Marvel Might Release A Guardians Of The Galaxy Animated Series For Disney XD
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“Sort of like… Space Avengers.” With Guardians of the Galaxy currently in production in London, England, the new Marvel movie is one of the riskiest outings for the comic book movie studio since the release of the original Iron Man movie back in 2008. At the time, Iron Man and Tony Stark weren’t household names, and Guardians of the Galaxy is a whole other level of obscure. It’s a movie that features strange aliens alongside a gun-loving talking raccoon and an intellectual walking tree. It’s also a movie that only features one human (well, half-human) in Peter Quill/Star-Lord, and 95% of the film’s running time will take place in outer space. There is really nothing about Guardians of the Galaxy that screams commercial appeal, except it’s from Marvel Studios. However, Guardians of the Galaxy won’t be released until August 2014, so that gives Marvel and Disney a full year to build awareness of the cosmic team of intergalactic peacekeepers. One part of that may be introducing a new Guardians animated TV series for Disney XD.
According to Bleeding Cool, in the latest issue of Guardians of the Galaxy (issue #4), Marvel editor Stephen Wacker writes about a “hypothetical” Guardians of the Galaxy animated series in the letters’ section. Apparently, Wacker was talking about a would-be animated series with Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis. Wacher writes:
Now, look, I can’t officially confirm that we spent a LOT of time talking about the Guardians Of The Galaxy cartoon but wouldn’t that HYPOTHETICALLY… be amazing?
Seriously though, don’t ask me about it because it totally didn’t happen.
If Marvel starts including the Guardians of the Galaxy in their iconic post-credits sequences in their upcoming Phase Two movies and introduce a new animated series, this would be the best possible way to introduce a younger generation and general audiences to the cosmic team.
I would also like to note this is exactly what Marvel and Disney did with The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series, which coincidentally also aired on Disney XD from 2010 to 2012. While the animated series only ran for two seasons, this helped introduce a larger audience to the expansive Marvel universe. It worked for The Avengers movie, so why couldn’t it work for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie too?
In fact, there was an entire episode of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes devoted to a different iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The cosmic team featured Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Adam Walock, and Quasar, whereas the movie will swap the last two out for Drax the Destroyer and Gamora.
Since Marvel has access to Disney’s reach with the general public, the possibilities are really endless when it comes to introducing more of the Marvel universe to the uninitiated. There are various ways to cross-promote even the most obscure Marvel characters (like Guardians of the Galaxy) to general audiences around the world. A new animated TV series is a prime example of corporate synergy at its very best.
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is now available for streaming on Netflix Instant. Watch season two, episode six, entitled “Michael Korvac”, to see the Guardians of the Galaxy in action.
