Last month at Comic Con International, Marvel’s TV panel included a “Guardians of the Galaxy” animated clip that was widely reported as confirmation that Marvel had announced a “Guardians” animated series. CraveOnline, Comic Book Resources and IGN were among the outlets that came to this reasonable conclusion based on the panel reports.
However, Marvel’s Vice President of Current Animation, Stephen Wacker shot down those reports while being interviewed earlier today on Comic Book Resources. “We definitively did not announce a GOTG animated series. We just showed some test footage that one of our animators (Leo Riley) was working on… We have seen the GOTG guest star in all of our current animated series, though, and you can expect more to come as the year goes on.”
Considering the very positive reception that Guardians of the Galaxy has received at the box office, this is actually pretty shocking. If Marvel wasn’t working on a “Guardians of the Galaxy” animated series before, then the company should immediately jump into that show to capitalize on their success.
Related: Comic-Con 2014: Marvel Announces ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Animated Series
Of course, Wacker could simply be walking back that story to make a more formal announcement of a “Guardians of the Galaxy” TV series down the road. That’s just speculation on my part, but it makes more sense to use these characters on TV in order to keep them alive in the minds of the general public before the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel arrives in 2017.
Wacker also shot down the idea of a new “X-Men” animated series happening anytime soon. “There are no plans for an X-Men animated series. Aside from a few loud places online, I’m not sure there’s much call for a kids show, given the tone of the films. We do see an X-Men or two in one of the new seasons, so there’s that.”
Marvel and 20th Century Fox have reportedly been feuding over the rights to X-Men and the Fantastic Four, which has led to widespread rumors that Marvel is downplaying those two properties to focus on the Marvel Studios franchises. If that is the case, then a “Guardians of the Galaxy” animated series seems even more likely to happen in the future.
