and the good news is, the same people that we want to be in business with are the same people that ABC and ABC Family wants to be in business with. The other thing that we’re finding is that an awful lot of those people are also Marvel fans. It really is an amazing opportunity for Marvel to take a leap into this new medium. The timing just couldn’t be better, in terms of the creative resources that are out there, hoping to move into this brave new world.
So how is it being the head of the Television division?
[Laughs] It’s been about a day! In general, it’s been something that Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada, and [Marvel President] Alan Fine and I have been talking about for awhile, so to be finally able to take flight is hugely exciting. It’s not often that you really get an opportunity to take the two things that you love most and get to work on them [together]. I’ve worked on comics and television side-by-side for years… As anyone who worked with me would tell you, my biggest challenge would be to spend a full day on the set, or in the writers’ room, and then go home and know that I had another ten hours worth of writing comics to do. Say goodbye to the weekend… But I loved doing it, and now, being able to marry those experiences at a company whose characters I’ve loved since I was a kid – I just have a huge smile on my face.
Is this some unexpected culmination of everything you’ve been working on for the last few years?
In a very odd way. It’s not like I’ve been working towards this particular goal. I love working in comics, and I love working in television, and to find myself in the unique position of being able to be part of bringing Marvel into this new medium is a combination of good fortune and moving at the right time. You know, one thing could not have happened without the other. I’m super-grateful, not only to everyone at Marvel, but to the fanbase as well, because I always say that I can’t do what I do unless the fans and the readers do what they do. They’ve been incredibly supportive of what I do for so long that this feels like a chance to give something back, as well as make sure that, when Marvel goes into television, it’s done with the same care that Marvel publishing looks at the books and Marvel Studios looks at the movies that they’re making.
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