Just as they were getting good, a branch of Marvel's Cinematic Universe fell by the wayside. I'm speaking of course of Marvel's One-Shots, a series of short films that Marvel included on several of its Blu-ray releases which helped to fill in details, expand characters, and in some cases, bring about entirely new revelations for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The last Marvel One-Shot, All Hail the King, was included on THOR: THE DARK WORLD's Blu-ray release which was back in February of 2014. Since then, we've heard little about the Marvel One-Shots and whether or not they could return in the future.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige spoke with Screen Rant and addressed the future of Marvel's One-Shots:
We talk about that a lot actually, because when you have tables like that (lots of potential storylines, most unexplored in the finished film), and we go, What are we going to do with Howard [the Duck]? What are we going to do with Cosmo? We should do a one shot with Michael Pena. I mean, the universe is big. We’re moving up to three movies a year and I’m not sure how much beyond that we can go so the one shots are great for: ‘oh we have this great idea, wouldn’t it be fun to see…’ We talk about it a lot. We’re a relatively small team. We’re comfortable doing three movies a year so it’s just about finding the time and the place. But we have a backlog of ideas.
Now that Kevin Feige's control of Marvel Studio is a little more absolute, it sounds like the Marvel One-Shots could very well return in the next few years, especially if Marvel's backlog of ideas for the One-Shots keep piling up. There are countless stories in the Marvel universe that would be a perfect fit for short films, but even more than that, these One-Shots could really function as a proving ground for up and coming filmmakers, much like how Pixar uses their shorts to prep future directorial talent.
Which characters/stories would be a good fit for future Marvel One-Shots?