Deadlinereports that Jeph Loeb will exit as head of Marvel Television by the end of the year. Loeb's departure seemed to be a foregone conclusion when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was named chief creative officer of Marvel last week. Feige's new job title allows him to oversee and dictate all the content being produced by the company, which spans animation, publishing, film, and let's all say it together, television.
"Jeph has been thinking about making a change for a while and now seemed the right time to take that step," a source told Deadline.
The string of cancellations of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Punisher was the beginning of the end for Marvel Television. Loeb told Deadline in August that "we were blindsided" by the swift departure of those Netflix shows. At the time, it was assumed that Loeb was talking about the streaming service's role in the death of the four series, but it now seems the "we" that he was referencing was actually Marvel TV.
While Disney made no secret of their desire to streamline all of the Marvel-related content on their upcoming streaming service, it was assumed, from the outside looking in, that Loeb would slide over to a position that had him overlooking their slate of Marvel/Disney+ shows, but that wasn't the case.
When Disney+ early adopters were able to see that Marvel TV shows were placed under "Marvel Series and Specials," instead of being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the phasing out of shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter was more clear than ever. Disney was moving in a direction that didn't include Marvel Television, so Loeb knew what he needed to do.
