Marvel has spent the better part of the last decade dominating the movie world, and has also been making great headway in the TV business along the way. As of now both worlds have remained mostly separate, with characters like Daredevil and Jessica Jones keeping far away from Iron Man and Captain America. However, given the scope of the comic book landscape, Marvel head Kevin Feige has said that the crossing over of these two realms is virtually inevitable.
While taking with io9, Feige was asked if being featured in one medium means that a character can’t be featured in the other, answering that as time goes on a crossover is bound to happen:
Not necessarily. The future’s a long time. So, the truth is, I don’t really know, but there are a lot of TV shows being made, and hopefully we’ll continue to make a lot of movies. At some point, there’s going to be a crossover. Crossover, repetition, or something.
Marvel currently has a bunch of new shows coming down the pipe, like CLOAK AND DAGGER, NEW WARRIORS and INHUMANS this fall, while their slate of Netflix shows continue to break records. The idea of characters merging between movies and TV is not unheard of in the Marvelverse, with Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson getting his own show after "dying" in THE AVENGERS, a show that has had a few appearances from Samuel L. Jackson ‘s Nick Fury.
Of course Feige is speaking less in terms of current, concrete plans and more with a blatant acceptance that as these movies and TV shows evolve the characters are bound to meet with one another. Not to say Daredevil will get his own movie with Thor, but maybe one will stop by to say hello to the other, and the two will maybe punch a few folks.
I think the inevitability of such a crossover is becoming more and more feasible, and could be a great marketing move. Earlier Marvel movies focused on straight-up solo tales, but now it seems one character can’t have their own movie without sharing the screen with another big hero (e.g. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, THOR: RAGNAROK), which often results in bigger box office numbers and grander stories. True, there are a lot of factors to think about, but never say never, as I'm currently hoping to see Doctor Strange and Iron Fist have a meditation battle.
The next big superhero mash-up, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, arrives May 4, 2018.