With the announcement on Friday that The Punisher would be getting his own series on Netflix, the total number of projects in various stages of development from Marvel Television rose to eight. This doesn’t include the shows that have already debuted: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones. That’s a rather impressive slate considering Marvel Television began releasing shows set within the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe only a few years ago when they launched S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. Unfortunately, as it stands, while the Netflix shows have proven to be hits among both fans and critics, the ABC shows haven’t proven as popular.
When Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. launched back in 2013, it did so to impressive ratings, pulling in 11.9 million live viewers and pulling in a 4.6 in the 18-49 demo, which most networks would kill for. As the show went on, though, ratings continually declined, ultimately settling in around 5-4 million live viewers by the end of season one. Since then, the series has managed to stay around 3 million live viewers, which isn’t great, but it has proven to be a big gainer with Live+7 ratings. However, even with the steady ratings for S.H.I.E.L.D., the decision to create a spin-off series – Marvel’s Most Wanted – seemed like an odd decision to many fans, especially as Adrianne Palicki‘s Bobbi Morse had easily become one of the best additions to the series.
But as evidenced with recent episodes, the loss of Morse and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has proven to be a good thing as it has allowed the writers to focus on the original team. Still, as we near the finish line of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s third season, there hasn’t been any further news regarding the status of Most Wanted. So what’s going on with the show? And what about Damage Control, a series that was announced as being in developed shortly after Most Wanted?
Interestingly enough, while Damage Control received a put-pilot commitment, meaning ABC will have to pay a penalty if they don’t shoot & air a pilot, we have yet to hear anything else about that potential series. With Marvel’s Most Wanted, however, a series that will spin-off two characters first introduced on S.H.I.E.L.D. (Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse & Lance Hunter), the pilot that was ordered has already been filmed and a good amount of castings have been announced. Other than that, Marvel & ABC have been rather mum concerning both projects.
This should change soon with ABC upfronts scheduled for May 17th. The folks over at Deadline have been tracking the response to various pilots over the course of pilot season and have said that Marvel’s Most Wanted looks like a “no-brainer” for a series pick-up. Unfortunately, with Damage Control not having filmed a pilot just yet, there’s still nothing to report on with that. Still, there’s a good chance that ABC could announce some news regarding that project during their upfront presentation.
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Source: Deadline.
