Marvel's first failure: Agent Carter officially cancelled Update: Most Wanted not wanted

[Zontar]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/agent-carter-canceled-at-abc-893499?facebook_20160512

So it seems Marvel finally had its first dud. After two seasons as a two month filler between the two halves of Agents of SHIELD's seasonal run Agent Carter has officially been cancelled. The ratings don't make this a surprise, but the ending for the second season makes it clear someone involved wanted there to be a third season.

I can't say I'm surprised though, it was getting pretty late in the season to not announce a renewal and it never did perform spectacularly well. While we don't have the numbers it very well could have been Marvel's first financial flop as well. Now all that remains to be seen is how the final plot thread gets resolved (if it ever does) in an AoS episode.

UPDATE: http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/marvels-most-wanted-not-moving-forward-abc

Marvel's Most Wanted has not been picked up by ABC, meaning Mockingbird and Hunter being written out of AoS was a complete waste of time and characters.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I saw the first episode and thought it was terrible. It was Dick Tracey levels of goofy, and meaning no offense to Carter, she was only interesting when she was interacting with Captain America. And they don't have him anymore. And they've already gone so far ahead in the timeline in the movies that it makes what Agent Carter does meaningless, because we know how it ends. Hydra infiltrates Shield, no on notices or they die, the Nazi scientist becomes an 8-track player, Antman lives but Wasp dies, they never find Captain America, the Starks die in a carcrash* and Carter marries a dude then dies of old age.


Agents of Shield is marginally better, but its still terrible. Its all just boring background characters that don't matter one bit to the movie. Pretty sure they're considered separate universes too, what with Coulson being considered very dead in the movies, and less so in the shows.

 

[Zontar]

Agents of Shield is marginally better, but its still terrible. Its all just boring background characters that don't matter one bit to the movie. Pretty sure they're considered separate universes too, what with Coulson being considered very dead in the movies, and less so in the shows.

It's all the same universe, there have been quite a few characters from the movies who have shown up in AoS. Plus the events of the movies have had quite an effect on the series. It's actually ironic that a show everyone assumed would be just a weekly ad for the next Marvel movie turned out to be its own thing with a strong lore and well fleshed out characters that has given us a great view of the MCU that we never could have gotten on the big screen or from the "I protect this corner of a city" view the Netflix series give us.

Also, AoS had a weak start for its first season, but season 2 and 3 have been genuinely good seasons.

 

[mduncan50]

From Rotten Tomatoes:
Season One: Tomatometer of 95%, with an average rating of 7.9/10. Audience score of 88% with average rating of 4.3/5.
Season Two: Tomatometer of 80%, with an average rating of 7.9/10. Audience score of 84% with average rating of 4/5.

Yeah the viewership wasn't as high as they probably would have liked, but it was far from a dud. They told the story they wanted to tell, and now they're choosing to focus on some of the billion other potential projects they've got in the works.

 

[Saelune]

I say stick with Netflix and films.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Wait I thought it had been made clear the movies effect AoS, but never the otherway round. Like Sky or Couslan will never be in the movies and you'll never see Stark or Thor guest appear in the show.

Also the timing of Carter feels too convenient. Makes me wonder if this was all just to keep what's her name under contract for cameos. And now that it's no longer gonna happen, they went ahead and canceled the show.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I hate when they do this.

What I mean is, leaving a huge cliffhanger at the end of a season in hopes that it will be enough to justify another season. This is why I think Carter should have stopped after one season. It wrapped up nicely, and we all knew where everything was heading. There was no sequel baiting. Yes, Dotty was still out there, but we could easily accept that.
The way the second season ended though? Terrible, because now we know someone is hunting Carter and we'll never get to find out who. Stupid.

A pity it was canceled. I like Carter so much more than SHIELD. So much more, in fact, that after this season, I'm done with SHIELD. The series is devolving into too much romance drama and it's not really tying into the movies. I know there are shout outs and minor character appearances, but for all intents and purposes, it may as well be its own separate world. Skye/Daisy has become a typical annoying teenager "I know what's best for everyone, so shut up!", Linkin is a love-sick puppy dog, May is becoming a baggage queen, and for an elite unit, SHIELD soldiers sure get their asses handed to them a lot by HYDRA. I was honestly surprised that the strike team that went into that town all made it out alive.
And now that Fitz and Simmons are finally together, I worry that they're going to focus more on their relationship than anything and that's going to kill their appeal as well.

 

[Zontar]

Wait I thought it had been made clear the movies effect AoS, but never the otherway round. Like Sky or Couslan will never be in the movies and you'll never see Stark or Thor guest appear in the show.

There have been quite a few characters from the movies who have made cameos, and while they weren't exactly critical to the story both Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron has a few cast who where on AoS in secondary, not particularly important roles.

As things are progressing Inhumans seemed to be a movie specifically built around the mythos AoS is building, though having its release date moved twice and now no longer having an official release date, it may be cancelled.

Also the timing of Carter feels too convenient. Makes me wonder if this was all just to keep what's her name under contract for cameos. And now that it's no longer gonna happen, they went ahead and canceled the show.

Well, having the lead cast as a star in a new upcoming prime time series probably didn't help.

 

[mduncan50]

Also the timing of Carter feels too convenient. Makes me wonder if this was all just to keep what's her name under contract for cameos. And now that it's no longer gonna happen, they went ahead and canceled the show.

Well, having the lead cast as a star in a new upcoming prime time series probably didn't help.

Yeah, and it's not like the cliffhanger is destined to be unresolved. You can have someone in AoS talking about it as part of research into a current investigation, or even have Agent Carter show up to take care of it in a flashback episode. You want to go really comic-bookie have Coulson and friends time travel to help her find out who it is!

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Huh, here I was thinking people loved Agent Carter.

I'm not too surprised though. Never see this thing in the news, and there's only so much you can do with prequels.

 

[cathou]

Wait I thought it had been made clear the movies effect AoS, but never the otherway round. Like Sky or Couslan will never be in the movies and you'll never see Stark or Thor guest appear in the show.

There have been quite a few characters from the movies who have made cameos, and while they weren't exactly critical to the story both Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron has a few cast who where on AoS in secondary, not particularly important roles.

As things are progressing Inhumans seemed to be a movie specifically built around the mythos AoS is building, though having its release date moved twice and now no longer having an official release date, it may be cancelled.

plus the helicarrier that showed up in Age of Ultron was officially sent by Coulson in the episode before the movie release.

too bad they didnt put like Sky or Fitz in the backgroud, just to give a nod to AoS in the movie.

plus now the Sokovia accords seems to change the way the government will act with shield in the next season.


honestly, i think they will scrap the inhumans movies, and put what they had intended to do in the movie in AoS.

 

[Zontar]

plus the helicarrier that showed up in Age of Ultron was officially sent by Coulson in the episode before the movie release.

That too, and in season 3 you can even at times see the helicarrier in Shield's underground mega-hanger.

honestly, i think they will scrap the inhumans movies, and put what they had intended to do in the movie in AoS.

I don't know, rumours I heard where of having it be of the royal family. While Black Bolt's powers could be put on full display in a movie, I don't see how even a nerfed version of them could work on the small screen.

Though given AoS' premise, I'm wondering how long the show will last. It isn't tied to any single plot idea, it isn't tied to any theme or specific trend, it can have a rotating cast and it's incredibly popular on the international market (and being an in-house ABC production all ratings matter instead of US domestic ones) so I'm wondering if season 5 will be where it ends for syndication or if it'll end up being ABC's NCIS in terms of longevity.

 

[Redd the Sock]

plus the helicarrier that showed up in Age of Ultron was officially sent by Coulson in the episode before the movie release.

That too, and in season 3 you can even at times see the helicarrier in Shield's underground mega-hanger.

honestly, i think they will scrap the inhumans movies, and put what they had intended to do in the movie in AoS.

I don't know, rumours I heard where of having it be of the royal family. While Black Bolt's powers could be put on full display in a movie, I don't see how even a nerfed version of them could work on the small screen.

Though given AoS' premise, I'm wondering how long the show will last. It isn't tied to any single plot idea, it isn't tied to any theme or specific trend, it can have a rotating cast and it's incredibly popular on the international market (and being an in-house ABC production all ratings matter instead of US domestic ones) so I'm wondering if season 5 will be where it ends for syndication or if it'll end up being ABC's NCIS in terms of longevity.

Black Bolt's powers are just Daisy's on steroids, so unless they want to have him level a few blocks, he wouldn't be a problem. Gorgon's just strong, and Karnac is all mental. Frankly, the most costly parts would be authentic Medusa and Lockjaw.

It's hard to say what AoS will go through, especially as it's now developed it's own identity in the MCU and isn't just bridging movies. Still, I expect them to keep it up through Infinity Wars 1 and 2 to portray the more ground level experience of what is still expected to be an interpretation of the Infinity Gauntlet story.

AC's cancellation isn't too surprising. Once you got past the first few heavy handed episodes it was pretty good, but it never had a wow factor. It could be as simple as seeing they lose SHIELD viewers when Carter's on, so why bother with Carter. For a lot of execs, being in the black isn't enough is you can be more in the black.

 

[xaszatm]

Agents of Shield is marginally better, but its still terrible. Its all just boring background characters that don't matter one bit to the movie. Pretty sure they're considered separate universes too, what with Coulson being considered very dead in the movies, and less so in the shows.

It's all the same universe, there have been quite a few characters from the movies who have shown up in AoS. Plus the events of the movies have had quite an effect on the series. It's actually ironic that a show everyone assumed would be just a weekly ad for the next Marvel movie turned out to be its own thing with a strong lore and well fleshed out characters that has given us a great view of the MCU that we never could have gotten on the big screen or from the "I protect this corner of a city" view the Netflix series give us.

Also, AoS had a weak start for its first season, but season 2 and 3 have been genuinely good seasons.

Big problem with the first season was that it relied on the twist of The Winter Soldier to be good. This meant half of the season kind of milled around because it was waiting for the twist to get going. The second and third season bypass this problem by not making it too attached to the hip of the movies.

 

[Zontar]

The second and third season bypass this problem by not making it too attached to the hip of the movies.

That's pretty easy when season 2 and 3 don't have Marvel literally blowing up their premise. The show was pitched independently of the movies, and they just figured "well, we can make this work" when the twist from Winter Soldier was given to them. Which they made work spectacularly, but yeah that first two thirds of a season where a rough patch.

 

[Reed Spacer]

SHIELD were basically the equivalent of the guy who gets in the way of the grown-ups and shouts "I'm helping!"

 

[happyninja42]

Eh, no real big loss in my opinion. Didn't like season 1 all that much, what with the rampant "Decent girl just trying to make it in a man's world!" plot lines they kept shoving down my throat every episode. I get it show, the culture was incredibly racist and sexist during that generation, can you please go back to the Marvel stuff now please? No? Fuck.

Never even bothered to watch season 2.

 

[Callate]

I'm embarrassed to admit I never saw it. Agents of SHIELD was, well, watchable, if sometimes it seemed obsessed with focusing all its time on the least interesting characters and trying (with mixed success) to make them interesting with unlikely backstories. (Haven't caught up with the most recent batch; maybe they've gotten better.)

Carter looked like it had potential, I just never got around to it. And I don't tend to watch much on first-run television unless I have friends who are into it, so it just kind of passed me by. I'm a little sorry; she seemed like an interesting character, and the setting had some potential. So it goes. Maybe I'll catch up on Netflix at some point.

 

[mduncan50]

Black Bolt's powers are just Daisy's on steroids, so unless they want to have him level a few blocks, he wouldn't be a problem. Gorgon's just strong, and Karnac is all mental. Frankly, the most costly parts would be authentic Medusa and Lockjaw.

So far as I recall Daisy's powers are just about using vibrations, creating shockwaves, earthquakes, and the like, which is certainly a part of what Black Bolt can do. In addition to the easier to pull off powers: super-strength, telepathy, etc; he also can also fly, transmute matter (turn water into ice, create small objects out of the molecules in the air), and create force fields. That's not even counting his main ability which is his merest whisper causing a blast zone for a couple of blocks around him, and has the potential to destroy worlds.

I think the bigger issue though are the Inhumans that require special effects just to stand there. You already have Lockjaw which is a big ask, but also Gorgon because of the whole "bottom half is a goat" thing, and Triton who is a green amphibious man that you seem to have forgotten about

 

[Uncreative]

I honestly enjoyed the first season, but dear god this last one was unbearable.
Felt like a horrible mutated pushing daisies.

I won't be missing it, personally.