The Marvels Makes Disney+ Series Essential Viewing for the MCU

When the first MCU Disney+ series were announced, Marvel fans had questions about how essential these shows would be to understanding new MCU movies. The interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has often placed a certain amount of pressure on audiences to keep up to date with the entire franchise, as any one entry may reference any other. While there was clearly excitement to see MCU storytelling extend to television in a form that was more integrated with the movies than had been seen before, there were also fears that fans not following the streaming series would be out of the loop when watching new MCU movies. The Marvels puts that excitement and those fears to the test, leaning heavily on Marvel’s Disney+ shows.

The Marvels is partly a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, but it combines Carol Danvers’ ongoing story with those of Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan, both of whom were last seen on Disney+ series. Teyonah Parris’ Monica gained her superpowers after walking through the wall of Wanda Maximoff’s hex in WandaVision, while Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan was introduced in Ms. Marvel, which saw her awakening her own superpowers with a bangle found by her great-grandmother. The fact that The Marvels essentially served as a sequel to all three of these stories meant that Ms. Marvel and WandaVision became essential viewing to fully understand Marvel’s latest big-screen release.

The Marvels Continues WandaVision and Ms. Marvel

The Marvels Ignores a Major Secret Invasion Plot Thread

As well as Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel introduced the character of Monica Rambeau to the MCU. Monica first appeared as a child, played by Akira Akbar, brought into the narrative as the daughter of Carol’s best friend and fellow Air Force pilot, Maria Rambeau. Monica looked up to her “Auntie Carol” and even helped her redesign her Kree uniform, creating her iconic Captain Marvel costume. Captain Marvel ended with Carol leaving Earth to help the Skrulls find a new planet to call home, leaving Monica to grow up without her. Carol’s lasting impact on Monica was explored when the latter was reintroduced as an adult on WandaVision.

WandaVision revealed that Monica Rambeau had grown up to become a member of S.W.O.R.D., a successor organization to S.H.I.E.L.D., and had been a victim of Thanos’ snap during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Upon returning to life after the Blip, she was able to return to work at S.W.O.R.D., but was grounded and restricted to working on Earth-based missions. While assigned to investigate Westview, the town that Wanda had taken over, Monica forced her way through the barrier of Wanda’s hex, being altered by Wanda’s magic in the process. Her powers began to manifest in the series, before becoming far more prominent in The Marvels.

The Marvels Turns a Hilarious Spaceballs Joke Into a Clever Plot

The Marvels marks the first time Kamala Khan has appeared in an MCU movie, after the character made her debut in the Disney+ series, Ms. Marvel. The series introduced Kamala as a teenage girl and avid fan of the Avengers, in particular, Captain Marvel. On the first episode of the series, “Generation Why,” Kamala found a bangle that had belonged to her great-grandmother. After putting it on, she gained the power to generate “hard light” at will and took on her own superhero identity, eventually naming herself Ms. Marvel. It transpired that Kamala’s great-grandmother, Aisha, was an exile from the Noor Dimension and had searched for the bangle — along with its twin — in hopes of returning home.

Kamala’s bangle becomes a key component in the plot of The Marvels. The film opens with Zawe Ashton’s villainous Dar-Benn locating the other bangle, before beginning her search for the one owned by Kamala, so that she can open jump points across space at will. It is later revealed by Captain Marvel that the bangles are actually Quantum Bands and that they possess the power to punch a hole in the fabric of reality. It is the Quantum Bands that entangle the three Marvels’ powers, causing them to switch places when they use their abilities.

Disney+ Series Are Becoming More Important to the Entire MCU

The Marvels’ Binary and Her Connection to the X-Men, Explained

While The Marvels places the Quantum Bands and the three Marvels’ entangled superpowers at the heart of its story, the movie offers very little explanation of the stories behind Kamala’s and Monica’s powers for any audience members who didn’t see WandaVision or Ms. Marvel. There are fleeting lines of dialogue that quickly impart the basics. For example, Monica casually mentions she gained her abilities when she walked through “a witch hex” and Kamala tells her new allies that her bangle came from her great-grandmother and once allowed her to travel through space and time. But without the wider context of the streaming series, such lines come across as jarring exposition, simply dumping information on the audience without properly exploring it.

Of course, for audience members who have seen the Disney+ series, The Marvels simply feels like a continuation of these stories. But for fans without a Disney+ subscription, the movie struggles to stand on its own. Without WandaVision‘s story, or any greater exploration of Monica’s journey towards becoming a superhero, her superpowers feel like a quick excuse to add her to the movie’s roster of heroes. Given that the Quantum Bands are such an important element of The Marvels‘ story, it seems strange that Kamala’s particular connection to them is not examined in greater detail. In short, The Marvels is not a complete story in itself, but simply an extension of the story being told across the MCU, including on Disney+.

This is becoming the norm for Marvel Studios’ approach to current projects. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness reintroduced Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff as a supervillain using the moniker the Scarlet Witch. This change to her character was a direct result of WandaVision and that radically changed her from her last movie appearance in Avengers: Endgame. Recently, Season 2 of Loki radically reshaped the MCU’s Multiverse in a way that has the potential to shape other upcoming installments of the current Multiverse Saga. Meanwhile, Secret Invasion may have just introduced the MCU’s most powerful character in Emilia Clarke’s G’iah, whose transformation into a Super Skrull of almost unlimited abilities is sure to come with major ramifications.

The MCU’s Reliance on Disney+ is a Risk

The Marvels’ Mid-Credits Scene Promises to Address [SPOILER]’s Biggest Issue

The MCU has always thrived on the excitement and world-building opportunities that are generated through its interconnected approach to storytelling. However, with the expansion of the franchise beyond movies and into the realm of streaming, there is a danger that the connectivity between different MCU stories could start to alienate audiences. Disney+ is one streaming service among many, and it’s reasonable to assume that many fans will be prioritizing subscriptions for broader streaming platforms over Disney’s online home for their own content. Factor in the ever-growing quantity of MCU content, and it seems likely that, outside the MCU’s core fan base, a sizable portion of Marvel’s movie-going audience will not be keeping up with every release.

Of course, there are ways in which the connectivity between streaming series and Marvel movies can work in the MCU’s favor. Audience members who last saw Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson accepting Captain America’s shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame will likely not be surprised to see him suiting up as the new Captain America in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World. However, fans who caught The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+ will have a little more insight into Sam’s journey towards becoming Cap. The series may not be necessary to understand the film, but it will enhance the experience for audience members who have seen it.

Unfortunately, The Marvels relies a little too heavily on the Disney+ series in order to tell its story and its relatively short runtime of under two hours leaves little room to explore what general audiences may have missed. The result is a movie that expects its audience to have done their homework before coming to the theater, with little regard for those who are not following Marvel’s streaming series. If this is a sign of how future MCU movies might interact with the Disney+ series, it could bode poorly for the MCU’s already dwindling box office numbers. With more characters from the world of streaming like Wyatt Russell’s US Agent set to jump to the big screen, Marvel Studios must ensure their movies are telling self-contained new stories and not simply adding movie-sized chapters to Disney+ shows.

The Marvels is now playing in theaters.